The Rainmayker
Member
- Joined
- November 13, 2004
- Messages
- 49
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- 101.01 miles southeast of Montreal
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 99 Ltd; 05 XLS; 08 XLT
Note: I am not the owner of the vehicle, nor have I had a chance to look at it, I am just trying to help a co-worker.
Edit to add: 99 Explorer, V6, automatic, believed to be bone stock.
Transmissions are one of those things I do not know much about, so I do not have many guesses here. I have not been able to reach any of my friends who are Ford mechanics to ask them about this yet. Here is the story:
Vehicle was being driven in 4WD high up a slight hill, a rough road with minor erosion. No ruts nearly high enough to cause the vehicle to bottom out or scrape. It went for about 1/10 mile after changing from 4WD Auto to 4WD High.
Operator said that pretty much simultaneously, the OD light began flashing, she lost forward momentum, and "a cloud of smoke or steam" came out from the side of the hood. She opened the hood and saw "dark liquid" splattered. She noted the coolant overflow bottle cap was off, but the liquid did not smell or look like coolant. The engine seemed to still be running just fine and no other warning lights or gauges showed trouble.
She had it towed to a shop. They could not find the source of the splattered dark liquid, but they saw it, described as being near the air intake. The trans fluid looks really dark, like oil, on the dipstick, but no leak was found under the hood. The coolant overflow bottle was full, but the fairly new (earlier this year) radiator was a bit low. They thought that was odd.
Put the vehicle up on a lift, and it appeared that a trans fluid overflow tube (I have not heard of such a thing before) had expelled some of the dark-colored trans fluid...but it was not much, and did not look like it could have easily made it into the engine compartment near the air intake.
The shop where the vehicle sits now is not a place that rebuilds transmissions, the best they could recommend was changing the fluid and filter and seeing where it goes from there, or to bring it to a specialized transmission shop. Personally I feel the flashing OD light might mean there is a larger problem here, however I am not sure exactly what triggers that light.
Any ideas?
Edit to add: 99 Explorer, V6, automatic, believed to be bone stock.
Transmissions are one of those things I do not know much about, so I do not have many guesses here. I have not been able to reach any of my friends who are Ford mechanics to ask them about this yet. Here is the story:
Vehicle was being driven in 4WD high up a slight hill, a rough road with minor erosion. No ruts nearly high enough to cause the vehicle to bottom out or scrape. It went for about 1/10 mile after changing from 4WD Auto to 4WD High.
Operator said that pretty much simultaneously, the OD light began flashing, she lost forward momentum, and "a cloud of smoke or steam" came out from the side of the hood. She opened the hood and saw "dark liquid" splattered. She noted the coolant overflow bottle cap was off, but the liquid did not smell or look like coolant. The engine seemed to still be running just fine and no other warning lights or gauges showed trouble.
She had it towed to a shop. They could not find the source of the splattered dark liquid, but they saw it, described as being near the air intake. The trans fluid looks really dark, like oil, on the dipstick, but no leak was found under the hood. The coolant overflow bottle was full, but the fairly new (earlier this year) radiator was a bit low. They thought that was odd.
Put the vehicle up on a lift, and it appeared that a trans fluid overflow tube (I have not heard of such a thing before) had expelled some of the dark-colored trans fluid...but it was not much, and did not look like it could have easily made it into the engine compartment near the air intake.
The shop where the vehicle sits now is not a place that rebuilds transmissions, the best they could recommend was changing the fluid and filter and seeing where it goes from there, or to bring it to a specialized transmission shop. Personally I feel the flashing OD light might mean there is a larger problem here, however I am not sure exactly what triggers that light.
Any ideas?
