hi, I am new, I find these forums to be wicked helpful and I really appreciate that.

I have a very simple question. I am new to auto mechanics and my friends just bought a 99 dodge ram 3500 van.

I was looking at it and noticed that one of the smaller lower hoses that comes out of the radiator is missing, the van runs fine. he took it to a mechanic today before driving it 12 hours to NOLA.

The guy said he didnt need the hose, but this doesnt answer all of my questions.

Can someone please tell me what these smaller hoses do, and why the mechanic said he didnt need it?

Thank you for your help, in advance!

 

If you're referring to the ones down the bottom, those are for the tranny cooler built into the radiator. So if his van has a manual transmissions then the hoses are not needed.

 

its automatic :/

 

Another possibility is that they have installed an external xmission cooler, and are not using the radiator cooling for this.