smokeyyank
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Littleton, Crawlarado
Alright I’ve searched a million different threads and the answers are about as clear as mud. Sorry for the essay, but it’s a weird situation. So here it goes, I have a 93 XJ 4.0 3.5 RE lift, 4x4 np231, ford 8.8 rear and 4.10 gears. The other day I made a trip up the hill to do a little wheeling and shooting and the Jeep was having slippage issues in OD, it first started when I was driving to my buddies just on the highway but was minimal, when I got there I checked the fluid and it was a little low so I added some more. No issues until we started to get climbing in elevation. In OD the trans would slip right around the 2000-2500 RPM range, basically I would just lose power and RPM’s. If it was higher in RPM’s no problem, lower no problem only in that range. I kicked it down to third and it was fine. We got up there checked the fluid again still fine made it back down the mountain fine and right when we got in the city it started acting up again and pretty bad. Got it home checked the fluid still ok. It does not do it daily really only has happened when going on long drives in the heat on the highway. It did it a while ago only briefly and in part it was because I had too much fluid in there, at least that’s what I thought. I also read that the temp needs to be no more than 180* or the fluid starts to break down, so I went ahead and did a external trans cooler and that did help, but didn’t fix it. So now I’m thinking it’s because of the fluid I used. I had done nothing to the trans until I was working on my cooling system and replacing the radiator. Well the fine Jeep engineering of the stupid disconnects on the trans cooling lines proved to be well just stupid. After replacing the cooling system and I went on a road test and the bottom transmission cooling line popped off in turn spitting out all the trans fluid. I made it home but it was bone dry, I know I shouldn’t have drove it but literally if was only a few miles away and was late. The next I went to Advanced and the recommended fluid by them was ATF +4, so without thinking about it I went ahead and poured it in. After reading post after post about what fluid to use I’m thinking that I need to flush out all the ATF +4 and put in DEX III. Side bar the trans has probably 120,XXX miles on it, which I’ve read can influence which fluid to use. Two questions, first do I need flush out the ATF +4 and add in DEX or is it a separate issue? Second, if I do need to flush it what is the best way to do that? I was just going to run the engine, leave the trans in neutral and have it drain the fluid out while adding new fluid in until it runs red? Thanks