I hope someone can help me. I live in the Netherlands and I have a 1992 Ford Explorer Type Eddy Bauer with an automatic transmission and 4x4 with 56000 miles. The car is very rare here in Europe and nowbody can help me here.

Some weeks ago I made a trip to Spain with a camping trailor from 1600Kg.
I had to climb a hill from 25% so it was very steep. The motor and the weather was not
very hot (20 degrees C). Climbing the hill with the Ford and the trailor was not a real problem, but next day we made a trip and drive some highway miles. It was very hot
(38 degrees C) outside and we drove on the highway 75 miles per hour with trailor for two hours.
When we came on the same spot as the day before we could not drive on the 25% hill.
The motor makes 3000rpm but no hillclimbing.
The motor temperature was hotter than normal,
but not in the red area.
So it looks like when the motor is hot and the automatic gear ( I have two transmision coolers), that the Ford has less power and is much slower than when its cool weather.
Does someone knows what I can do? Is my automatic trans not good anymore, or are there any other sugestions. Sorry for my bad English

[This message has been edited by Rene (edited 08-07-1999).]

[This message has been edited by Rene (edited 08-07-1999).]

Rene:
There are limits to what a 4500 lb. vehicle with a 165 HP engine towing a 3500 lb. trailer in 100 deg. F weather can do. Evidently one limit is to pull up a 25% grade.

You don't mention the altitude as this would have a direct effect, too.

That the RPMs were at 3000 indicates that the was at stall speed and doing all it could do. No indication of a problem there if it had downshifted into 1st gear already.

Bottom line: I think you just found a performance limit.

Rene:
There are limits to what a 4500 lb. vehicle with a 165 HP engine towing a 3500 lb. trailer in 100 deg. F weather can do. Evidently one limit is to pull up a 25% grade.

You don't mention the altitude as this would have a direct effect, too.

That the RPMs were at 3000 indicates that the transmission was at stall speed and doing all it could do. No indication of a problem there if it had downshifted into 1st gear already.

Bottom line: I think you just found a performance limit.

Thanks Skipp for your answer, but why was it possible to take the steep hill with cool weather and not a very hot motor and transmission, and not when it was hot outside
(and inside the motor)?.

The 18 deg. C ambient increase would negatively effect the available engine power output in a number of ways:

1. The air mass flow to the engine is reduced due to the decrease in air density.
2. The engine cooling fan clutch would be fully engaged, with the fan then consuming anywhere from 5 to 10 HP in its own right at 3000 RPM.
3. Fuel density is also decreased which would result in a lower mass fuel flow to the engine. Indeed, the fuel quality on your return trip may not have been as good.
4. Although you don't report any engine knock, the conditions were right for at least some light pre-ignition and the EEC would have retarded the spark advance to prevent this.

All of the above considerations are additive to one degree or another and for any given set of operating conditions any vehicle will have a performance limit for those conditions.

Also, I don't know about your case, but certainly for my family outings we always have a lot more "stuff" coming home than when we left.