Pink milky fluid?? Bad radiator? blown headgasket?

[Prelude209]

Sup guys well today i started my car and found out the radiator was leaking coolant. There was a crack on the bottom of the plastic which i didnt see til i saw coolant spilling out of it so i shut the car off(car didn't even reach 1/4 of the temp gauge, so not sure if it matters). so what i did i removed the radiator and i saw pink fluid (idk wtf it is) come out lines out the bottom of the radiator.(dont those connect to the tranny somehow?) does anyone have a idea of what it can be?? i read around and heard blown headgasket, bad radiator(which it is) or bad radiator cooling lines(which weren't leaking from looking at em) help me out please im stressing out now. wrecked my car then i fix it, and now this i wanna fukin cry

[JUNlemonPrelude]

If you removed the radiator, did you reinstall it and fill it up with new coolant? or is it a completely ruined and old radiator that needs to be replaced? i have seen brownish oily color coolant before. You should get a radiator and coolant system flush.

[h22 kid]

if your car is an automatic then yes those lines are connected to the tranny. that somehow cools down the fluid so your tranny wont over heat im guessing... no worries. if the hoses are brittle buy new ones with new clamps and install then fill in new radiator with clean fresh coolant. should be set

[Prelude209]

well its an sh so its manual. what do the two lines on the bottom of the radiator connect to? i didn't really follow them since i noticed 5 minutes before i left the shop.

[Tunerguy1989]

its your ATTS fluid which uses Honda Automatic Fluid its cooled in a separate part of your radiator. You'll still need a new radiator to fix the crack in the plastic you can't just replace it.

The SH has a mini Transmission as a differential which is a big pain in the *** when you try to get Horsepower over 225. But aside from that there are cooler lines that run from the atts to the radiator.

I had to get an transmission cooler to put these lines to, because I bought a mishimoto radiator that did not come with an Atts cooler system (duh) so thats how I found out that the ATTS had to be cooled during operation.

[Tunerguy1989]

Originally Posted by h22 kid

if your car is an automatic then yes those lines are connected to the tranny. that somehow cools down the fluid so your tranny wont over heat im guessing... no worries. if the hoses are brittle buy new ones with new clamps and install then fill in new radiator with clean fresh coolant. should be set

its a crack that is leaking bro don''t give miss leading information, its not just the hoses its his radiator, he said that on his first post.

[codyh]

Hmm ^^^ So you are saying that a manual tranny SH has a cooling system for the tranny? (I had a hard time following what you said)

A large part of a radiator's function is made possible by the upper and lower radiator hoses. The upper radiator hose controls the flow of engine coolant from the radiator into the car engine. In a cold engine, engine coolant is stored inside the radiator. The engine coolant is held inside the radiator until the engine becomes hot enough to warrant engine coolant circulation. When an engine reaches operating temperature, the thermostat valve, which is located at the far end of the upper radiator hose, opens up and allows engine coolant to flow from the radiator into the engine.

As engine coolant circulates within a car's engine, it returns to the radiator via the lower radiator hose. The lower radiator hose provides the only connection for engine coolant to reach the radiator. The lower radiator hose, which is connected to the car's water pump, speeds up the flow of the circulating engine coolant and helps it to cool as it circulates through the radiator at high speeds.

In my build thread I show a pic of uncirculated coolant. I had a bad radiator and thermostat. It was a gross brownish color.

[h22 kid]

Originally Posted by Tunerguy1989

its a crack that is leaking bro don''t give miss leading information, its not just the hoses its his radiator, he said that on his first post.

i didnt give misleading information i would never do so. if you read his og post you'd see he says he noticed it was spilling coolant then when he shuts the car off he says there is also pink fluid that was coming from some lines.. i tried to give the best info i could from the way he typed up his problem.

"There was a crack on the bottom of the plastic which i didnt see til i saw coolant spilling out of it so i shut the car off(car didn't even reach 1/4 of the temp gauge, so not sure if it matters). so what i did i removed the radiator and i saw pink fluid (idk wtf it is) come out lines out the bottom of the radiator.(dont those connect to the tranny somehow?)" <<< what he said

then i asked if his car was automatic.. completely forgort there was atts. anyways he didnt specify that it was manual until i asked.

[Prelude209]

see how it has 2 curved metal pipes at the bottom of it..
do those connect to the atts?
I drained the radiator from the drain plug didn't notice anything weird. Took off the upper hose and the bottom hose(the big hoses) and then i took off the 2 little hoses on the bottom of the radiator then pink fluid not like pink colored water but like light pink paint like if you were to buy it a store to paint your house sorta like a strawberry milkshake, thats about as close as i can compare it to.

