Overheating Auto Gearbox

[drecked]

Do any of you have proper auto trans oil cooler fitted , Or do they have one already in the 2010 150 series? , Salute drecked

[hookedon4wding]

Does anyone know if this fix is being applied from new on auto Prados now?

Just ordered mine today and want to make sure the overheating issue doesn't arise.

Cheers, Sam.

[gnc]

my new 2010 Prado overheated on every steep hill towing a 2200kg boat, while in auto, occurred 8x on this trip. I was pissed off totally and wanted my money back as my old Prado never did this. Toyota said they'd never heard of this and advised fitting a transmission cooler at no cost to me , and no further episodes since . I'll now go back to them and ask about the "fix" as they didn't mention this at all.

[hookedon4wding]

Anyone with a V6 had this problem?

[casper1956]

Hi Sam,

spoke to manager of services at Big Rock Toyota in Perth last week.
The patch is done now to all new vehicles and checked prior to delivery.

any one having a problem is best to take it back. I dont know from what date the fixes apply.

regards

Casper

[hookedon4wding]

Ripper thanks Casper. I'll make sure mine is done pre delivery.

Cheers, Sam.

[shadow75]

I'm guessing they don't automatically upgrade the software at the next service? I had mine serviced (10k) about a month ago, and today, climbing up the snow fields, (outside air temp 3 deg) managed to get the overheat light advice.. Either that, or there really are some issues..

[shawsie]

This is very worrying for me as I'm ready to bite the bullet with the new model (Urk!) and want to share my experience with the 90s. I know this is not a real problem with the 90, maybe my auto seems to be a twitchy one (3.4lt petrol).

I fitted an aftermarket oil-cooler after my org cooler became coroded and the oil contaminated my radiator. After a new radiator and a lot of flushing (and $$$) I decided to fit an additional oil-cooler AND a temp gauge. Since then I have not had any problems with the tranny because you can very easily see the temp going up and so you drive accordingly.

As said earlier, switching to manual stops the temp going up and gives you more power for towing etc, but you can't do this for long periods or at 100km/hr. Overheating the tranny DOES degrade and/or damage the tranny and I'm a little shocked at a 'software' fix blaming the parameters. If you can smell hot oil and feel the tranny through the tunnel from inside (for example), then the tranny is most definitly getting too hot.

Maybe a software (re-mapping) fix might well cure this as I'm no expert - I'm going on my own experience here. Driving on soft sand in high will heat the tranny as will slow hills at 2500rpm, but going to manual (OD/OFF) will make all the diference for short periods.

Most of us (myself included) just want to stick it in 'drive' and off we go - even when 4wheeling, but the reality is that you should drive differently as the terrain dictates. I found this out after fitting my temp gauge and realised just how the terrain affects the transmission and how you must drive the car.

I've just come back from Cape York towing a CT and I still had overheating issues even with an aftermarket cooler so you can see that this thread interests me greatly.

I would really appreciate it if anyone with the new upgrade (remapping) could give their experience here.

Cheers Andrew.

[lissted]

The problem they say isn't with the gearbox actually overheating it is that the parameters for the light to come on are set to low. Not sure if this true of not but, I had not had the light even come on in my car but before we took it to the Cape I booked it in to get it reset. I told them that if the light does come on I want to know it is coming on for the right reason. They knew what I was talking about and were happy to fix it for me. The light didn't come on once during the trip and I don't have a tranny temp gauge so I hope it was ok. Hopefully it was ok because heat is the main thing that kills an auto box. Not sure if Prado's are the same(haven't read all of the manual) but I know in Commodore's with Turbo 700 auto gearboxes you are not suppose to tow in overdrive beacause it overheats the gearbox. Don't know if it says anything in Prado manual. Like a previous post, has anyone installed a aftermarket cooler?
Thanks
Peter

[pgb]

This happened to me driving up Mt Hotham on Friday night. There seems to be two answers coming out of this thread, one indicating Torque converter slippage and the other faulty instruments. Ill ring my dealer tomorrow and see what they say. I picked the car up in June so according to some posts on this thread it should have been recrified by now in pre-delivery.

Cheers
Paul

[lissted]

This happened to me driving up Mt Hotham on Friday night. There seems to be two answers coming out of this thread, one indicating Torque converter slippage and the other faulty instruments. Ill ring my dealer tomorrow and see what they say. I picked the car up in June so according to some posts on this thread it should have been recrified by now in pre-delivery.

Cheers
Paul

Hi Paul
When the converter slips it causes heat in the box. When you pull it back a gear it locks up the converter because its at higher revs therefore the oil isn't getting as hot and the light doesn't come on. When it is slipping though and heat is being generated, the light is coming on, but is really not that hot for the light to come on hence them adjusting the parameters of the sensor. In drag cars we use huge converters. The cars hardly moves until around 3500rpm. This is when the box makes all the heat, only when the converter is slipping. All auto converters slip, they have to or it would be like driving a manual without a clutch.
Peter

[shawsie]

In my 90, the temp light comes on at approx 150'C which is way too hot! If the new parameters (in the 150) tell the light to come on at say 120'C to 130'C, then this would be acceptable - this is from my experience.

[trackers]

We just did a 4000k caravan trip towing a 2300kg van. Prior to this trip our gearbox overheated on most hills, and as such our dealer did the remapping. On our recent long trip the box never overheated once, so we are very happy.
Cheers

[Paul P]

We picked ours up in January and have had it overheat a couple of times. First was with a 2000kg van through Cunningham's Gap so I couldn't blame it. Dropping it down and upping the revs fixed that. Didn't think much more of it.

On the weekend on the run from Thredbo through to Khancoban at 0 degrees and no van I got the O/T warning again. Dropping to 4th and upping the revs did the fix but I have a service coming up and reckon it might be worthwhile having a chat about the remap.

[lawrance]

On the Prado's 5 speed auto gearbox, does it have an oil cooler? I would imagine that it does, I don't know for certain.

The "solution" for gearboxes that are overheating and not had the ECU reprogrammed would be to select 4th gear, and this should lock the torque converter and effectively allow the gearbox to cool down.