I had the same problem but with the lower tranny hose. I took it to dealer and they kept saying that they couldn't smell any tranny fluid. I could smell it all the times and the connector from the radiator is badly rusted. I think that was the cause of the evaporation of the tranny fluid (leak from there).

I ended up doing the job myself. Not too bad especially my car is a non-turbo. I bought the new radiator, 2 hoses (top and bottom), all new bolts/screws around the radiator/fan shroud, 2 tranny hose clamps, and tranny hose o-rings from dealer. The total was about $350. Beware of the fan shroud, it is made of plastic. The 2 bottom pointy legs are very easy to break. I broke one of them and had to buy a new one again from dealer - extra $90!! I took it very easy to do the replacement in 3 days. I also bought 1 gallon coolant from dealer $18.00 and 1 gallon of distillated water $1.00 from CVS to make up 2 gallon of coolant to refill the new radiator. I also bought new hose clamps from PepBoys.

Ching-Ho Cheng
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1995 855 NA, Bilstein Shocks, K&N Filter, E-Code Lens, Apline CD-Changer