Long trip oil issue. Where is it coming from?

[joe_peters]

There is a "J" hose off the airbox to the fresh air intake on the front of the valve cover. I found that mine was rotted and would suck down flat on long trips, and then my rear hatch would be covered with oil residue.

Service the CCV system and check the condition of the "J" hose.

 

[amcjeep]

There is a "J" hose off the airbox to the fresh air intake on the front of the valve cover. I found that mine was rotted and would suck down flat on long trips, and then my rear hatch would be covered with oil residue.

Service the CCV system and check the condition of the "J" hose.

:yelclap: i have fixed several wranglers with this problem. the hose looks good until you touch it.... then it's goo...

 

[cruiser54]

There is a "J" hose off the airbox to the fresh air intake on the front of the valve cover. I found that mine was rotted and would suck down flat on long trips, and then my rear hatch would be covered with oil residue.

Service the CCV system and check the condition of the "J" hose.

I've seen the J hose deteriorate like that, too. Squeeze it together with your fingers. If it stays kinda flat , replace it.

 

[Alaskan89XJ]

Just 2 cents.., reach around to the various fluid leaks, (pick just one sample), with fore finger, touch a drop, then smear it between that finger and your thumb.., whilst smelling it!!!! Amazing how much the different fluids smell differently. Clean finger and thumb, (clean cloth), and try a different sample.., and so forth. Of course, it helps to keep strategic areas clean; clean, clean, of old oil, grease, trans. fluids, gas, diesel, etc., (mud/dirt does not usually affect diagnosis), in order to make determined spot checks. Please inform us as to your final conclusion, solution.

 

[WrenchedXJ]

I haven't had much time to look at my leaks, by the time I get home its dark, and my jeep is currently outdoors. For the J-hose, I replaced that one when I did my top-end. I did notice that I had some oil "bubbling" around the oil filler cap, and do believe that some is coming out here. New cap is on the list. I cant see all that much oil coming out of there to be dripping steadily. A new leak has come though, fluid seems to be coming out of the tailshaft of the t-case. Checking fluids after I got back from the beach, the oil was low 1/2qt, the transmission was low 1 qt. I'm thinking a mix of leaks. I'll be driving over to the shop this weekend and throwing it up on the lift for a better inspection.

 

[MAY POP]

When mine did it,Also a toy thats pulled behind motorhome,it had oil on the back hatch so it still could be the ccv system.

 

[Samson04]

X2 on the tranny. You mentioned camping, are you towing when this happens? I had this happen about 3 yrs ago while I was pulling my pop-up camper. HUGE plum of smoke out the rear, what appeared to be oil dripping off of everything underneath. Turns out, I had just climbed a rather large hill and the tranny overheated blowing fluid out of the vent tube. Never had the problem since, I just take my time climbing hills rather than trying to keep up with the flow of traffic.

 

[fulltimer]

just wanted to chime in here and thank everyone for the input , sounds like you answered my question on my problem , oil soaked air filter , just figured it would provide better filtration will be replacing ccv and jhose . oh , and filter

 

[WrenchedXJ]

anybody seen this before? Bob the Oil guy fix. Found that surfing around on google last night.

X2 on the tranny. You mentioned camping, are you towing when this happens? I had this happen about 3 yrs ago while I was pulling my pop-up camper. HUGE plum of smoke out the rear, what appeared to be oil dripping off of everything underneath. Turns out, I had just climbed a rather large hill and the tranny overheated blowing fluid out of the vent tube. Never had the problem since, I just take my time climbing hills rather than trying to keep up with the flow of traffic.

No towing, camping for me consists of a tent and air mattress(all my money is in the Jeep, haha). It looked like oil, smelled like oil. I believe the tranny overheating is right though. 1 hour of normal driving no problem. 1 hour of 70mph(high idle) travel, is when it starts. Looking in the time I have after work, I have oil leaking out on top of the valve cover(ccv system and oil filler cap), and tranny fluid remains on my tranny pan. so its a mix.

Solutions for me this weekend:

I'll be making a trip to the JY, supposed to be sunny and 70party1:. I'll be searching around for a tranny cooler, and possibly a taurus fan to replace my two stock Jeep e-fans. I'll perform the surgery done by the guy on the other forum above(only need 1 piece of hose to complete, had everything laying around). Then off topic...ohming all sensors to try to figure out which one is causing the 10mpg. I post back with results.

Thank you everyone for your input, the transmission would have been the last thing I would've thought to check, now its the first.

 

[heyhar]

Tranny fluid expansion is not too uncommon with the XJ. My neighbor's '96 had it happen twice, on long trips with the hammer down. All of our XJs have at least the middle size of add-on cooler, and have never had a problem like this.

 

[altrocker1]

i've seen this before on an auto tranny that was overfilled...its pretty easy to spot the fluid, as it will be running down the bellhousing and onto the exhaust onto the cat converter. the plume of smoke comes from the burning fluid on the converter....also there was spatter all over the back window. not sure exactly how it gets there, but i've seen/heard of this of several different xj's of any year

 

[WrenchedXJ]

Tranny fluid expansion is not too uncommon with the XJ. My neighbor's '96 had it happen twice, on long trips with the hammer down. All of our XJs have at least the middle size of add-on cooler, and have never had a problem like this.

