Typical transmission temps?

2021 crewmax 4x4 trail model with towing package

I am seeing over 200 degrees unloaded and it got up to 228 degrees towing a 4000# camper up some steep hills in S5. When I dropped it to S4 the temp dropped and was running around 220 degrees.

 

I am pretty sure that is normal for not having a true tranny cooler from the factory. Towing guys will chime in with more detail any minute now.....

 

Typical without a tranny cooler. I put on Nick’s kit for piece of mind.

 

Your not going to run much cooler than that unless you put in an external cooler, I hit temps of 240s on rolling hill highways, just driving a little aggressively. Locked in s4, will keep your temps the lowest.

 

I paid the $1000 for the cooler just so I would not have to deal with a potential warrantied transmission.

 

I also bought Nick's cooler kit 6/2020, worth every penny as far as I'm concerned. I have been watching my tranny temps and have no worries now. I plan to keep this truck as long as I can still drive and the cooler gives me the added peace of mind for ling term reliability.

 

The kits that Nick @chasenicholas93 puts together are well worth the money. Here is the thread for you to look through.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/tundra-transmission-cooler-kit.60550/

 

Normal, let it roll.

 

The key to lower temps is keeping the torque convertor locked up. When you are towing that means keeping it in S4 and accepting some higher revs. Your engine doesnt mind at all.

 

Those are typical temps for the 2019-2021 model years, which lack a dedicated transmission cooler. 2007-2018 model years have a cooler and run cooler.

Ditto to posts above re: using S4 to manage temps w/o a mod, and adding a cooler to keep temps almost always under 200F

 

Was the consensus that an additional trans cooler is recommended if you S/C the engine?

 

Google says the safe range for AT fluid is 175-220. Should the fluid be changed more often?

Are there any issues with voiding the warranty with the add-on cooler kit?

 

Those are old numbers from Google. Used to be true back in the day but ATF has been redesigned and now normal operating temps are much higher. My 2017 with the factory trans cooler runs 200F unloaded and can easily go to 240-250F when taking a grade pulling my 7500 lb travel trailer in S4 and the tranny has to downshift. Also, you have two sensors, one for the pan and one for the torque convertor....the pan sensor will rise but the TC sensor will run quite a bit hotter than the pan.

 

In one of the many trans temp/cooler threads on here, someone posted where Toyota said it’s safe up to 270/280 and the light doesn’t even come on until 302 in a 19+ tundra.

 

A guy at work with 70Kmiles on his GMC never towed anything had a transmission failure. 10K miles outside the powertrain warranty, it cost him $6200. If you dont install a cooler throw the money at an extended warranty. They are pretty inexpensive.

 

In all honesty it sounds like your co-worker has a POS truck…transmission cooler or not. I am not saying the Tundra transmission will NEVER fail but statically speaking it will outlast any 1/2 ton on the market if ZERO towing is done. Regardless of a cooler, it’s a stout transmission.

 

One of my (many) consideration's when it comes to adding Nicks tranny cooler kit, is it allows me to tow in S6 and when needed S5. This saves $$ on fuel, my most recent trip to the lake towing my boat 4500lb and truck box and back seat area full of vacation stuff I averaged about 12 MPG. That figure by hand calculation, about .5 MPG less than the truck said.

I realize that heavier loads and more challenging terrain may not allow this but for me this fuel savings will go a long way towards off setting the cost of the cooler kit. Add to that the long term increased reliability of the transmission and I see that as a total win.

 

No no no no no...

 

I have a 20 and that's about what I see as well. There is a long thread about it and one guy beats the living shit out of his and did a fluid change at like 60K if I remember right and sent a sample to Blackstone labs and it came back ok. Looked bad but testing showed it still in specs

19-22 Tundra Owners Transmission Important

 

Totally normal as you will see around here.

 

Before adding a cooler to my 19 I was getting 210 pan temps unloaded on the highway. With the cooler same driving I get consistent 185, hardly moves off that. Towing my 5800 lb trailer I avg between 195- 205. I tow pretty much in s5.

 

Very typical and almost exactly the same numbers I get in mine. Unloaded on the highway, about 204F. Pulling my 4100 lb trailer in S4 puts me at about 222F, and in S5 I'm up around 230F.

 

There is a reason I bought a Toyota instead of a GM. But again the Toyota extended warranties are $1500 for 100K miles. You never know.....

 

My concern is not so much what heat the fluid can take as how much heat the transmission can take.

 

Exactly

 

There is no comparison between a GM trans and an Aisin (Toyota) Transmission. Aisin's QDR is through the roof compared to GM's transmissions in which imo are almost engineered to fail .

 

Having owned a few newer GM products, I feel that they typically engineer to get out of warranty and maybe to 100k miles. Some aspects of their vehicles are impressive but there are usually a few items that are WTF did you design this that way.

 

If this is true, and why everyone buys Tundras, why are we worried about the transmission if Aisin and Toyota say the transmission is good to go without a dedicated cooler?

Since they discontinued the trans cooler, how many transmissions has Toyota replaced? Surely somebody here has burned one up.

 

Our fear is not losing a transmission today or tomorrow. We are worried about what effect the additional heat will have on the transmission years from now. It is widely accepted across the industry that a cooler running transmission is going to last longer.

 

There is a thread here where it seems a transmission did fail. However, the cooler has been absent for less than 3 years, so very few users have racked up enough miles and heavy use to cause failure of these otherwise robust transmissions. If you plan to sell your truck before it gets old, no worries, any issues will just be someone else’s problem. I plan to have my truck a long time, until EV technology progresses to where it’ll meet my needs for towing and remote use.