Jeep lost transmission power on washboard road.

[DakarTJ]

Monday night

My jeep is 01 with a little less then 80,000 mls on it. The 3-speed transmission has never giving me a problem… until yesterday. I was running down a dirt wash board road at about 35 to 40 mph. All was good until mile six. The Jeep started slow serge. Within about 100 yards I stopped to listen to the Jeep, no strange sound. I put it back in gear and pushed the gas pedal. The motor revved but the Jeep hardly moved, ran all 3 gears and the same thing. I got out and look under it and saw ATF dripping down. I could not see were the ATF was coming from. Never had a leak before.

Luckily this all happened in front on a ranch, long story short I had to wait about 45min to get pulled back to the pavement so AAA could come get me. I am rambling. I get the Jeep home in about 2hrs. I start it up, put it gear, and it drives fine. ******.

I check the ATF level and it looks a tad bit low. Could be from the sudden leak. A little history on my transmission mods. I am running the standard ATF-4; I am running Deep pan and extended pickup tube. transmission cooler up front plumed on the transmission output and before the rad cooler. I also have a temp gage on the output of the transmission. It was not over 200deg at the time of power loss.

Can ATF foam-up from agitation?? I think or I am hoping it will. This is what I hope happened; the ATF foamed up and came out the vent in the bell housing causing the leak. The loss of power was caused by the foamed ATF, so torque converter had no mechanical link to the transmission.


What do the you all think?

 

[DakarTJ]

Today: As for the leak I pulled the skid plates and found it was coming from the bell housing. Cleaned everything up ran the Jeep to get it nice and hot… No leak not a drop. Let it sit all night with clean cardboard and no leak. Went for a drive last night and to work today and no slip.

 

[Grim Reaper]

Pull the codes on the ECM.

Most modern vehicles the transmission is controlled by computer. The computer may have flaked out.

I had a Work van with a 4L60e that the Computer went on it. Dropped out of OD unlocked the converter and went into limp home mode. I was running down the hwy at the time. When I got off it acted exactly as you described. It would not go.

Some model jeeps have a known issue with the ECM....they don't throw codes. There is a recall on those. Think its year model 99 up. 2001 ignition switch recall. There is a recall on 2005 models for a shift problem not engaging park.

 

[DakarTJ]

I will have so see if it did throw a coad. The CE light never came on.

 

[computeruser]

Mine has done that a few times recently. No predictability as to when/why, and no leaks whatsoever. It's going in for a thorough diagnostic and (hopefully) rebuild next week...only 2700 miles left on the powertrain warranty, so I hope they solve it permanently.

 

[DakarTJ]

Is the 3-speed auto computer controlled?

 

[MountainBiker]

I will have so see if it did throw a coad. The CE light never came on.

You might need the dealer to do it. Transmission codes aren't part of the OBDII diagnostics, so they are brand specific.

 

[computeruser]

Picked my TJ back up from the dealer yesterday. New pump, seals, and converter seems to have solved the power-loss problem for me, at least in the 10 miles I have on it so far.

Dealer also said that the 70k powertrain warranty is now 100k? Go figure.

 

[DakarTJ]

Picked my TJ back up from the dealer yesterday. New pump, seals, and converter seems to have solved the power-loss problem for me, at least in the 10 miles I have on it so far.

Dealer also said that the 70k powertrain warranty is now 100k? Go figure.

It's been two weeks since I had the transmission problem. I have not had another hiccup.
If you don’t mind me asking, what would the parts have cost you if you did not have the warranty?

 

[computeruser]

It's been two weeks since I had the transmission problem. I have not had another hiccup.
If you don’t mind me asking, what would the parts have cost you if you did not have the warranty?

I'd love to tell you, but the invoice said WARRANTY under both the price and hours categories. I told my dealer that if they weren't going to warranty it to give me an estimate, but I was most likely going to put my $$$ into another trans. For me it would be a stick, but a GM 4-speed auto would have been a welcome change from the 3-speed RPM excitement. But they covered the work, so a 3-speed auto is what I still have...

Anyway, after a little tweaking on the kickdown cable adjustment, it seems to be back to good. I put on 300+ miles of mixed in-town, off-pavement and highway driving over the past weekend; it is shifting properly and engaging the right gears at the right times. Almost all of this driving was with 1500+ lbs of log splitter, firewood, tools, and lumber in the utility trailer, which I think makes for a pretty good test of whether the trans is going to see loads that make it act up.