Transmission Issues

Jeep Spec's
99 XJ 4.0 2wd automatic 144k

Issue
Driving normally today and turned into Kroger's heard a noise from below and felt like it was stalling out but it was just hesitating when I would accelerate. Was able to make it to the parking lot and then XJ wouldn't move or drive anywhere. Put it in park, turned off, check engine oil, OK. Turned back on, checked transmission oil, looked a little burnt and smelled a bit. Oil was at right level. Placed it in drive, didn't even move. Placed it reverse didn't even move. Had to get the XJ towed home.

What next???
Drop oil pan, change filter and add oil.
Do i need to flush it or should I just replace oil that is needed to get back at full, which is about 3 quarts?

Any other suggestions???

Lil Joe

AW4's are notoriously reliable but it sounds like this one is done. Maybe pull the access cover and make sure the flexplate hasn't broken or bolts come out, but either of those usually makes a hellacious racket.

Burnt, black, smelly fluid usually comes from clutch material coming out of the clutch packs and going into the pan and fluid. All it takes is a cut or hardened, cracked seal and the clutches won't apply and you end up here. Has it been overheated?

One thing that I didnt mention is that this had happened before about a year ago. All I had done was, drop the pan, change the filter, and added new oil. I also checked the pan and the pan was clean, small residue here and there of normal wear and tear but no pieces of plastics or metal anywhere. It worked great until yesterday. Same symptoms though yesterday. The oil is a bit on the brown side, you can still see some of the red in the oil.
To answer your question, it has not been overheated. It runs about 200 on a hot day of 95 degrees and 190 on a normal day of 80 degrees.

Lil Joe

liljoe71 said:

Jeep Spec's
99 XJ 4.0 2wd automatic 144k

Issue
Driving normally today and turned into Kroger's heard a noise from below and felt like it was stalling out but it was just hesitating when I would accelerate. Was able to make it to the parking lot and then XJ wouldn't move or drive anywhere. Put it in park, turned off, check engine oil, OK. Turned back on, checked transmission oil, looked a little burnt and smelled a bit. Oil was at right level. Placed it in drive, didn't even move. Placed it reverse didn't even move. Had to get the XJ towed home.

What next???
Drop oil pan, change filter and add oil.
Do i need to flush it or should I just replace oil that is needed to get back at full, which is about 3 quarts?

Any other suggestions???

Lil Joe

Click to expand...

My 96 does this to me once in a while. Turning it off for anywhere from 5 seconds to a few minutes and restarting it usually makes it work again. I think either (a) the shift solenoids are screwed up or (b) the clutches are mostly shot and cooling down lets them stick again. Give it a try and see what happens.

Sounds more like an engine-ish issue than a transmission issue...

-E

Eli Lilly said:

Sounds more like an engine-ish issue than a transmission issue...

-E

Click to expand...

Please explain this odd conclusion.

x2 on the explanation.

The capacity is about 12-13 quarts. First time it screwed up you replaced 3.5-4 quarts.

As the transmission fluid is entirely responsible for the automatic transmission's ability to work, you might consider investing in enough fluid to make it function correctly.

If you are using Dex III its good for about 30k miles, if you don't run it hot. When you run it hot you shorten the life of the fluid considerably. The hotter you run it, or the longer you run it hot, the shorter the life.

JJacobs said:

Please explain this odd conclusion.

Click to expand...

It's a conclusion based on reading one sentence in the original post and somehow managing to skip the next three sentences describing "won't move in drive".

-E

Ok so last night i drain the oil from the pan, refilled with 3 quartz of oil. Turned the XJ on and brought up to normal operating temp and checked the oil. I had to add one more quartz to bring up to full level. I decided to test a bit by moving back and forth in the driveway. I have a driveway that is about 60 feet long. I placed in reverse and it moved but gave me like a humming noise not a grinding one. I placed in it drive and again it moved and also same noise. The XJ shifts fine and all gears work but I keep getting the noise in all gears. I very tempted to take it out on the road around the neighborhood to see if I can get it to higher speeds or even to Autozone for a reading. I just dont want to do any other damage if any to the tranny. A couple of questions come from this;
Do any of these symptons sound like torque converter?
Solenoids?
Has anyone experienced this? Besides kastein?

Lil joe

Why don't you do a poor man's flush and see what having good fluid in the transmission will do instead of the sludge that is in it now? Search "poor man's flush".

Ok so heres an update on my tranny issues for the Wife's 99XJ. I did the poor mans flush as Joe_peters suggested. still had the same issues after it. Like I had mentioned before went ahead and bought the $200 AW4 from the JY and installed this past Monday. Everything is fine now with the JY tranny. I have a core now so what I was thinking (just a thought) is doing a rebuilt. I have never done a rebuilt on a tranny but I have on a V-8 etc. Im not a tranny specialist but I figure that If i buy a kit and a video or book I can do it. If there is anyone out there that needs this old one let me know. I am in the Dallas area and can meet within 25 or so miles.

I really appreciate the input you guys have offered here on this site and I just wanted to give y'all an update on this issue. I think that if we post something here then we all need to help out on whatever we can just in case someone runs into the same issue.

Happy Fourth of July to All and thanks to all you Veterans out there!
Lil Joe

While an automatic transmission can be daunting, the AW4 is not that bad.

Two words: cleanliness and cleanliness.