blew something towing a trailer this weekend, where to start looking?

2000 XJ, AW4

Was towing a little 14' boat crammed with camping gear and the back of the jeep crammed full of gear and a heavy cooler, climbing this stupid little pass

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...47,-106.781445&spn=0.047867,0.077162&t=p&z=14

(starts at 7,000ft and runs to about 9600' if you follow the lines)

I blew something, I was towing in third doing about 35-40 up the hill and got to the top and started smoking, looked under the XJ and was dripping some oil and had run back on the exhaust. On a few other passes coming home it smoked a little too.

I don't know if it's oil or ATF fluid, it's all dirty, it blew enough out to coat the boat and the back of the jeep pretty good.

Oil level and pressure are normal, anything above idle indicates 40PSI, the level is a tick high, I added some before I left and over did it a little.

ATF level is OK, towards the bottom of the scale and red, not burnt

transmission shifts as always, has a little high whine just before it shifts but I think it always has

I have a drip pan down so I can investigate the leaks, mostly it appears to be coming from between the transmission and the block.
I put a new rear main in a year ago, and it's been leaking around the oil filter adapter a little/moderate amount

Any ideas where to start looking?

never got hot BTW, ran at 210 or just one tick past 210, not enough to make me pucker.

It isn't uncommon if you overfill the tranny or if there is some moisture in the tranny to have it puke fluid out the dipstick on a long hard grade as the tranny heats up.

old_man said:

It isn't uncommon if you overfill the tranny or if there is some moisture in the tranny to have it puke fluid out the dipstick on a long hard grade as the tranny heats up.

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Doesn't look like it came from the top end or around there, I thought of that on the ATF and the engine oil, both are clean. I swear it's coming out around the bell housing but it's so damn greasy down there until I can degrease it who freaking knows.

another thought I had- since the rear main had been leaking maybe I got on a steep enough grade it just dumped a bunch of stored up out out, who knows.

Do you have a trans cooler on it? Could have just over heat the trans..Had a old K5 that did this every time we towed..

scottmcneal said:

Do you have a trans cooler on it? Could have just over heat the trans..Had a old K5 that did this every time we towed..

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to be honest, don't know
I had always just assumed so! Will check.
Didn't think the weight was significant enough to overheat the trans and I wasn't pushing hard. Perhaps I was wrong!

no cooler, just verified.

If you blew a trans cooler line your fluid level would be gone FAST. You could have a rusted through pin-hole in a cooler line, so get under there and inspect things CLOSELY with a bright light. My first impression was the same as Old Man's. My second impression is the same.

Good luck.

well, all of the lines from the cooler lines on the radiator are completely dry, no grease or anything at all on them, that's the easy part.
Everything from the bell housing back, I mean EVERYTHING is soaked in oil, the rear axle, the sides of the tunnel, the transmission lines, everything. It doesn't have a smell, so I'm going to say it's engine oil. is it possible the engine oil got hot, was a little over filled and puked it guts all over? Did it blow out that new rear main seal? Geeze I hope not, that's an ugly job.

I won't have time to get in there and degrease it until the end of next week I'm afraid.

ok just to point this out ive come to the conclusion no matter where ur 4.0 leaks from it pretty much runs to the rear of the block/front of the bell housing. some dumb ass poked a pcv valve in my front vent hole for the ccv system which in turn made my motor blow oil out the dipstick tube which then proceeded to run along to the block to the bell housing and leak like all hell on my axhaust giving my xj a smoke screen effect

Same thing happened to my 93 country when coming home from a get together a couple of weeks ago. Wasn't towing a trailer or anything but it was extremely hot (heat index 100+) went to pass someone that was doing 45 in a 55. After I passed them it started smoking like crazy and the same symptoms but I checked and it was ATF. Took it easy the rest of the way home and no further problems. Got under it and cleaned everything with degreaser then sprayed it all down and nothing since. I think my problem and yours are both that they got overheated and puked out of the dipstick which ran down to the front of the bellhousing.

Wipe your rear window with a white paper towel, then look at the color. If you sprayed that much under the vehicle, it will have left a film on the rear window. If you are experienced, you can smell the paper towel and tell the difference in the odor.

My bet - you're pissing out a bit of trans fluid from either the front seal or from one of those blasted quick disconnect fittings on the cooler lines.

Get some of the fluid on your fingers (should be easy enough!) and rub them together, if it feels strange and "grippy" it's probably transmission fluid, if it feels slippery it's oil. If you aren't sure, clean your hand back off and then compare to oil off the dipstick and then oil off the transmission dipstick. Should have a fairly characteristic smell to it, also.

As long as it keeps running fine and isn't lurching or slipping, I say keep running it, maybe do a fluid change.

old_man said:

Wipe your rear window with a white paper towel, then look at the color. If you sprayed that much under the vehicle, it will have left a film on the rear window. If you are experienced, you can smell the paper towel and tell the difference in the odor.

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I'm pretty good at "sniffing" out ATF and this crud just don't stink like it. I think I'm going to go with the drive more worry less theory and failing that, craigslist LOL

:fuse:drive it til she dies

I had the same symptoms earlier this year on my 94. It turned out to be bad O-rings in the oil filter adapter. It only blew out going up hill. does the oil seem to be coming from the passengers side? Degrease everything and wait for it to happen again.

Mine will do that if I get the tranny Very hot, like climbin a steep hill pulling a load, and it is fill to over 1/4" past the full hot mark. It puke out the top vent. What you need to do now is determine the type fluid the Jeep puked.

sdigs said:

I had the same symptoms earlier this year on my 94. It turned out to be bad O-rings in the oil filter adapter. It only blew out going up hill. does the oil seem to be coming from the passengers side? Degrease everything and wait for it to happen again.

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My adapter o-rings are shot, no question. I can't get a torx on there and crack them loose, I tried awhile ago and then subsequently gave up and lost the oring kit I bought, lol.

it did it again this weekend, it's tough to tell but I'm leaning towards trans fluid now.

I'm going to have the trans serviced, install a cooler and go from theer I guess.