Hey fisherpeople!

My new truck has a neat little feature where it tells me the temperature of the transmission. Thats cool, but I realize that I have no idea what is too hot for a transmission. It was at about 125 F the other day on the highway with no cargo and no trailer. It hit 140 in town on the way to get my kid from school (lots of stopping and starting).


The truck is brand spanking new and has the tow package with the aux trans cooler so I'm not worried, just curious at what temp would you get concerned?

180 is normal operating temp
your not even supposed to read the hot part of the dipstick if you r not at 180 or more

ok thanks buddy, God Bless Ya!

My trans temp gauge (digital, factory equipped) reads about 210-220 when towing my travel trailer 70 mph, through hilly terrain. It'll drop down into the upper 190's on flat ground or if I back out of the throttle a little.

I've heard that anything over 240 is too hot.

180 is the optimal temp for pretty much every automatic built. every 10 degrees above 180 is said to shorten transmission life by nearly half. I always run a cooler in line with the factory radiator mounted cooler. I use the factory liquid to liquid cooler to do the initial cooling and then run from the outlet of that cooler to as large of an air to air cooler as I can fit in front of the ac condensor. From there I return the fluid to the transmission. I can tow when its 110* through hills and don't have to worry about the transmission.

When you get into the 230's you're getting too hot. The only time I've ever seen one get that warm was towing a backhoe with my diesel down 20. My dodge won't get past 135 empty and averages 160 with a boat. You're fine.

If you look online you can find a chart showing the relation between transmition operating temperature and expected miles you are to get out of it. If you run it over 200 degrees it isnt very long.

I have a chevy with the factory tow package which has the in radiator cooler and an additional air cooled cooler. The hotest it has ever run was 200 degrees pulling about 4K lbs at noon in the summer in south Texas. In the winter it will barely break 100 degrees. Normal driving during the summer is 150-170.

matt

Here is just one of the many charts out there.



They pretty much all said the same thing, If you run it much over 175 or so all the time dont expect to get more than 100k out of it. Now you have to remember that is running that temp all the time, not just during peak towing.

Also I think a good way to keep it in check is maintaining your fluids properly. If you tow alot changing it every 30 to 50 k is not a bad idea.

matt

Well my truck hit 199 today and I wasn't even towing anything. I wonder if it will get a lot hotter than that with a load behind it? Unless I'm reading the chart above wrong 200 is already in the "starting to get a little to hot" zone. You think there is a problem with my transmission cooler? Shouldn't it be able to keep cooler than that, especially with no load at all? Sorry if I seem a tad anal rententive, I'm just kinda new to pickup trucks and towing/hauling. You guys are old hats and experts, (at least compared to me) and I'd like to take advantage of your experience and knowledge.

Im thinking 240 is the point of varnish forming.

What kind of truck do you have and does it have a tow package with auxiliary cooler?

I drive normaly around 65 mph on highway and in dead of summer 170-180 is usualy as hi as it will get empty. If I drive 85 it will heat up more. Lots of things to keep in mind. Also if you are doing alot of stop and go it will get hotter.

its an F-150 with a aux cooler and tow package (texas edition) 2011 bought new last month never been titled.

I manage a transmission shop here in Abilene and we don't like to see them go over 200 and prefer them to be in the 160-180 range at highway speeds without a load.

I dont mean this to sound bad on ford, but they have a past of putting in guages that you cant really "read" temp guage with an H and a C and such. Is the guage digital or not? I know some people cant accept it that a guage on a brand new vehicle isnt perfect but many arent. If it is digital I would asume it is corect then.

Driving it hard, and stop and go driving will build much more heat. Towing with it will no doubt increase the temperature. During the winter on my 30 mile comute mine never gets over 100, like right now with temps in the 80's is usualy around 150, when temps get into the 90-100's it will be around 170. Towing will increase all of those numbers.

matt

It is digital, and it's still under warranty, so maybe I'll just take it in and make em look at it. Shouldn't cost me nothing...

Sounds good, 200 degrees sounds kinda hi to me for a new vehicle with no load. Could just be that it is breaking in or designed that way. I would bet ford isnt really even gonna look at it just tell you it fine tell you some other bs and be on their way.