As I mentioned before, I have had the hot Oil message in the dash twice. Both times in 4H, long hills.

BUT, last time in paved street (hiilly and curvey), tranny bugged / stalled twice shifting from 2 to 1st (2H). I DID NOT get the Hot Oil dash message or the "PING". I did the code search with the ignition hoping to see if any codes were thrown and if it may be related to the stalling, and the Code appeared. If I had not done the igniting thingy, I would have never known the tranny overheated!!!

Something weird going on.

 

I totally agree with everything you said. It makes no sense to the customer or Chrsyler for the HOT OIL message not to be recorded.

"As a customer It gives us proof that our transmission is living on the edge too often and gives us leverage with the dealership for a free transmission cooler upgrade."

Exactly!

 

It's extremely tempting to drive my Jeep where the trans has gotten hot (a mild uphill hwy drive at around 30mpg), ignore the HOT OIL message, and let the trans fail. Then stick it in neutral at the 4wd shifter and have my buddy with the F350 pull me to the dealer and say "Here's your proof."

 

Forgot to stress the fact that after my tranny cooled, did the ingition thing and no more code. Only "--------". Why would it reset itself?

 

All I have to say is, as a newbie Jeep owner, this forum is invaluable!!

I just arrived home after sitting in 45 mins of traffic, and popped inside to grab my daughter to take her to practice, and my 08 Unlimited starts up fine, and the gearshift (I have an auto) moves freely up and down from P to R to D, nothing - no gear engagement, no reverse, the dash indicator does not change from "P" no matter what gear I shift into. I am freaking out and am thinking, I have made 4 payments on this used Jeep and now my tranny is done?? WTF? So I take a breath and look here first, and now am hoping that this is my issue - gonna wait an hour and try again. Have not taken care of the recall as I assumed the previous owner did, but just saw that he didn't when I looked it up. I really hope that is the problem and it is nothing that will cost me a ton of $$$$!

Thanks, all!! Mark

 

There is no recall. Sort of. We call it a non-recall recall because they didn't fix the overheating problem, which is what they should have done. All they did was add a HOT OIL reading instead of the warning sound (the same ding you hear when you're gas tank is low) that used to go off. So, the transmissions still overheat, but instead we have a reading that tells us that. Make sense? No? Same with the rest of us. It makes no sense at all it's totally stupid, which is why we're a million posts deep in a thread just trying to figure this crap out.

Your situation is different, I suspect. With the auto, when you move the shifter through its settings, you shouldn't feel it engage in and out of gears because the shifter's not connected to the transmission physically. Something within the shifter mechanism is causing the problem and not the transmission. The two are separate. That would be my best guess.

 

I had the exact same thing happen, plus smoke coming through my floorboard, several months into ownership, before I got the non recall recall. So, there was no HOT OIL message to be able to be displayed and like your experience, I had to do the ignition thing for a code as well. How this is happening even though you've had the HOT OIL light installed is beyond me. But at this point, I can believe anything. One day one of us is gonna get "YO BITCH!!" displayed on the dashboard and we'll by thinking Then we'll take it to the dealer and say "What the hell is going on now? My Jeep called me a bitch!!" Then the service writer will look at you like you're nuts and say, "There's no code. Please don't bother us any more about false displays." And then you'll go home and call 911 for a 5150 to have yourself committed!

 

Moves freely with no discernible detent?
Sounds like your shift cable may have become disconnected from the lever, or at the transmission, much like the t-case cable does.

 

Thanks, guys - I agree, something must be disconnected or the like. All cooled down but no luck - shifter still moves gear to gear way too freely without actually changing gears...so, I guess a tow into the shop is in order? I suppose it is not an easy reconnect, huh?

 

I have a manual, so I don't have any personal experience with autos in a Jeep. I did some quick looking on Google and quickly found some aftermarket oil pans that add additional capacity and have raised cooling fins. I am curious to know if anyone has tried running one of these.

I have had trucks that have run cooler tranny temps when the overall fluid capacity was increased.