Hello everyone,

I have yet again another problem with one of my Jeeps and I'm not really sure what it is...

I realized that there is a small leak going on at the very front of the ZJ, something drips off of the bumper (so I guess it's not coming off of the engine block). I have no idea what the fluid is, how can I find out?

On the other hand I noticed that my shifter case (the plastic bezel around the shifter) can get really hot after a while but gets hot quicker when I'm driving in the city.

This makes me believe that the problem comes from the automatic transmission.

Could the leak and the heat from the shifter be linked to the tranny? I have heard that some transmissions are cooled... Could this be it? How can I make sure?

Or is the hot shifter normal?

Many thanks!

BTW
1997 ZJ
5.2L V8

 

The hoses to the transmission cooler are leaking. Fix that and top off the fluid level and see if there is any change in the heat you're feeling from around the shifter.

 

Well, I haven't yet fixed the leak issue but I found the issue about the hot bezel.

I always checked the left part, where the letters are printed, and when I checked the other parts of the bezel and found out that they were cool I realized that it was only the small backlight bulb that was heating up the immediate area...

I drove by day without turning the lights on and the bezel was cool all the time... silly frenchman!

What could the leak be though? I'd need to remove the grille first to inspect the radiators but that's going to take time and is going to be mucky. I suppose I'll wait for my day off on friday and report what I have found when I check it out...