Forum Discussion

tarnold's avatar
tarnold
Explorer
Jul 14, 2017

Trans temp

What would be a too high transmission temp as shown on a scan gauge. Ford v10, e40d trans and say outside temp of 80 degrees.
  • Its a sliding scale on temperature v. trans oil life. Here's one:

    http://www.txchange.com/heatchrt.htm
  • Generally over 250 degrees is your limit on trans temp as that starts to degrade the oil. Synthetics can take the heat a bit better, but they still have a limit. The longer the oil is at that high temperature the higher the chance of eventual failure. I would stop and idle the engine in Neutral for 10-15 minutes to try to cool it below 230 before moving on.

    On all my vehicles with Auto transmissions, I try to keep them under 200 on normal type days (80's). Even added a larger cooler to our RV Allison transmission when it started running 230 on easy roads in the 80's and low 90's.
  • That question is subjective..

    I added a large trans cooler. Towing to florida to disney I saw cruising trans temps no higher then 165F. Traffic maybe 175F.

    This is with A/C on and 96F outside temps.


    My weak factor was pulling 5330 ft up the NC smokeys. Coolant temps ran up to 230F but trans maxed at about 190F

    Hers a 75 mph cruising pic from my scan gauge.

    https://flic.kr/p/WwFgxp
  • Op here. Highest I've seen was 179' was on our last trip. Pulling
    some 18 degree hills along the st Lawrence in Quebec. So I guess that wasn't too bad then.
  • It very important to know where the fluid temp is being monitored. Coming just out of the pan into the torque converter it will be coolest and coming out of converter it can be 100 degrees hotter.