Transmission Cooler V8 4.6L 2004

[Col]

Hello guys.... I have a question... the V8 4.6L has a auxiliary transmission Cooler installed from factory??. I f I see under the engine there is a small cooler panel.. but I am not sure if it is for the steering power system or for the automatic tranny....

I am pretty concern about heat on the tranny.. because when the Explorer is cold or has some time running the tranny changes gears as the way it suppouse to change, but in a long trip in some warm weather running up the hill, the tranny doesn´t make changes of gears so easely.. so I think it would be the heat factor on the tranny.... Am I right??.. or should I check anything else??.... I know heat can cause 80% of the tranny failures.. so anyone has an auxiliary cooler panel for transmission installed with pictures so I can see it??..

Thanks for your help.

JorgeA
AKA Col

 

[zerodevil]

OK, the piece of radiator you can see infront of the engine is actualy the trans cooler, its the same dimensions as the engine radiator, but is thinner, it should provide more than enough cooling. The small piece your seeing(near the bottom of the vehicle)cools the power steering fluid. Im not sure what your problem is, but i doubt its an overheating trans, how many miles on your truck?

 

[Col]

Thanks for your answer.. My Ex just has 32000 miles.

JorgeA
AKA: Col

 

[zerodevil]

thats WAY to early for somthing to be wrong. Could you describe what its doing a little more?

 

[Col]

Ok... first of all I live in a country with a lot of mountains... so last month I went to another city not to far from here in a straight distance i mean if you have a GPS it can show a distance of 350 Kms far.. but you will have to drive around 7 hrs to get there because you will have to drive through the mountains (Andes).. so there are a lot of long up-hills and lot of long down-hills.. well, when a 18 wheeler truck in going uphill its velocity is very slow so it makes a long file of cars going behind it... you have some opportunities to pass the truck on the left side pushing your accel pedal hard and get all power of your truck in order to pass the haavy truck.... ok.. when I was driving to that city.. sometimes when I put some more pressure (not total pressure) on the accel pedal, my Explorer didn´t change gears on the tranny... that is teh way it supoused to be, just keep the same gear so I needed to hit or push the accep pedal all the way and wait a littel time to get the right gear engagement.....

Yesterday I went to another city, colo to here.. also with a lot of curves on the way and ahev the same situation.... the Ex doesn´shift gears correctly when you need after a long way uphill curves way after some time...the truck is warm (normal temp.) and no overheating engine signs.

I do not know if I explained my self correctly about the problem... can you get the idea??.


BTW I live in Bogota, Colombia so my country, as I said, has a lot of mountains and you have to drive through its ways to get another cities... My city is a 2600 meters over the sea level and I went to a close city located at 600 meter above of the sea level so you have to drive a long down hill way with a lot of curves on the mountains.

Thanks

JorgeA
AKA: Col.

 

[zerodevil]

how steep are the grades of these hills on average? the way your PCM works is to move the vehicle with as little effort as it needs to, if its not dropping down into passing gear its because it doesnt think it needs to, try giving it a little more gas and see what happens, whats your aprox speed when your starting to pass these trucks? i wouldnt see the trans overheating unless there wasnt any air moving through the coolers... there are aprox 12 quarts of trans fluid and a very heavy duty cooling system for what the truck is rated for.

 

[Col]

Well... the roads on the hills can be long curve ways with almost 10% of inclination..... may be a forgot something... when I was driving up the hill and I tried to pass a big truck I push the accel pedal and the Exp just looses RPMs for some (no just one or two or three seconds) seconds and didn´t change gear.. so I had to push hard the accel pedal again in order to get an up shift on the tranny.... this is the rare thing....the speed was between 25 KPH and 45 KPH.

JorgeA

 

[Testdr]

Ok... first of all I live in a country with a lot of mountains... so last month I went to another city not to far from here in a straight distance i mean if you have a GPS it can show a distance of 350 Kms far.. but you will have to drive around 7 hrs to get there because you will have to drive through the mountains (Andes).. so there are a lot of long up-hills and lot of long down-hills.. well, when a 18 wheeler truck in going uphill its velocity is very slow so it makes a long file of cars going behind it... you have some opportunities to pass the truck on the left side pushing your accel pedal hard and get all power of your truck in order to pass the haavy truck.... ok.. when I was driving to that city.. sometimes when I put some more pressure (not total pressure) on the accel pedal, my Explorer didn´t change gears on the tranny... that is the way it supoused to be, just keep the same gear so I needed to hit or push the accep pedal all the way and wait a littel time to get the right gear engagement.....