[gstrudler]

Yes, the two small hoses connect to the ATTS; one in, one out. It's the same setup as an auto tranny. ATF is usually a dark red, which is probably why yours looks pink. My guess is it's really old and/or got pretty heated as some point. The ATF in the ATTS should be changed every 75,000 miles (or less). The cooler for the ATTS is a separate little compartment attached to the bottom of the radiator.

So was it coolant leaking out, or the pink stuff? If it was just the ATTS fluid leaking, you could buy a transmission cooler for $40 and route the ATTS to that and leave the radiator functional as-is.

[Prelude209]

oh okay i see. well i got the atts light on(left oil pressure sensor is broken) which disables it so would it matter if i keep it like that? or should i drain and fill the atts? even though im not using it? what you think i should do. thanks for conforming that i was scared thinking it was my tranny or headgasket and what not haha

[Tunerguy1989]

Originally Posted by xmod_supra

Hmm ^^^ So you are saying that a manual tranny SH has a cooling system for the tranny? (I had a hard time following what you said)

A large part of a radiator's function is made possible by the upper and lower radiator hoses. The upper radiator hose controls the flow of engine coolant from the radiator into the car engine......

In my build thread I show a pic of uncirculated coolant. I had a bad radiator and thermostat. It was a gross brownish color.

ya I know how the Cooling system works, but when I said hoses i wasn't talking about the Radiator hoses i was talking about the ATTS lines that Attached to the bottom of the radiator. Those lines are entirely separate from the coolant.

[Tunerguy1989]

Originally Posted by Prelude209

oh okay i see. well i got the atts light on(left oil pressure sensor is broken) which disables it so would it matter if i keep it like that? or should i drain and fill the atts? even though im not using it? what you think i should do. thanks for conforming that i was scared thinking it was my tranny or headgasket and what not haha

I would say to drain and fill your ATTS especially if you never have. Even if the light is on that doesn't necessarly mean that it stopped working it just is not working at its optimium performance. My Atts light is on and I can still tell that its works somewhat, its not like an open diff it still transfer the torque.

You only need like 2-3 quarts of Honda ATF to fill the Atts so it won't break your wallet if you do it yourself.

[gstrudler]

If your ATTS light is on the system is not working at all. The SH has a different suspension design to the base model which would make it feel different in the corners even if the ATTS system is not active. I believe the ATTS system only takes 1.1qts, and that might be on a rebuild; it might only be .75qt on a drain & fill.

OP, yes, you will want to refill the ATTS system (sounds like you drained it already), as that is the lubricant for the whole assembly, and you could possibly toast it even if it isn't active. It also occurred to me that the pink color could be if there was coolant mixing with the ATF; I would put a little coolant back in your radiator and make sure it wasn't leaking down to the ATF cooler.

[Prelude209]

i also found out the old radiator was fubar because the atts lines must have been broken or something because i removed the radiator and put water through it and sure enough it was leaking out the 2 nipples on the bottom. (when it isn't supposed to) then i bought i new radiator and tested the same thing and no water came out the 2 nipples which means the old radiator was ****ed up and coolant must have mixed with the atts and turned it pink thanks for all the help though im glad i asked, i was trippin out when i saw the pink fluid haha

[cpl rampage]

make sure you flush out the atts system now, as the coolant is probably not a good thing to get into the atts system.

[gstrudler]

Originally Posted by cpl rampage

make sure you flush out the atts system now, as the coolant is probably not a good thing to get into the atts system.

+1. Good thing it only takes a qt; I would drain and fill a couple times to be sure. There's a small chance that might take care of your oil pressure sensor, although more than likely it's gone already.

[Tunerguy1989]

Originally Posted by gstrudler

If your ATTS light is on the system is not working at all...

Are you positive... doesn't the ATTS system transfer torque to the wheel with less traction? My light has been on for a while and I have run some twisty pretty hard and it doesn't feel like an open diff....

[gstrudler]

Yep, light off = no ATTS. The differential is all computer controlled, so if it senses any errors, it shuts down to an open-diff state to avoid errors and applying the wrong compensation amount to the wrong wheel (dangerous!). And a diff will apply more torque to the wheel with more traction, not less, as that would invoke even more wheel spin. In fact, I believe if the ATTS system senses wheel spin at all it will shut down.

[Tunerguy1989]

Originally Posted by gstrudler

Yep, light off = no ATTS. The differential is all computer controlled, so if it senses any errors, it shuts down to an open-diff state to avoid errors and applying the wrong compensation amount to the wrong wheel (dangerous!). And a diff will apply more torque to the wheel with more traction, not less, as that would invoke even more wheel spin. In fact, I believe if the ATTS system senses wheel spin at all it will shut down.

alright thx good to know, I plan to take it out one day anyways....