Well, this is somewhat ironic, but I was headed back from a dealer (in another thread on programming keys), and they had mentioned to me that it was leaking oil. Well I had just changed the oil and filter and it wasn't leaking when I left to see them, but I made a note to check when I got back.

Had to stop for a fire dept drill a couple of miles from home, and saw smoke from under the hood. We popped the hood and it was oil/fluid getting on the hot engine parts. Tranny area was very wet and dripping from a couple of places. Made it home the last few miles and as soon as things cool I will get under there and see what I can find.

The fluid that was dripping was definitely not engine oil, had the look feel and smell of tranny fluid. Definitely coming from the tranny area, but it was so evenly covered it was hard to say if it started in the front/back or wherever on the tranny.

So my question is where to look first for this problem? Any known spots on these trannies that like to spring leaks? I have not been on any particularly rough roads lately, so I sort of doubt this is something puncturing the pan, but maybe a hose or connection (I hope). Whatever this is, it came on very suddenly; when I changed the engine oil/filter a day ago, there was no sign of the tranny fluid leak.

Suggestions?

TIA

_________________
2006 KJ CRD

Check tranny coolant lines for loose or cracked fitting at the tranny and up front where they connect to the bottom of the AC condensor, that latter location is a known leak point. Back in the day my Dodge D-250 automatic suffered a cracked fitting where the tranny cooling line exited the tranny.

FYI if perchance it's a blown tranny cooler you can simple add a $50-75 auxiliary tranny cooler and bypass the OEM cooler. Much cheaper than replacing the whole unit - pricey part and requires AC system drain and recharge.

_________________
Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

My trans fluid line rubbed against the cross member behind the radiator, and it developed a leak. It made a mess of the driveway and sprayed all over the underside of the Jeep. It was the hose on the driver's side that goes under the radiator. I would start there. The fix was cheap, but it wasn't with OEM parts, and now I think I have a small leak again. The fluid level is steady, but I'll be looking at it again once it warms up outside.

_________________
2005 Black KJ Sport CRD,
GDE Full Torque ECO TUNE, GDE Transmission ECO Tune,
Samco British Racing Green Hoses
Build Date 1/05
200k miles.
Original Owner

Well, finally had a chance to clean things up and try running the Libby, in the driveway at least. Put a couple of qts of ATF+4 in, to make up for what probably was leaked out, and ran it some. Mostly in park and idle, but also some at 2000rpm in park, and at idle in D, just to move fluid to some more places.

Very odd, we did not see any leak of substance this time. Nothing that compares to what I was seeing on the side of the road when this first happened. Perhaps things need to be more warmed up or under load (when it happened I was going home up the side of a mtn at a pretty good clip).

I did check all the tranny cooler fittings. None was gushing fluid like what I saw before, although I thought I noticed a small drip by one of the oil cooler ones. This is a new oil cooler/AC unit that the body shop just put in, so the connection is fairly new (2 weeks old). One thing I noticed is the one with a drip seems loose; I can wiggle the hard line up/down. I'm not familiar with these connectors, is that play normal, or no it wouldn't be there for a flare type fitting???

One other possibility, I noticed a rubber hose which comes down and just ends by the firewall on the pass side. It ends in a plastic breather looks like. I was thinking this might be the tranny breather/overflow. Wonder if the shop overfilled the tranny when they put in the new cooler, and it just came out when I was pushing it uphill. Anything to that theory???

Anyways, I will probably need to wait for the fuel return line kit to stop the fuel leak up there before I can try moving this on the road, to see if the tranny leak goes away.

_________________
2006 KJ CRD