After some major work I thought I was done with the car. Got the engine running but now the AT light on my dash is flashing and The trans fluid seems to be cooking. When I first started the car the every thing was fine. As I was working out some bugs with the engine I did have one of the cooling lines pop off and dump fluid all over because I forgot to tighten a hose clamp. Got the hose back on topped of the trans fluid and now the light is flashing and I can smell the transmission fluid cooking when I drive it. Any body have any ideas as to how I screwed this one up?   I am using Dexron 3  I did bypass the two steel lines that were bolted under the drivers side head and now have two rubber lines from the transmission straight to the radiator. 

Flashing AT temp light could be because of many things, but it means there is a code stored and you can get the light to flash the code. Search for TCU codes and you should find directions for code retrieval.

 

Anytime fluid gets splashed around under the hood you're going to smell it for a few days. Especially ATF because that stuff is nasty when it burns. Unless you can find another leak somewhere, make sure the fluid level is correct and drive it a few days and the smell will to away.

What, exactly, do you mean by "bypassed the two steel lines"?  

 

It sounds like your ATF is not being circulated properly.  Can you post pictures?

Possible that you don't have good circulation due to the rubber hoses or something maybe got missed. I am thinking that the trans fluid smell and your light are unrelated. You usually don't smell trans fluid unless it drips on engine or exhaust. If you pull the dipstick and that stuff is burnt, then there's something going wrong. If you smell it inside or outside the car, it's probably just excess drips burning off and will go away.

 

Find that TCU code and go from there. Could be as simple as a loose wire connection to one of the sensors. It will give you a better idea of where to start looking.

I had a tranny cooler hose come off at highway speed on my 05. It took a week for all that fluid to burn off the exhaust system.

 

Does it always flash on startup?

Year and model please

FYI.... A new TPS did the trick. The tps was working mechanically speaking,. Rotating  it would raise of lower the idle but the TPS code was still there. The mass air flow sensor code came up also but is now gone because of the new TPS .  About to change  the oil with a syntec and the coolant.  I heard Subaru has a coolant conditioner. Any suggestion on the type of oil and coolant?

 

Thanks

 

Chris