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Tranny leak, ATF everywhere

Diablito

NAXJA Forum User
Location
San Diego
My girlfriend just bought a 92' XJ from some one on the board not even a week ago. 2/3rds of the way to los coyotes to meet up with the socal chapter of naxja and we saw a lot of smoke. ATF was driping onto the exhuast . I didn't feel right about taking a rig with a leaky tranny offroad so we decided to head home. I checked the fluid level at idle and it was above full but did not smell burnt and was a red. On the way back to San Diego the smoke seemed to either stop or deminish to an un- noticible level. I should note that it is mostley down hill from Julian to SD. I'm waiting for it to cool before I start poking around. Could too much ATF in the tranny cause this? How do I find out if thats the culprit? I can't really see where the leak is coming from an acount that it is filthy under there, i wash is with simple green and engine brite just as soon as it cools down. There is ATF on the engine oil pan however , so I guess it could be coming out the dip stick or a vent. The dip stick tube doen't seem to have any drips though. What should I do? I have no experiences with auto trannys so please be specific. Thanks in advance.
 
yes, over filling can cause it to leak. worse case is a blown front seal. i would remove some fluid to where it needs to be and see what happens. drive it for awhile and check to see if it still leaks. i may leak until it gets to a certain level and stop. hopefully that level is not too low.
 
If it is a blown front seal would that be where the torque converter meets the tranny or where the engine meets the torque converter? I really hope it is just the fluid level. When I drain the fluid should I change the filter too? I have no experience with auto so help is apreciated greatly.
 
Sounds like you overheated it. There's a vent on the AW4 above and in front of the cat so when it boils over it boils right onto the cat, creating a cool smokescreen. :D I've BTDT. If you don't have anything leaking after cleaning it up then that's probably what happened. If you want to play it safe just drain the tranny and put the proper amount back in.

Not familiar with your actual area, but did this happen while climbing a hill? Mine boiled over while bombing along at about 70mph with a loaded down XJ...uphill somewhere along I-5 in South Central Cali. I was in OD instead of 3RD and it boiled right the hell over. Freaked me out until I talked to a guy in an autoparts store at the 'top' of the mountain range I was climbing. He said he saw it all the time there. You can bet I let it idle and cool down for a while before moving on. When I got to El Paso I played it safe and got the tranny flushed. Gave me peace of mind and that was 4 years/80k miles ago. Working fine. :)
 
We where climbing a steep long grade an HWY 8 heading east. This may be a dumb question but what gear should we be in climing a hill like that, OD or 3rd? I have never owned a auto before and have no idea. Well I drained the fluid yesterday and replaced the filter and drove it about 30 miles on the freeway afterwards with no problem. I always though that ATF was really flamable, is there a fire danger when it drips on the cat?Thank you so much ecksjay, it helped a lot.
 
Its a 31s with stock gears. I'm a little fuzzy as to when Iam supposed to shift from over drive to 3rd. What does it take to burn up the overdrive unit? . The smoke came only when the gas was punched while climbing a steep grade.
 
Seat-of-the-pants, you manually shift to keep the engine from lugging if the tranny can't figure it out or if it is continually hunting between gears. If you know when to shift a manual tranny then you know how to figure out when to shift an auto. With 31" tires and stock gearing, you'll probably need to shift it into 3rd before the tranny thinks it should. There is no overdrive unit. Overdrive is simply 4th gear at a better than 1:1 ratio. I'm not sure what it is for the AW4, but it's often somewhere between 0.7 and 0.8 on other OD trannys.
 
Diablito said:
We where climbing a steep long grade an HWY 8 heading east. This may be a dumb question but what gear should we be in climing a hill like that, OD or 3rd? I have never owned a auto before and have no idea. Well I drained the fluid yesterday and replaced the filter and drove it about 30 miles on the freeway afterwards with no problem. I always though that ATF was really flamable, is there a fire danger when it drips on the cat?Thank you so much ecksjay, it helped a lot.

Glad I could help. Sounded a lot like my experience so I thought I'd chime in. Ever since that day about 5 years ago I instinctively reach down and shift into 3rd when climbing a hill. :) Of course I'm still running 32's and 3.55 gears so keeping it in OD makes it shift back and forth, which is annoying. :cheers:
 
Mine sprays all over the oil pan and exhaust when overfilled. It seems to drip/spray until it reaches the correct level. Probably not the best way to rid the tranny of excess fluid, but it's done this a couple of times. Same result - nice clean red fluid (not burnt) sprayed all over the undercarriage. Once it's at the right level, it stops leaking. Keep an eye on it.
 
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