transmission light temp came on -help.

[EMurillo]

i was pulling my f/er trailer on saturday to this property i bought in tehachapi california, is up in the mountains about 5,000 ft altitude ,and

to get up there i had to climb up this very steep hill,so i have ctd 2500hd

325/600 truck weights about 6900 lbs trailer about 11,000 loaded total weight

16,900 . i had trans in 2nd gear boost was 35psi , my trans light came on and

EGT's went way up almost 1450-ooooooops!!!! :--) i was stepping on the gas, i wonder if i should have had it in 1rst gear. eng. temp was about 210 -what is going on ? :{



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2004. 5 CTD 325/600 2500HD 3. 73, auto meter boost, EGT, still working on trans temp. , 48re, k & n intake , EZ1000 moderate pwr. , rancho shoks , bf goodrich all terrain , step bars, tool box, billet grill,

 

[CLAYTON]

It's not a good thing when that light comes on. Maybe you should have been in 1st and let the engine pull you up there instead of the gears. Sounds like both were running pretty hot. I think that light comes on around 270-280 degrees. Things you could do to help would be a deeper transmission pan and trans cooler. Also a free flow exhaust would help with engine temps. Or depending on the steepness of the hill 4 Lo might have been an option. I know that when we went to a snowmobil hill climb in Brianhead Ut a lot of the rigs pulling big trailers there had to use 4lo... I know what people will say about binding up but sometimes it's gotta be done.

 

[Tony T.]

I would probably go ahead and change out that trans fluid asap since the light came on for sure, if you have not already done it. Also a bigger capacity pan would be a plus I think.



Tony

 

[EMurillo]

thanks for the info guys , you know i already ordered the deep trans oil pain and

also changed the oil, but i never thought about using 4/lo , i think that should help.

 

[Driftwood Ram]

Slow speeds = no air flow through the trans cooler. If you were on a dirt or gravel road where 4x4 would work that is a good idea, but not on pavement unless you want to break something. You need to get that trans temp gauge hooked up so you can spot increasing temps before they become an issue.

 

[Eric_77]

Hey Driftwood the 3rd gen they moved the transmission cooler in front of the fan so it does get air sucked through it when the fan kicks in at low speeds as opposed to our older 2nd gens where they mounted it outside the fan shroud area.

 

[BK]

never use 4lo on pavement, or very hard hard pack. you will toss a something out of the drive line, no doubt it will happen from the binding.



If you ever want to think about using 4lo, you have to do something to disconnect the front drive via the CAD , if you have one. One or two of the later years, at times they deleted it for some reason ( the old good news/bad news).



I tow just about the same weights you do. I tow on and off road. Through the mountains of PA and NY.

I'm all stock power wise, just add parts for durability, heat and off road.



Even with a broken transmission line that I cought in time, I never had the light come on and I tow on and off road, (checked stored codes, and no transmission code was there eihter). Maybe the EZ is letting you push the transmission a bit more than that stock cooling and design allows for during tough towing situations?



One project I have in mind during slow back woods driving and moving of the trailer, is an adder electric fan over the transmission cooler. Turn it on only during the low ground speed situations.

 

[RAMINSPEED]

Because of the lack of airflow when pulling and going slow, the transmission temp comes up so I throw on the air conditioner. I know it takes a few ponys away and it could make the engine warm up more, but that never seems to be an issue. When you turn the air con on, it locks up the fan clutch pulling air through all the coolers. It will actually bring down the engine and transmission temp. try it, it works.

 

[cwsoules]

Your post implies that you do not have a transmission temperature gage. I recommend you get one and put the sensor in the outlet oil line from the transmission and before the cooler. Bill K. at DTT added a second cooler for me and also found and removed an unneeded check valve in the oil line. The result is that my transmission does not get hot even when I am backing up!



The turn on the A/C to lock the engine cooling fan suggestion is a new idea for me. I'm going to test it on my truck. With a transmission temperature gage you can take corrective action to keep that Dodge alarm from going off.

 

[Matt400]

Turning on the A/C will engage the big vistronic fan for added air flow however the condenser also gets superheated in the process and it sets in front of the trans cooler.

Another way would be to turn on the fan without the A/C during those kinds of maneuvers before the fluid is already hot.



If interested, I posted a way to do that here

 

[MMeier]

EM, what level are you running the EZ at? A tighter converter definitely would help with the increased power.

 

[cwsoules]

Matt



Will your "fix" work on a 2000?

 

[Matt400]

No. . only 2003 and up use the vistronic fan that I know of.