2004 V6 Transmission Burp

[ToyDiehard]

Yes, that's what I'm calling this, a burp.

68K on my 2004 V6 Sport, never a problem in almost 4 years. Heading into the 3rd hour of driving home on the interstate, I see blue smoke in the mirror and it's coming from me. Pulled over and discovered transmission fluid on the right side of the lower part of the trans, on the crossmember, and on the exhaust (that explains the blue smoke).

Pull into a roadside BFS. Fluid looks good, smells good (didn't taste it) can't find a leak anywhere, no lights, ran good there and shifted great, but we are still an hour from home on a Sunday night. We decide to continue on after determining she's running fine. Made it home, no problems at all.

Monday morning I'm sitting at my dealer before they even opened, to have it checked. After 45 min on the computer and test driving I'm told there is nothing wrong. It burped out the overflow. They say the fluid looked a little high (even after the burp) and asked if I added any? No I didn't. They say it may have been added the last time I had the oil changed. I change my own oil and never added any. I tell them it must have been this way from the factory, over 4 years ago.

Anyone else ever hear of this happening?

 

[Kmvreter]

Yes, that's what I'm calling this, a burp...

Fluid looks good, smells good (didn't taste it) can't find a leak anywhere, no lights, ran good there and shifted great...

... It burped out the overflow.

Anyone else ever hear of this happening?

I've also got the V6 and never heard of this or had it happen (I also do my own tranny fluid service.)

Did they say it came "out the overflow"? Is there such a thing on the tranny and, if so, where? Time to look at the service manual.

 

[1BadGixxer]

I had this problem on my Titan and my Nissan dealer said this. The fluid is added cold and when it changes state (cold to hot) it can expand and the tranny is sensitive enough it spits the extra fluid out the vent hose or "overflo valve". that happened the first year I owned it and 60,000 miles later I never added any or had any trouble out of the transmission.

 

[ToyDiehard]

They say there is an overflow tube, and that's where the fluid came from.

If it were at night or I didn't look in the mirror at the time it happened, I would have never known it.

 

[Kmvreter]

Re: Re: 2004 V6 Transmission Burp

... Did they say it came "out the overflow"? Is there such a thing on the tranny and, if so, where? Time to look at the service manual.

The diagram in the manual shows a breather tube at the top rear of the bell housing.
So now the question is why did this finally happen after 4 years? If they claim the fluid level is still high now, did you ever regularly check the level yourself in the past to do a comparison? You do your oil changes; did you ever service the tranny fluid? Tranny fluid expands with heat. Were you driving any different for this interstate run than before? Faster or more hills with downshifting?
Just trying to think through what has changed. I would search the forums for recent posts on the V6 tranny service. Simple to start doing partial drain and fills to cycle through new fluid over a long mileage cycle.

 

[ToyDiehard]

"did you ever regularly check the level yourself in the past to do a comparison?"

I check the trans fluid when I change the oil but only to see if it registers good on the stick, and the color. I never really took notice of the exact levels.


"did you ever service the tranny fluid?"

Never added any fluid, it's always worked fine.


"Were you driving any different for this interstate run than before? Faster or more hills with downshifting?"

Same road I've been on 10 times before, with no different driving style.

It's been driving fine all week, shifting well, like nothing happened.