Do I need a gearbox oil cooler?
 

Hi everyone, I'm thinking of using my MK1, 2 litre diesel auto to pull a caravan round Europe. Do I need to fit a gearbox oil cooler? Is there any way of monitoring gearbox temperature through the existing instrumentation. Am I worrying unnecessarily? As always any advice gratefully received. Jim

It has one in the bottom of the radiator

Kev

Hi Kev, thanks for your answer, I did know about the cooler in the radiator, but read recently that this might not be up to the job if towing for long periods with an automatic, particularly for long uphill sections. Has anyone had a problem with this when towing? Jim

My cdti auto is putting out 160BHP and has covered 3,400 miles all over Europe with air temps in the thirty’s never had any problem with the box getting too hot it’s own cooler works fine. My van when fully loaded up is close to 1460kg the four passengers made up another 380 kg and probably 80kg of junk in the car. When towing I just stick the box in sports mode and the car pulls it along like it was not there. Best combination I have ever had my 75s combined over the passed 20 years have probably pulled over 280,000 miles with out a hitch. Pardon the pun.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Without any smell from the gearbox???:eek:

There is a post HERE shows variations in transmission oil coolers from air blast to fluid item (19 ) if it helps. To my mind the air blast looks the best.

No smell at all from the gearbox or from any other part of the powertrain. It perhaps should be noted that I change my ATF every 60,000 miles and the crankcase oil filter every 20,000, I use Land Rover. Crankcase filters you can usually pick them up for a fiver.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I wouldn't be happy running an auto thousands of miles in sports mode, it really indicates the tow car is under powered for all road conditions, I would think it could be used to maintain higher revs for uphill stretches however, if it works for you so be it.

What would be interesting is to rig up a temp sensor on the auto box or the cooler and see what it's doing while towing. You could then determine if the standard cooler is doing a job or not. :}

I’ve towed our Coachman 520/4 ViP with both the diesel 75 and my current 2.5 V6. The caravan if I recall is about 10kg below the max weight for the 75 and with both models they’ve handled the caravan efficiently.

I never use sports mode when towing, in fact I seldom use it when driving solo but my only comment is to keep journeys to a limited distance say 100 - 150 miles between rest stops. This allows the car to cool down a bit.

Jim,

If your radiator electric cooling fan is working on all speeds you should have nothing to worry about. Its speed will increase if the ECU detects that additional cooling is required (source: RAVE).

Simon