1998 Cherokee trans problems

1998 Cherokee limited, lifted, 32 inch bfg KM, stock drivetrain, stock gears/diff

I was driving at hwy speed about 60-65 mph and the trans started to want to down shift to maintain that speed. I wasn't sure what was going on so kept an eye on my gauges and drove about 5 or so miles before I started spewing white smoke from under the jeep. There was trans fluid all over everything on the passenger side from the bell housing back to the tcase.
I towed it home and cleaned up all the fluid. I checked the trans fluid at idle after only running the jeep about 2 mins and it was directly in the center of the add and full line. The fluid did not smell burnt and was still pink. Based on my experience it looked almost new.
Based on where all the fluid was it looked like it came from a piece on the passenger side where a line goes out/comes in from trans cooler. It has a bundle of wires that enter the top of it and it has a nut with a small flat "tab"(similar look to a key) on the side of it.
Other than the desire to downshift I didn't notice any other changes in the transmission. I drove it up and down the driveway a few times and couldn't find anywhere that it was leaking. Any help would be appreciated.

Your trans fluid got hot and came out the breather. It happens to me on every long trip. I need to re-gear. This is my guess for you as well

Yup it is either coming out the breather or dipstick tube. I had this happen to me all that time on 31s and now on 33s. The trans gets real hot when it downshifts and is pushed real hard at those speeds and gets to temps in excess of 210 degrees if you push it that hard for long enough. I put a trans cooler and trans temp gauge on my Jeep to help combat this problem and keep an eye on things. Even with the extra cooler on it if it downshifts at highway speeds I can literally watch the needle climb in just a matter of seconds. The real problem is gearing and the Jeep not having the power to get it up steeper grades at those higher speeds without downshifting. Gearing is the absolute fix but adding a auxiliary transmission cooler is just a good idea and can help with this problem of overheating the transmission.

Thanks for the response guys. So should I have the transmission serviced as a result of this "failure"? I would prefer to not have to pay to be told the same thing but also don't want to risk a catastrophic failure if this could be a symptom of any other problem in the trans. Thanks again for the responses!!

You have no failure here you simply were pushing your trans too hard and it heated up faster than the transcooler in the radiator could cool it back down. All a service would do is change the fluid and give you a new filter. You have bigger tires with factory axle gears and therefor both the transmission and engine must work harder to move the Jeep. The only "fix" is to re-gear your axles so that the transmission doesn't have to work as hard and downshift to get the engine to a power range to push the Jeep faster. If you are not willing to re-gear or do not have the money to re-gear your axles yet but don't want to overheat the transmission then add and auxiliary oil cooler and that will help with overheating under heavy use. It will still have potential to overheat just not as easily. you can pick-up a nice B&M oil cooler for around $50 and it comes with everything you need to install it. I mounted mine in front of the mechanical fan which seems to be a popular place to put it.

altho im not an xj pro... since i only have about 350 miles on my new to me 2001 xj sport, i still have to say that im mechanically inclined ..

and my opinion would be to say that it certainly would NOT hurt to drain the 3 quarts of tranny oil out of the drain hole on your tranny pan, and replace with three fresh quarts .. drive some, and do it one more time ..

if it got that hot, it certainly would NOT hurt to refresh the tranny oil ..

I drained 3 quarts last week, and refilled with 3 qts of castrol dec/merc and i plan on going back out tonite to do it one more time .. my jeep has 95k miles on it and the tranny oil that came out certainly was dirty and i doubt was replaced at most once before ..

fresh clean tranny oil makes a tranny last much longer .. if you dont want to drop the pan to replace the filter as well, at least do the 'mini flush' like i did .. it wont hurt ...

EDITED TO ADD:

i should also add that my xj has the factory UP COUNTRY suspension package which includes a tranny cooler .. if my xj did NOT have a tranny cooler, i would have bought one last week, and would have by now already installed it .. I owned a 1999 4x4 dakota from new, bought when i was 21, and sold it march of 2009 with 135k on it .. one thing i mostly regret was not adding a tranny cooler to it when i bought it new .. it didnt come with a tow package so it had no tranny cooler .. my tranny never failed me but once, did overheat when i was towing an empty thousand pound landscape trailer in hilly upstate NY on Route 43. Light came on, i pulled over, and waited till it cooled down .. the design in the dakota was where the tranny fluid would enter the passenger side of the radiator, through a cylindrical mini radiator inside the reservoir on the right of the radiator, and then back out ... just like factory XJ's without the cooler.
Do yourself a favor and get a tranny cooler. You can follow the tutorial thats on here to install it .. pretty easy to do .. and a no brainer.. and affordable to boot. i think 68 bucks delivered for a B&M like others mentioned .

What are you guys using for a tranny temperature guage and how are you installing them? I would be interested in installing one myself. If only for shits and giggles if its affordable enough.

Here is my Tranny cooler setup.





Tranny temp gauge sensor

that pod is awesome... will it work on my 2001 xj ? Are the A arms the same shape/contour ? if so, who makes it please?

I believe that autometer sells a single and a double A-Pillar gauge mounts to fit the XJ.

Chrisp929 said:

that pod is awesome... will it work on my 2001 xj ? Are the A arms the same shape/contour ? if so, who makes it please?

Click to expand...

My cousin has a 2000 and the a-pillar plastic is a slightly different shape but it is close enough that you could massage the pod to the right shape with a good heat gun.

Don't point the hose nipples down on the cooler though.