Puffs Of Steam Coming Out Trans Dip-Stick??

[jeremiah2360]

I was running some TB cleaner through my 03 Dakota,4.7-545rfe Auto Trans-86 thousand miles. I was revving it between 2000-3000 RPM at the time. Hot motor after a 25 mile trip. Dip stick was in,seated properly, and what appeared to be steam was venting out of it(not much,little puffs).

Anyone else ever notice this? Just condensation-normal??

 

[MonumentOiler]

This could be blow-by from exhaust gasses getting by the rings of a cylinder.

 

[Gary Allan]

From the trans dipstick?? That I've never seen before. Now I know you've already had alarms sounding and immediately checked the fluid for some type of coolant ingress via the rad cooler and whatnot.

There's no normal way for moisture of that amount to get into your trans to vent with a vaporous emission that I can think of. The trans operates at such a temp normally, with no induced moisture (like from a combustion process), that it should only have whatever the vent allows in via normal heating and cooling in terms of humidity in the air.

Now if you were doing some water crossing of the extreme kind and didn't have the vents snorkeled ..then you could get water in there. If it's coolant, however, it's allegedly a short trip to death for the trans.

 

[jeremiah2360]

Thanks for the replies.

I had just checked the Trans fluid within the past two weeks,looked great,nice and red

(Amsoil with about 70,000 on it)

It was cold out,about 40 degrees,so any heat might of appeared as steam. Some kind of force was pushing it out in a rythmic pulse though. I have some Blackstone kits I might send a sample in. It does look too good to change out even with it`s mileage but maybe a sample would show different(and any problems).

Kinda freaked me out!

When it`s a little warmer I`ll check it again

 

[MonumentOiler]

My bad. I assumed the dipstick in the motor from the TB cleaner comment. This is the Transmission board so from the tranny makes sense but I have even fewer ideas about what could cause the puffing.