Overheating Transmission

slider12095 · 06-26-2007, 12:53 PM

Hi Everyone,

I have a 2005 Titan SE with the towing package on it. On my last 2 towings, my tranny started overheating. When I checked the radiator, I found that it was almost empty, which I am assuming was causing the problems.

Anyone else have this issue before? I am not leaking anything and I am not seeing white smoke like you would if the fluids were leaking into the oil. Correct to assume that the main radiator also supplies fluids to the tranny as well? Only 21K on the truck, so am a little concerned. The camper is a Jayco Jayflight, so definitely below the specs for towing.

Thanks for any feedback.
Scott

rtapia · 06-26-2007, 01:46 PM

Are you towing in 4th gear?

Helinut1970 · 06-26-2007, 03:35 PM

I assume your question is geared more towards has anyone had the empty radiator issue? As apposed to the tranny overheating, correct? Is this the first time you have opened the radiator? I have heard some Titans have come from the factory with low fluid in the radiator. Do you smell hot antifreeze when the truck is running? The tranny lines go to a cooler in front of the radiator. No anitifreeze goes to the tranny (that I know of). I have had a kinked tranny cooling line before. You might want to follow the tranny lines to the front and make sure none are kinked somehow. How do you know its overheating? Do you have a guage? If it continues to overheat you might want to put a larger trans cooler on it. I would tend to blame it on the conditions that you are towing in ie: mountains, heat, city driving.

Now, if your question is why is the tranny overheating?:
Are you running in hilly terrain? Hauling in overdrive or cruise control? What is the weight on the trailer?

**loufish** · 06-26-2007, 09:29 PM

There have been some rad cap issues. I'm surprised you didn't have a hi eng temp issue as well.

Tow in 4th, and if you hit a hill, I would manually downshift to 3rd when needed.

Yahooligan · 07-11-2007, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loufish

There have been some rad cap issues. I'm surprised you didn't have a hi eng temp issue as well.

Not to hijack the thread, but I recently had a rad cap problem. I first noticed it when the coolant level in the recovery tank never changed. It was always the same. One morning I opened the rad cap and there was quite a vacuum in there, so I was rather certain the cap was defective. A couple of days later I was going through the drive-thru and smelled coolant, hopped out and coolant had sprayed all over my engine from the cap. Took it to the dealer that day and it's been fine since.

I did tow a TT to Arizona and back prior to this and didn't experience engine temp problems but did have trans temp running hot, though that was due to running up hills in 4th gear instead of 3rd.

I'm surprised to hear there have been others with defective caps, I figured it was a fluke.