Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Tranny Vomit

I just put a new battery into my 1998 4 cyl w/auto trans. After completing the install I started her up to make sure everything was OK. It was, so far as the battery goes. As soon as I shut it down, the transmission started vomiting fluid out the fill pipe. I quickly started it up and put it through the gears. It stopped vomiting for a while until it warmed up and then it did some more. All total, it probably lost 1/2 a quart. I drove it around some until it was fully warmed up. Everything seemed OK except the fluid level was way above full, about 2/3 up the stick. The next day my wife said she noticed it wasn't shifting quite the same. I checked the fluid level (cold, engine running) and none showed on the stick (The manual says the loop on the end of the stick should be wet when checked cold). Anyone have any ideas what is going on? Could this possibly be related to the battery change? The battery has been disconnected before for other reasons without this happening.
Thanks,
Bill Y.

The ATX has a vent hose that comes up right behind the battery. You probably pinched off that hose when you installed the new battery, causing the tranny to vomit up the dipstick/fill tube. Check around the battery for this vent hose and free it up so the tranny can breathe properly.

I will throw out two secnerios here. First one is far fetched, the other more practical.

1) What sort of battery did you replace it with? Are you sure the battery is properly rated for your vehicle?

Reason I ask... If you install a battery that is not properly rated for our vehicle, it can cause all sorts of strange electrical gremilans to rear there ugly little heads.

In this case, it "MIGHT" be possible that the battery you installed was not the properly rated battery and it cause a problem in the TFT Sensor (Transmission Fluid Temp Sensor). This sensor monitors the temp of the tranny fluid and with this input, in turn, controls the amount of pressure output from the pump to the valve body. If the PCM thought the tranny was colder then it really was, it would have shot a large amount of fluid through to the valve body. Since the tranny was not as cold as the PCM thought it was, there would have been a sort of overflow because of the excessive pressure.

2) On top on the valve body cover (looks like a normal tranny pan), which is located just under the battery. There is a vent tube that extrudes out of this pan. It would be possible that you accidently kinked, in some way, the tube. This tube basically vents excess pressure out of the tranny, during operations like I mentioned in the above example. If this tube was kinked, the air had nowhere to go and since it had to go back out through the otherside of the tranny, it would make since that it would blow some tranny fluid out with it. It would also have an effect of shifting since internal pressures would be extremlly high.

Welcome to CEG !

Congrats for inventing a new technical term!

Check your vent tube, but be sure to read around the site too.
There are a number of common problems and service issues that every owner should know about.

You, Unisys12, and Rogerm60 were right-on! I set the battery squarely on the end of the vent tube and cinched her down tight. Sealed er up tighter than a fine French wine. Really had me scratching my bald spot. All is now right with the world.

Thanks,
Bill

The first scenario you described ... NO WAY, the battery?!