Loss of ATF after radiator replace?

[bkloster]

Hey guys, I am set to repalce my radiator and hoses this weekend. However, I am concerned about when I disconnect the ATF cooler lines at the bottom, I will lose some needed fluid.
Some people mentioned they changed the radiator without even disconnecting these lines.
Any advice? I dont really have the tools to go in and check the ATF to make sure I dont need to top it off.

[baghram]

I didn't disconnect the bottom lines, only the ones on the rad. You'll lose just a lil bit of atf, but you'll be just fine. Try to keep the lines up, after disconnecting them though. Success

[G. P. Burdell]

Hey guys, I am set to repalce my radiator and hoses this weekend. However, I am concerned about when I disconnect the ATF cooler lines at the bottom, I will lose some needed fluid.
Some people mentioned they changed the radiator without even disconnecting these lines.
Any advice? I dont really have the tools to go in and check the ATF to make sure I dont need to top it off.
When we replaced my 328i's radiator, all we did was detach the cooler from the old radiator, remove the old radiator, drop in the new radiator, and reattach the cooler. We didn't spill a drop of ATF. :dunno

[baghram]

When we replaced my 328i's radiator, all we did was detach the cooler from the old radiator, remove the old radiator, drop in the new radiator, and reattach the cooler. We didn't spill a drop of ATF. :dunno "A" tf dude. As in Automatic transmission fluid. Regular rads don't have the extra lines run go to the rad. :)

[G. P. Burdell]

Yes, I understand what ATF stands for. My 328i was an automatic. The transmission cooler simply unbolted from the radiator.

[Yuen]

From what baghram and G. P. Burdell posted, it seems baghram has the radiator with the integrated ATF cooler, while G. P. has the one with the ATF cooler separate but mounted on it.

Since you're from the US, you should have the separate but mounted on the radiator one.

In some countries, our E36s (for example mine is from Japan) have the oil cooler integrated, in which case when we change the radiator we have to disconnect the two ATF lines leading to the radiator. Not to worry, the most that came out was like a few drops of fluid, as I suspect it's so high up. 'There'll be way more coolant leaking out than ATF :)

[baghram]

My ATF cooler is mounted in the fan shroud, on the bottom of it :)

[bkloster]

Thanks for all of the posts, guys. I was looking under my car the other day to see if I could find the bolts on the lower portion of the cooler so I knew where to look when I actually did the job. I couldnt see them. Are they hard to access and losen? The bolts on the top are obvious once I take the plastic cover off.
Like you were mentioning, I would much rather just unbolt the cooler and slide the new radiator in rather than disconnecting those ATF hoses.