'93 A4LD Trans Overheats Under Load

[HangTime]

Well I'm stumped here and hope someone out there can shed some light on this one.

The problem; Transmission overheats under load and dumps fluid out the breather tube. It's fine on the hiway and around town (Atlanta). But going uphill for 10-15 minutes in 2wd, not in OD, (40 mph or so) the tranny overheats. The engine temp remains in the normal range the entire time, no problem. The trans is not overfilled. I'm afraid that I'm slowly killing the tranny by overheating it almost every weekend.

Vehicle; 93 Ranger Supercab 4x4, 4.0L V6, A4LD Automatic with the factory "tow package" 138,000 miles. Runs fine, shifts great. New vacume modulator (was leaking), new fan (had several cracks), recent thermostat.

Recently added a second stacked plate type trans cooler up front opposite the factory cooler. This helped some, but it has overheated 3x in the last month driving up Lookout Mountain, TN. So I figured more cooling capacity is the answer. Replaced one of the two stacked plate coolers with a Perma-Cool 6 pass finned cooler with a 10" electric fan in front. You guessed it, it STILL overheats under load. This time in 4WD low range climbing up another mountain side, with the electric fan running.

Last night I changed the tranny fluid and filter then flushed 3 gallons of fluid thru the cooler lines (to change ALL the fluid), seems to have plenty of flow. Last time I did this was only 15,000 miles ago. Fluid was good, red, not burned. Small amount of sludge in the pan, not an unusual amount. No big chunks.

I'll know this weekend if the fluid and filter change helped. How about it gang? Any similar experiences out there?? Any suggestions on a fix would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,
Hang Time


------------------
HangTime
AT 97
93 Ranger XLT 4WD 4.0L "Slack Mule"
Wills Wing SS 163
81 GL1100 Goldwing

 

[Ira]

If you still have your tranny cooling lines running thru your radiator, I would take the radiator out and get it flushed. I have heard stories of it getting partially stopped up and restricting flow and causing it to overheat.

------------------
Ira
91 XLT 4x4

You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me.

 

[duker69]

I have the same problem on my 94 explorer. I live in Hawaii and driving up and down the volcano every day i found that my engine was getting hot but not overheater. Changed the thermostat and all that with no success then found that the fluid coming out the breather tube like you stated and fluid residue all over the back window during long gradual accents. I brought it into a tranny shop and they checked it out, changed the fluid and filter, tightened the bands and added a tranny cooler that bypasssed the radiator. That helped my engine cooling problems but i still find that it gets hot and spills fluid going up long hills. I also find that when descending and downshifting that the engine temp drops quickly.

I've searched all over for answers to this problem and this is the first time I have found a similar situation. Please someone help me.

 

[ohe_boy]

I have the same problem on my 94 explorer. I live in Hawaii and driving up and down the volcano every day i found that my engine was getting hot but not overheater. Changed the thermostat and all that with no success then found that the fluid coming out the breather tube like you stated and fluid residue all over the back window during long gradual accents. I brought it into a tranny shop and they checked it out, changed the fluid and filter, tightened the bands and added a tranny cooler that bypasssed the radiator. That helped my engine cooling problems but i still find that it gets hot and spills fluid going up long hills. I also find that when descending and downshifting that the engine temp drops quickly.

I've searched all over for answers to this problem and this is the first time I have found a similar situation. Please someone help me.

First off, Welcome to the site! This is a very good site and has helped me with a lot of things concerning my Explorer, which includes the SAS.

Anyway, how do you know if your transmission is overheating or if your engine is overheating? The temp gauge in the cluster is an engine temp gauge and not a transmission temp gauge. Unless you have a seperate tranny gauge, there's no way to really know if your tranny is overheating.
I'm guessing that your engine may be over heating. Now you mentioned that you changed out your thermostat (which is engine related). Did you check your radiator. It could be partially clogged, fins could be damaged or clogged with volcanic debris. If the radiator is clogged or damaged, try changing out the radiator first. This may fix the overheating problem.

If this doesn't fix it then there's more questions invovled. Like my explorer does, do yours overheat or get really hot then cools way down after some time? I found out recently that the reason for this may be due to a failing water pump. I'm not sure whats involved with changing out a water pump, but I'm researching it now. But I'm sure if you look around here or google-it-up, you'll find something!

Hope this helps!

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! It usually dumps fluid out of the front seal behind the torque converter when it starts to over heat. The rear governor rings could be bad if it's dumping fluid out of the overfill. Did you check your fluid level? It could be slightly over filled. Did you check your fan clutch? My fan clutch was bad, and caused my front seal to blow out when I was driving on the highway.

 

[duker69]

Ok an update to this problem.

Ohe boy, once the transcooler was added the engine never overheated, just to be sure I changed the radiator as it was full of hardwater scaling and possible stopleak. The engine temp dropped slightly after this but still found the tranny leaked fluid on hard accents. On decents if i down gear to utilize engine braking the temp gauge drops about 25%.

Regardless though as today I think it made its final trip with the current tranny. I wnet through 8 quarts of tranny fluid to go the 8 miles (uphill) to my home. It usually makes this trip without a problem but today it just barely made it and I coasted into my driveway. I think I've decided to just bite the bullet and order a rebuilt if I can't find one in the local boneyard. I'm convince the tranny was at fault. It ran fine most of the time but like I said long accents did a number on it and I would have to refill the fluid part of the way. Even tho I will be replacing the tranny I would like to know if anyone has any ideas as to what the issue was as it didn't spit fluid unless I pushed it hard uphill. It was only today that I think it finally threw in the towel.

 

[duker69]

Oh and for that matter, does anyone have a 94 explorer tranny sitting around they dont need? If you have something you would consider reliable and wouldn't mind crating it to ship to hawaii please email at dleduc@gmail.com

 

[Exploring XLT]

I Have this problem too, transmission fluid will leak out of the front of it while towing a trailer, the travel trailer is only 3000 lbs, which is well under its 5200 lb towing capacity... it never leaks other than that.