xi

I was doing some work on the car earlier tonight and noticed a few leaves in drain hole at the bottom of the panel underneath the transmission cooler. I stuck my finger into it and pulled out a few leaves. Then more leaves. And more leaves. And then I took the panel off and here's what finally came out.

I yelled for my gf to come out of the house to take some pictures and she could barely believe what she saw.

danike

Whoa, thanks for the tip. Checking mine soon.

.M.

Wow

Veronica

iTrader: (2)

Doing it tonight!

DatRAzn

iTrader: (2)

That's a ****load of crap, . I check/clean mine every tire rotation or brake job, it's a cesspool for random crap to collect in.

Always nice to see some RA OGs come by. How's your RA doin', xi?

Ev0ikon

iTrader: (18)

Sure it's not a squirre's home you've just destroyed? :}

neogeo64

iTrader: (3)

I just did my 2nd sst fluid change and nowhere near that much was hiding in mine lol.
I do make sure i spray a lot of water in there every time i wash the car though so maybe that helps.

xi

The car's doing pretty good. 91000 miles so far.

The ACD failed last fall, had it replaced earlier in the summer thru my aftermarket warranty. They also took care of my tie rods and the drive belt tensioner (still had to pay for the drive belt, this was before they sent me a recall notice for a free belt and tensioner )

Aside from that, everything is working 100% *knock on wood*

The catalytic converter and pipe going into it from the engine exhaust is falling apart though, the heatshield is almost completely rusted off. I wrapped a piece of stainless around it and hose clamped it shut!

SupraB85

That is a lot of stuff, buy more shockingly for me is the clamp next to it !

xi

lol the screw driver, pliers, and hose clamp was for something else, those are mine

they didn't fall out of the radiator haha

splattj

iTrader: (2)

If you have that in your transmission cooler, I bet your fenders are full too. When you open the front doors to full open, you can see a black plastic cover that keeps all the debris trapped in there. You can pry it upward and pull all the leaves and whatnot out. It'll keep your fenders from ultimately rusting from the inside-out.

mymitsu09

wow,
now i know what i am doing today. got a 2009 im sure crap is stuck in there

Laza

No leaves here, but the cooler looks very bad otherwise. It's in a location where it absorbs all dirt and crap, and seems to be hit by small stones as well. The lower portion is completely blocked and it's very hard to clean.

The oil cooler on the opposite side seems much better protected, it sits more in the front, right behind the fog lamp and isn't this dirty at all.

xi

I probably did.

Now, I'm not a wuss by any means, but the whole time I couldn't shake the fear of something taking a chunk of my fingers off in there.