Nissan Repair: maxima transmission/cooler question, strawberry milk, hi doug

Question
My little girl has a 90 maxima and the tranny does nothing in drive or reverse after you drive about a mile or two. I checked the water level and it has a pink slippery residue floating on top, so I went to replace the radiator and the tranny has a seperate cooler that someone else has already installed. How is tranny fluid getting into the cooling system? I checked the oil and it is fine, not milky looking so I'm assuming its not motor oil in the water and the motor runs like new. I'm stumpped weve driven the car only a couple of weeks, but I never noticed the pinkness in the water before, and I did check. Can you help?     Doug  

Answer
Hi Doug,

Make sure they by passed the radiator when they installed the cooler. That is transmission fluid in the coolant and there's only one way for it to get there, from the radiator. The previous owner might have noticed this problem and went to the external cooler instead of replacing the radiator and what you see could also be just residue from before. If he did not by-pass the radiator, when you will have bigger problems. If there is transmission fluid in the coolant, there's water in the transmission. Pull the transmission dip stick and look for a strawberry milk shake on it. If it's not a milk shake and looks fine, then just flush the cooling system and you should be OK.