Fluid everywhere

[Dude23455]

My truck is a 96 F150 4.9l with the auto trans. I was pulling a heavy load for about 45 minutes, I finally get to where i need to be, and as Im parking the trailer I smell trans fluid. I quickly finished parking the trailer and truck. Underneath the truck the fluid is pooling, and for about 10 yards from where i parked the trailer there is a trail of fluid from where it leaked. The leak looks like it started when I put the truck in reverse. Now, everything still works fine, IE it shifts thru all the gears without incident. now to this morning: I add a gallon of fluid, Start her up, no leaks. let her run 5 mins. still no leaks. Drive her about 300 yards. No leak. So my question: Did i really break anything? Did I just overheat the trasmission and it expelled the fluid thru some kind of pressure relief valve? whats the deal? Thanks- Cullen

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[temp1]

Originally posted by Dude23455
My truck is a 96 F150 4.9l with the auto trans.

I was pulling a heavy load for about 45 minutes, I finally get to where i need to be, and as Im parking the trailer I smell trans fluid. I quickly finished parking the trailer and truck. Underneath the truck the fluid is pooling, and for about 10 yards from where i parked the trailer there is a trail of fluid from where it leaked. The leak looks like it started when I put the truck in reverse.
Now, everything still works fine, IE it shifts thru all the gears without incident.

now to this morning:

I add a gallon of fluid, Start her up, no leaks. let her run 5 mins. still no leaks. Drive her about 300 yards. No leak.

So my question: Did i really break anything? Did I just overheat the trasmission and it expelled the fluid thru some kind of pressure relief valve?

whats the deal?
Thanks-
Cullen

I have added too much fluid when changing the transmission fluid and had it spit the extra fluid out from somewhere. I think you are correct that it started foaming or something and was ejected from an overflow somewhere. I would check the transmission fluid level frequently for a while and the ground for any leaks. What type of weather and temperature were you pulling in?

I believe most transmission coolers only have air passing thru them when the truck is moving so the fluid might get a bit hotter when the truck is stopped.

Letting transmissions get too hot does have consequences. See this link. You may have burnt some of your transmission fluid.

http://www.tciauto.com/tech_info/tra...expectancy.htm

[powerstroke73]

Welcome to the world of towing with automatic transmissions. Rule number 1, no matter what auto you have regardless if you're towing or not is to install the largest cooler you can get your hands on. My F150 has a 28,000 GVWR stacked plate cooler. It dropped my temps about 20*-30* compared to what they were before the cooler. While towing my temps never move off 125* in 40-50* temps. When I get in town with a trailer I see as high as 165*. If you are doing any stop and go driving while towing you are creating ALOT of heat and to top that off coolers don't cool very well when not moving since no air passes over them. If I was doing alot of towing in stop and go driving I'd look into putting an electric fan on the cooler and wire it to a temp control. I would guess that since it got hot enough to spit out that much fluid that you way overheated it and thus has caused the fluid to break down. Best thing you can do now is to go and have the fluid changed or flushed. If not you will lose the viscosity and cooling ability in the fluid which will cause then need for a rebuild. I just wish I woulda put a trans temp guage and cooler on my truck right after I got it. I might have saved myself the $1700 I spent on a rebuild. I learned the hard way, any auto I ever own will have a large cooler and trans temp gauge.