Hi all,

I have a 1995 Blazer 4.3L (vin W) that recently started producing Smoke/steam from under the passenger side, rear of engine. When trying to diagnose the problem, I noticed that there was liquid dripping onto the engine. This liquid seemed to be coming from a small tube, attached to the transmission dipstick tube. This small tube has a triangular sponge on top of it, which was saturated to the point of dripping. There seems to be a sort of "check valve" at the end of this tube also. Anybody know what the purpose of this tube is, and what the problem may be?

Thanks,

Brian

 

What color is the fluid that is dripping onto the engine? Is it red?

I think the vent that you are referring to is for the transmission.
There are two possibilities, one of them is bad, but the other one is good.
Good first, somehow the tube got some trans fluid in it that didn't drain back down into the transmission. Now, as the transmission heats up, that fluid is working it's way up the vent tube and dripping on the back of the engine. If that is the case, you can either wait for it to work out, take the tube off and clear it out, or you could blow some air down the tube, into the transmission to clear it out. Any one of those solutions would work and I would recommend either of the latter 2 fixes.
The bad would be that something has gone wrong inside the transmission that is causing fluid to be pumped up in the vent area of the trans or something is allowing the transmission fluid to foam up A LOT and working its way up the vent tube.

The first thing that I would do would be to clear out that vent tube to see if that cures the problem. If that doesn't cure the problem, then maybe a trans fluid/filter change is in order. As trans fluid ages, it absorbs water from the air and that causes the fluid to be more prone to foaming. New fluid may cure the problem. If that doesn't work, then you may have an internal problem in the transmission that can only be fixed by a rebuild.