It has been some time now since I needed you guys, but now my truck is starting to act up again.
Now it is my E4OD transmission. It is app. 80K Miles since it was rebuilt. It is shifting fine and no problems driving, except that when it starts to warm up a little (thermometer in the pan) or up to app. 130°F, it starts leaking from under the converter. The transmission has the right amount of fluid (not overfilled) and the flow through the cooler (I have an extra cooler installed) is quite high. The fluid smells a little burnt, not a very strong odor though. I changed the filters last year and everything looked fine inside the tranny.
Any suggestions on the next steps?
Regards, Bjarni

 

Hmmm, the fluid smells burnt and you changed the filters and I assume the fluid last year? Fluid should not smell burnt after only a year, so something is starting to fail and causing the fluid to overheat. This makes seals brittle which causes them to leak so you probably have a leaky front seal, but you probably already knew that. Is the fluid brown, pink or red(like is should be)? Pink and brown are signs the fluid is overheating or getting old.

What is the temperature of the fluid after a few hours of normal operation? It should be less than 200.

Sounds like as a minimum you need a new front seal. A temperature reading may tell us more. Dropping the pan will tell you if you got a lot of particles which can give you a clue on what is failing.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

Thanks.
Yes I suspect the front seal. The temperature of the transmissionfluid never rises above 150°F (temp in pan). The color of the fluid is red still, with a pinch of haze. The burning smell is very distinct, but is there. The trans starts leaking as soon as I hit 125°F but when I am running on the highway (above 45 MPH) the cooling is sufficient to keep the temperature lower so it does not leak.
It shifts fine (I think), so hopefully it is only the seal, even though i suspect the converter and/or the lockup. How will the transmission act if that is the case? As you can see I am no specialist.
Regards, Bjarni

 

I am not an expert either so don't take my word for everything...

My long answer got lost in internetspace. so here is the shorter version.

I see you are in Iceland and you have an89 Diesel.

Why in the world would you need a tranny cooler in Iceland unless you are hauling really heavy loads? You can overcool a tranny although I have never heard of actual failure, but assuming Iceland is really cold, maybe your fluid is not working like it should and you are getting hot spots in the tranny due to poor circulation? Unless you have a thermostat on the cooler, you might be running too cold in winter.

Or if you get stuck in ice and snow or you plow a lot, you can spike the fluid temperature and have hot spots but not necessarily see a tempurature rise. This might explain the slight burned smell and or seal failure.

Also when I had my 94 gasser E4OD rebuilt becuase I let fluid get too low while towing, duh, the shop owner said the older diesel E4OD's had even more problems since the lockup converter would fail under heavy load with a diesel causing seal leaks and worse. You might be in this class.

I would probably drop the pan to see if there are excessive particles. Less than a teaspoon of pepper flakes is usually normal. Metal chunks is bad and lots of metal shavings is bad.

Lastly, with 80K miles you are approaching the mileage where small problems may pop up with the tranny especially leaky seals and such.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

Thank you Jim.

Yes I probably have to drop the pan as well as the tranny. I have never thought about problems regarding to cool fluids.

Actually, Iceland is not that cold. Temperatures in winter rarely go below -5°C, except up in the highlands. Temperatures between -5 and +10°C are what to expect in the winter time. In summer 20-25°C are normal. So it is not that cold. Way hotter than in northern USA in wintertime.
Another thing also is that I have a 4WD with 36" tires and i do a lot of highland/offroad driving. Then a cooler is very handy. In more normal driving conditions it might be too cool.

Regards, Bjarni

 

Its green land that gets cold.

As for the rebuild, if the tranny shop put in a standard front bushing in that may have caused your leak. The standard bushing did not have a groove in them and allowed presure to build up behind the seal. When you replace the seal, ask for an updated bushing.

When you drained the trans and filter, did you check to see if your converter had a drain plug??? If it does replace the converter oil as well.