Its happened a few times before but now it's getting old. Next month I have a 5 hour drive each way and I don't want to have this problem anymore.

Yesterday I went on a long drive (2.5 hours each way). I averaged about 70-80 mph, no real hard accelerating and no traffic. My jeep did good on the way down but on the way back, I looked out my rearview and noticed I was smoking really bad. The smoke is coming from trans fluid leaking onto the exhaust pipe and burning. The fluid is less then 6 months old and still looks clean. I checked the level and it's still good. One of the symptoms that tells me it's going to happen is the speedo needle starts bouncing around the actual speed. I think the speedo symptom is caused by fluid getting on something thats suppose to stay dry and it's causing a short. I'm thinking my trans is over heating but I have no idea. Any ideas?

 

An overfilled trans can cause fluid to come out of the dipstick at highway speeds (remember, the fill line is for hot fluid). Other than that I'd suggest checking the connectors for the trans oil lines at the transmission. They're right above the exhaust pipe on the side of the trans.

 

mine was doing that once, turned out it was my torque converter seal.

i would overheat, but when i shifted into neutral and shut the jeep off and coast a bit, then restart, the temp would drop significantly.

but after doing that for the day drive home, it started leaking from the pump not lubricating while moving in neutral without the engine running.

 

I rechecked the fluid and it is over filled. The fluid looks like it's coming from the front of the trans. Where is the trans vent?

 

I had this same problem and I ended up having to drop the trans to fix a seal. After I fixed it I immediately got the biggest trans oil cooler I could fit. I'd advise the same.