I'll be hunting for one this weekend. With this being primarily a trail truck and seeing pavement to and from the various spots, I dont want to drop to much in an aftermarket cooler. Thinking Id hit the JY first, any vehicles in particular I need to be on the prowl for? I was thinking the F250's and 2500/3500's.

 

[heyhar]

My son's '96 Classic has the factory towing package and a rather smallish auxiliary tranny cooler as part of the deal. The aftermarket ones on the other XJs are twice the size. I'm thinking the last two coolers I installed were somewhere around $40-50, so they're not too expensive, considering what they're protecting.

 

[87manche]

I'll be hunting for one this weekend. With this being primarily a trail truck and seeing pavement to and from the various spots, I dont want to drop to much in an aftermarket cooler. Thinking Id hit the JY first, any vehicles in particular I need to be on the prowl for? I was thinking the F250's and 2500/3500's.

Those are good candidates, also the vans, they tend to have additional cooling because the motors were under the driver practically.

My son's '96 Classic has the factory towing package and a rather smallish auxiliary tranny cooler as part of the deal. The aftermarket ones on the other XJs are twice the size. I'm thinking the last two coolers I installed were somewhere around $40-50, so they're not too expensive, considering what they're protecting.

Size is not always an indicator of cooling capacity. Stacked plate>Tube and fin by a wide margin.

 

[WrenchedXJ]

alright, made it out of the JY for less than $30 on saturday. Picked up a stacked plate cooler from a E-350 Ford van for $12 . On the gas mileage note, I metered all sensors when I got off friday, and either my meter is going nuts or all my sensors(well the first two) I checked were bad, or the possibility of me doing the tests wrong. Either way, while at the JY, seeing sensors being cheap, I picked up a knock sensor, O2 sensor, engine coolant sensor(for the ecm), and the map. Which by the way on the MAP sensor, if you remove it from the metal plate, you find "GM" stamped on it. I found that interesting. Hopefully these will do something productive. No pictures of the cooler yet, but will when ever I go to install it this week.

 

[87manche]

alright, made it out of the JY for less than $30 on saturday. Picked up a stacked plate cooler from a E-350 Ford van for $12 . On the gas mileage note, I metered all sensors when I got off friday, and either my meter is going nuts or all my sensors(well the first two) I checked were bad, or the possibility of me doing the tests wrong. Either way, while at the JY, seeing sensors being cheap, I picked up a knock sensor, O2 sensor, engine coolant sensor(for the ecm), and the map. Which by the way on the MAP sensor, if you remove it from the metal plate, you find "GM" stamped on it. I found that interesting. Hopefully these will do something productive. No pictures of the cooler yet, but will when ever I go to install it this week.

AMC didn't have the money to have manufacturers make custom sensors for the Renix system. A lot of stuff crosses over to GM sensors, water temp senders, fuel guage senders. Sometimes you can buy the GM part for half the "Jeep" part's price. Pays to shop around.

 

[kastein]

i've seen this before on an auto tranny that was overfilled...its pretty easy to spot the fluid, as it will be running down the bellhousing and onto the exhaust onto the cat converter. the plume of smoke comes from the burning fluid on the converter....also there was spatter all over the back window. not sure exactly how it gets there, but i've seen/heard of this of several different xj's of any year

yeah, I use my back hatch as a seal and fluid line monitoring system. If it looks wet and gets smeary when I hit the wiper, it's time to pull over and check what the hell is leaking this time...

A rear output seal on the transfer case blowing can put tranny fluid on the converter too. Ask me how I know.

 

[WrenchedXJ]

cleaned my back hatch, and so far so good. Installed the tranny cooler from the E-350, simple install. The fittings on the cooler are the same size as the hard lines coming from the AW4. Used 1/4" ID power steering line for the extra strength/puncture resistance. I'll take some pictures of the install this weekend. While I dont have a temp gauge as of yet, by using the touch the tranny tunnel(no carpet) by hand method, its a noticable difference. I havent made any long distance travels yet, but look forward to seeing if this solves the problem. Upon looking deeper into my problem, Its clear that the problem was coming from the vent tube from the trans. The tube comes out just above my starter and my starter was covered.

 

[87manche]

cleaned my back hatch, and so far so good. Installed the tranny cooler from the E-350, simple install. The fittings on the cooler are the same size as the hard lines coming from the AW4. Used 1/4" ID power steering line for the extra strength/puncture resistance. I'll take some pictures of the install this weekend. While I dont have a temp gauge as of yet, by using the touch the tranny tunnel(no carpet) by hand method, its a noticable difference. I havent made any long distance travels yet, but look forward to seeing if this solves the problem. Upon looking deeper into my problem, Its clear that the problem was coming from the vent tube from the trans. The tube comes out just above my starter and my starter was covered.

Pull the starter and disassemble the solenoid and clean it. Otherwise the contamination will eventually make it stick and not work. While you're at it, shoot some electronics cleaner into the brushes of the starter motor itself. Avoid the bearings.