SSo I have had my jeep a little over 3 months. Done alot of maintenance on it so far. Was having issues while driving down the highway, it randomly would downshift for a couple seconds then go back. It did this at any speed and didn't matter how much gas I was giving it. Changed the transmission fluid today and it was as dark as oil after 3000+ miles. Could that have been the issue or something else? I drove it a little bit to try it out and it was doing it still at first but didn't do it on the way home. It doesn't always do it so not sure if it's fixed yet. Just curious if that could have been the issue or possibly something else?

 

Regardless of whether this fixes your symptoms or not, you need to continue to drain/fill then drive your XJ for a while and repeat this procedure until fluid stays RED in color. Might take a few repetitions. Be sure you are using Dex/Merc III compatible fluid and NOT ATF+4.

See if cleaning your transmission resolves your symptoms. Good luck and keep us updated!

 

Yes I plan on driving it for a little and draining the fluid again. That looked bad and will probably take a few times to get it back to normal. I am hoping this fixes the issue!

 

Will likely take three or maybe four drain/fills to completely replace all of the fluid and clean the transmission. Be sure to drive it at least a hundred miles or so between changes to allow the new fluid to do its thing.....let color be your guide as to when you can stop with fluid replacement.

 

+1 on this and watch out for any shifting problem such as gear slipping or rough shifting.

 

On the right road, (with the right wind) my aw4 can be a little "indecisive", somewhere around 45 mph IIRC. In any case agreed with TJ, just change it more often. Some poster suggested doing it with oil changes...made some sense to me.

It's always smart to fill out your info. You might have an adjustable TPS, which affects shifting.

 

Ya its usually 60+ when it starts doing it. It will do it every once in awhile then sometimes several times in a row. I am going to drive it more tomorrow and hope that it's fixed.

 

I bet mine was dirtier. Lol.

It was really black with thick syrup-ish gunk inside it along with a lot of gray matter in it

 

And it survived, didn't it?

 

What year XJ?

 

No. Eventually tossed it and put another trans in my jeep

 

Don, you still running in Comfort mode?

 

But I'm still saving it tho. Gonna clean it up and hold it as a spare

 

So, did it fail?

 

It still worked but slips a lot. The friction material was probably halfway gone.