Cleaning my brakes with Dexron-III

Hey guys, on my way out of town this morning the XJ would suddenly not shift. Pulling into the gas station I smelled something burning and found transmission fluid pouring out from under the front end.

It was the transmission cooler line going into the rad, up top driver's side near the cap. There is a rubber hose going to the steel line entering the rad. It WAS held on with a hardware store hose clamp and the steel line had no lip to help hold the hose - just relied on the cheapo clamp. (is this normal?)

It was -30 this morning, so I am guessing the metal line shrank enough for the hose to slip off. (It was sloppy loose when cold, but felt tight when it got warmer.)

Anyway, lost about 6 liters of Dex which shot all over the engine, belt, engine compartment, into the air box, and everything else including all over the front left wheel assembly. Fixed the hose and refilled - so far so good.

My caliper, pads and rotor, and everything else on that side are dripping with Dex III. Any way to clean them up successfully or am I in for new pads (at least)? I just put the premium ceramic pads on two weeks ago and am not happy about having to buy them again.

Think of anything else that might need attention? I have a couple of spray bottles of engine degreaser, but it is so everywhere I am thinking about using the big hose and the engine/tire degreaser setting at the local car wash. Any problems to look out for if I do that?

start off with a degreaser. then after spray down the break parts with break part cleaner to remove the residual oil.

with the car wash, if you don't spray the top of the engine you will be fine.

If you have cleaned your pads quickly you should be ok, just dont give it time to work its way into the pads.

As far as the hose clamps=ghetto trans line fix...been there done that.

yeah... buy a can or six of brakleen and hose shit down with it till it looks good.

Toss a partial double flare on that cooler line (just do the first part of the double flare) and use a full circle fuel injection clamp. Don't use a single flare or the edge of the tube will cut into the hose.

I used about half of a big can of brake cleaner this afternoon, I think you are right, it will take another can at least to get this somewhat clean.

Finally - a chance to use my flare tool which I bought years ago and never opened.

This threw quite a wrench into my Monday schedule. I had already spent all day Saturday working on the damn XJ - rear DS joint, puch out and replace snapped rear upper shock mount bolts (bolt on a wire trick was awesome), lube slip yoke splines to fix nasty clunking with ultra heavy red grease (super sticky, and worked great - good forum advice from Joe) non-functional door mechs, exhaust hanger, various interior bulbs, minor wiring issues, clean gounds again, and a headlight. You know, regular required every weekend XJ maintenence.

I like to think it was "Quality time" for the two of us. I'm starting to think my Cherokee is ungrateful.

Move to a warmer climate.

I actually agree for once... I like snow and all, but negative thirty is JUST NOT COOL! IT IS FRICKIN FRIGID!

Factory block heater - :loveu:


Looks fairly cleaned up, left side brakes are starting to work normally again after pulling hard right yesterday until I had cleaned/burned off the contamination.

Warmer climate sounds nice, I would have no problem trading the battle against the harmful effects of road salt with the problems of maintaining adequate cooling in tropical temperatures - but what would I do with my skis?

i had the same exact thing happen to me a few weeks ago. i was scared i fried the transmission. but boy did it make a mess under the hood!

Tell me about it.

On the other hand, I had been planning to do a flush - little did I know the AW4 had so much in common with the self-cleaning oven we have in the kitchen. Worlds best self flushing tranny.

kastein said:

Toss a partial double flare on that cooler line (just do the first part of the double flare) and use a full circle fuel injection clamp. Don't use a single flare or the edge of the tube will cut into the hose.

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I thought I was the only one that did that for mating steel lines to regular rubber hose.

BrokenSockets said:

but what would I do with my skis?

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Wax them well, ski down the dunes.

87manche said:

I thought I was the only one that did that for mating steel lines to regular rubber hose.

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I do when I can get the flaring tool on it. If I can't I mutter "yeah f this" and use two hose clamps.