Transmission Oil Temp Observations & Questions

Bluesky 07

Senior Member
I had OBD Fusion connected for the recent Kentucky Toyota Trail Ride as I wanted to get a feel for these readings on and off road. Here are screenshots from various times and the overall takeaway is that Toyota did a fine job designing a system that keeps everything relatively cool.

Trail driving (except the gravel sections) was done in L, 2, or 3 as appropriate. These are in time stamp order. You can see altitude changes and our coordinates if you wish to map our exact position, and the intake temp shows that it was a hot one yesterday. There were rocks, streams, climbs, steep crawl descents, and mud. For example, this 5th Gen needed some help and reached the top minus some lower front end body parts and with a bent step rail.

4IG8Bqcl.jpg


Not saying these were black diamond trails but it sure wasn't gravel cruising either.

This is at 0915 in the group lineup before leaving Callie's Campground for the trails:

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On the trails (numbers are times):

1108
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1227
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1442
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1520
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1545
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You get the idea - the tranny oil temps stay pretty reasonable on the trail.

Here's the odd part: I've had this hooked up in the past without taking screenshots and only saw the ATF temp get close to 200F a couple of times. So I was surprised when the reading at the TC rose to about 225 on the way to the trails. We were still on pavement and climbing a moderate incline. Gear selection was the usual 4D.

I didn't get a screenshot then but stopped by Cumberland Gap National Park on the way home and noticed the same thing while driving up to Pinnacle Overlook. Here's a screenshot from the top:

6dmLQRrl.jpg


(Ignore the green/yellow/red arcs as I have redone them since learning last night that the A/T OIL TEMP dash light doesn't come on until 275F per the FSM.)

What was very interesting is that the temp began dropping whenever I changed from 4D to using whatever gear (2/3/4) seemed best for the section I was on. (I drove a stick for 17 years so I have a good sense of what gears to use.) I only know the basics of how transmissions work so I watched a video on torque converters to try and understand why that happened but still have a question:

Does driving in a specific gear bypass or disengage the torque converter? That's the only reason I can think of for the oil temp to stabilize then decrease when I shifted directly.

Also, on a semi-related note:

If there's a PID for oil temps in the transfer case and/or diffs, I missed it. Anyone know if there are sensors there and/or how to do an associated PID?

Thanks for any insight.
 
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First and foremost is the torque converter never stops working unless it's broken, when it spins it becomes, among it's other functions of transferring the engine power to the transmission, the primary/front pump to help produce the hydraulic pressure in the transmission.

I know that the torque converter will get hotter until it locks out when the transmission and engine speeds reach around the same speeds, this is because the converter is working much harder to transfer power from the engine to the transmission, once the converter locks out it is more or less a direct connection between the engine and transmission and not relying on hydraulic pressure and friction to transfer the power, so going up an incline in the highest gear will usually stop the lock out from happening.
 
Normal operating transmission temps should be around 190°F. It's not uncommon to see spikes up to 230°F. Past that and I would be worried.

The torque converter needs to be locked up in order for temps to be stable. When the torque converter is working hard and not locked it will produce a lot of heat. It's your job to navigate your gears to achieve this.

1. If you're driving slow and working hard, shift your tcase in to low gears.

2. Synthetic transmission fluids will give you around a 20°F lower operating temperature. Invest in a reputable brand of your choice.

3. Larger tires over work the stock transmission cooler. If you are running 33's or larger then you are beyond Toyota's transmission cooler design and you may want to install a larger one.

4. Tire weight: BFG KM3's for instance are heavy beasts compared to Goodyear Duratracs.

I haven't looked at the specs of your truck and what you have on it so the above is the basics for keeping your trans in good shape.
 

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