Does anti freeze run through the tube or transmission fluid?

 

Antifreeze. You can trace it back to the radiator fill spout. If you're looking for something that rusts that carries ATF there's the ATF cooler tube though:




Power steering hose nipple is also something you should keep an eye on:

 

Shoddy engineering.

 

No. Shoddy engineering would be someone missing this or not understanding or miscalculating the requirements. Mitsubishi is an old company and knows better, and there's no way these many items would have made it through salt spray validation testing. This was calculated to provide just enough protection to get past the warranty period while saving a fraction of a cent on electro-plating per piece.

Even so, they did miscalculate on the big support under the engine and had to do the recall. All this should have been recalled as well. This much rust in 10 years certainly makes me never want to own a Mitsubishi again regardless of the condition the body itself is in. What does it matter if the body is good if your transmission leaks out all its fluid through rust holes and grenades itself?

 

Yeah, Mopar Parts Giant canceled my order, and another place in Florida canceled it as well. I found it at yet another place in North Carolina -- Steve White Parts. If they don't fulfill my order, maybe I will try just the heater hose, but my local Mitsu dealer says it's available -- for $80. I don't understand how it could not be available. They're just instructing their techs to jury-rig it? How do you connect hose to hose that are at either end of the original tube? And is a hose that's exposed like that under the car safe from road debris? To answer the other question, it's coolant that runs through it. There's a separate transmission cooler that has ATF running through it.

 

The original steel tube has a short piece of hose on either end, which connect to nipples. Just that the steel tube and both short pieces of hose off and run one long piece of hose from nipple to nipple. If you're worried about road debry you could run the hose through a piece of steel electric conduit just for protection. So much stuff rusts on these things I think I'll be getting rid of mine asap. Here are some pics of my solution:

 

That looks like a good workaround. The part only seems to be available from the dealers at this point. If I had the tools to do it myself, the OEM part and my labor would be an $80 job. With their labor it's a $240 job. Mitsubishi actually recalled the Galant because the steel ATF cooler tube, which performs a very similar function to this part, was rusting and leaking. The problem obviously is more widespread than just on the Galant, but maybe the coolant tube itself isn't recall-worthy to them.