Yesterday I went to another city, colo to here.. also with a lot of curves on the way and ahev the same situation.... the Ex doesn´shift gears correctly when you need after a long way uphill curves way after some time...the truck is warm (normal temp.) and no overheating engine signs.

I do not know if I explained my self correctly about the problem... can you get the idea??.


BTW I live in Bogota, Colombia so my country, as I said, has a lot of mountains and you have to drive through its ways to get another cities... My city is a 2600 meters over the sea level and I went to a close city located at 600 meter above of the sea level so you have to drive a long down hill way with a lot of curves on the mountains.

Thanks

JorgeA
AKA: Col.

It seems that no one could answer this persons question, so I'll do it considering I have experience on the issue.

Jorge,

It seems to me that the issue you are having is related to the attitude that you are driving your truck at. It seems that when you fill your truck with factory spec 5w 30 or 5w 20 the truck doesn't seem to respond as well as it would if it had something like 15w 40 or 5w 40 full synthetic. I myself have gone through the same symptom that you explained. For the first couple of months at high attitude I was unable to find any type of solution as to why my 03 Explorer 4.6 V8 was experiencing high transmission temperatures. After several months of test and trials I starting coming to the conclusion that a majority of the people in the region where I lived at were using heavier weight oils such as 10w 40 all the way to 25w60. Instinctively my American notion was "this can't be right?!?" So instead of waiting for my transmission to blowup (that's how hot it would get sometimes) I took the dive. Instantly after changing the oil to 15w 40 there was a dramatic difference as far as how the truck drove. Be it for the 15w 40 I had saved my transmissions life!
It's been over 4 years now and not once have I had an issue with the transmission since. Personally I use Motorcraft 5w 40 full synthetic which is about $10 a bottle.
Now you got to remember that there is a lot of people out there that disagree with this theory but then again most of them don't live in high attitude areas such as Mexico, Venezuela or Colombia.

Regards,
Ric

P.S. I am aware of the dates.

 

[kworonowski]

I live in Denver 6000' above i use 5-20 semi syth. I would watch using the heavier weight due to Ford's brillant idea of "tight spec plastic filled engine" The heavier weight may save your tranny but will/may sludge and plug your engine.

 

[blueoval9erlifer]

kworonowski;

can you explain to me why heavier weight tranny fluid would sludge/plug your engine from my limited knowledge the tranny fluid never gets in the engine , correct?????

 

[Testdr]

kworonowski;

can you explain to me why heavier weight tranny fluid would sludge/plug your engine from my limited knowledge the tranny fluid never gets in the engine , correct?????

You are correct, we were referring to oil weight in the engine.

 

[blueoval9erlifer]

so can someone explain to me what heavier weight engine oil has to do with the transmission performance??? Also why a heavier motor oil would cause the tranny to run cooler. my tranny does the same thing in ks when it's hot been 100 degrees basically for couple of weeks now and it seems to do it worse than when its cold, ive completly washed out the radiator, condenser, and tranny cooler so there is no dirt or bugs in there impeding the air flow noticed a difference in engine temps also ac works better but not sure that it helped the 04 v8's tranny

Thanks

 

[kworonowski]

I was just saying that if his heavier oil helps his trans then great. I probably should have worded it differently. I don't think heavier oil actually helps the trans. seeing as they never meet. All i can guess is maybe the heavier oil for him is giving him a more consistent engine response and that would help in not overworking the trans. So in a sense helping his trans. would be my guess on the two being compared.


As for the non responsive trans. maybe a flush not many mtns out in Ks. If the engine is not responding check air filter (possibly clogged) there could be alot of other things too..

 

[blueoval9erlifer]

Thanks i see what your saying now and that does make sense, with my tranny im getting ready to have it serviced drop pan new filter etc, hoping that helps a little.