Tranny Leak, Flashing O/D, y mucho mas!

[ncc]

Hey all!

This is long, but there's a lot to understand before you can help me....

I need some serious help, here. (Don't we all?!)

The other day, my Ex sprung a leak on the underside of the tranny-fluid dipstick. Apparently, it's been rusting for a few years and it finally gave out. I was on the highway and lost quite a bit of fluid before I could find a place to pull over safely and take a serious look at it.

Here's the sequence of events leading up to my current issues:

I was over 60 miles from home when it happened. The local dealership told me that the closest dipstick in the region was back in my hometown(!) so I grabbed a few bottles of tranny fluid and milked her all the way home. O/D OFF light was, of course, flashing at me like crazy. Got home and installed my brand new dipstick. Filled the tranny up with fluid and took her over to the dealership the next day to have the transmission fluid changed.

After the tranny service (and no ill words from the dealership), I drove off thinking my little Ex was going to be just fine. About a mile down the road, the O/D OFF light starts blinking at me again. Apparently, it's an additional $99 for them just to pull the code and diagnose it and the service rep didn't tell me that because she didn't think I wanted it! Even though I told her everything I'd just been through with the tranny! Ditz.

Anyway, I checked the fluid level when I got home and found it to be almost TWO QUARTS low! (No, there's no other leaks.) Strike TWO for the dealership. (They actually went to strike three, but that's on another topic.) So I corrected the fluid level, but now have a couple problems that I simply don't know if they are related or not.

#1. My O/D light is still flashing and I don't want to pay the dealership $99 just to tell me why -any other options there?

#2. My gas mileage -which usually hovers in the 17-18mpg range on the highway- now refuses to go over 12mpg and sometimes will not get 10! This happened immediately after I had the tranny serviced.

So could there be some relation to my sudden, inexplicable loss of gas mileage and my still-flashing O/D light? Something in how the computer system is controlling the fuel system, maybe? I refuse to believe it's purely coincidence when both problems popped up at the exact same time....

For what it's worth, the transmission is shifting through the gears just fine, including in and out of OverDrive.

Thanks guys!

Jeremy
'97 Eddie Bauer 4.0L SOHC

 

[slpdave]

you can get the codes read for free at most auto parts stores, they let you use the scanner hoping you will buy the parts from them to fix the problem, or do what I did, go to a transmission shop (hopefully you know someone at one) and let them read the codes and decipher the problem for you. My O/D light flashes from time to time and gives a 2nd gear out of sync code. I turn the car off let the computer reset fire it back up and it works fine for another month or two. my tranny guy said be gentle and bring it back when it breaks, he would like to rebuild it but is cost conscious and would rather I get every ounce of use out of it before rebuilding.

David

 

[marragtop]

Disconnect the battery for 10 minutes to reset the codes. The reason your mileage is down is because the trans is in cripple/limp mode when the light comes. BTW it's not good to drive it that way because if forces hard trans shifting which you should be noticing. If the light comes back on, you need to get the codes pulled.

 

[ncc]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried disconnecting the battery two different times over the past couple days; once for about ten minutes as suggested and once for a couple hours.

The MPG problem seems to have fixed itself, but I still have the flashing O/D light and the hard shifts. Guess I'm gonna' have to take it to my tranny guy.

Marragtop: Can you -or anyone else- explain for the rest of us transmission rookies what this "limp-home" mode is and how it works? That'd be a big help.

Thanks again!

Jeremy
'97 Eddie Bauer 4.0L SOHC