Can burning automatic transmission fluid smell like cat pee?

A few weeks ago, I posted a thread about my wife's Town Car smelling like cat pee when it got warm. I sprayed the old, moldy leaves out of the intake areas and in my mind I thought it helped, but she could still smell it, and eventually I did smell it again, too.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was driving her car and the tranny was slipping horribly. I checked the fluid and it was down three quarts (but I can't find a leak--different subject anyway).

But, as I would remove the dipstick to check the fluid, I noticed the dipstick itself smelled overwhelmingly of cat pee. And there was a very large amount of steam coming out of the dipstick tube for the tranny fluid, but it didn't smell like cat pee as badly as the dipstick itself.

Am I just nuts, or could the slowly leaking tranny fluid be my cat pee odor problem?

Last time I smelled it which was a few years ago it has a very sweet smell to it. Check the fluid if its black and has a residue in it than that means its burning. this is from what i remember of it.

Have you checked your radiator as well? If you have steam coming from the tranny dip stick tube, you may have a leaking transmission fluid cooler. When the vehicle is not running, coolant can leak into the transmission cooling circuit. When it is running, trans fluid will leak into the cooling system.
But, imo, both coolant and transmission fluid have a sickly sweet odor to them.

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 03-20-2009).]

I have the same smell in Ellie's Auto Cherokee!! I thought a cat had got in and peed in it!! Wow...better check the tranny fluid first thing in the morning!! Thanks for posting this.timely warning?
nick

You have a cat in your transmission.

You could have a tiger in there!

Does your automatic transmission require Type F or Dextron II cat pee?