New here and trying to help my niece out with her 2008 Grand Cherokee. Hopefully this is the place! She's had a chronic problem with bits of smoke wisping up form the RH side of under the hood near firewall. turns out trans fluid was leaking out of the vent on the firewall. so something in the trans is whipping up or pressuring the fluid so it goes all the way up the vent and out. her local garage solution was to move the vent higher! but obviously there's a bigger prob and now it leaks worse. Any thoughts? is this a chronic problem? thanks jp

 

Welcome to the forum.

It is possible the vent is from the transfer case, instead of the transmission?

Does the transmission dipstick show frothy fluid? How does the fluid look on the dipstick?

On my vehicle the transmission vent is integrated into the pump, concealed in the bell housing behind the torque converter, no external hose.

 

thank you! does not have 4WD which I assume negates the possibility of the transfer case? there's no dipstick either for the tranny so can't check. but I did see the vent on the RH side of the firewall just below the cowl and it has a small vent cap -- assume the shop was at least right in ID'ing the trans vent. I spoke to them since the post, and they said they may have over-filled the tranny now and she's bringing it back (doesn't too much fluid damage the tranny too?). they also said they suspected the original cause of the leak of fluid out of the vent was due to a blockage to the fluid cooler -- they said they cleared the lines and replaced a valve that might have been blocked. But we won't know now till they get the fluid level right which they're doing later today.

But does this sound right? a blocked cooler as the original prob?

thx again -- great resource!

 

You are welcome.

The "vent cap" sounds like the dipstick cap.

The fluid level might have been correct initially, but if the cooler is obstructed, then it might have become foamy, causing the overflow.

The shop needs to complete the analysis and resolution.