Gracie_Lou

I have a 2012 F-150 with a 5.0 36,000 miles and was wondering what a normal transmission temp. runs on them? Mine seems to be running about 185-195 without towing anything. the temperature outside is in the 60's, this is just driving around town usually running that 195 and even on the expressway, its usually on the 185 side.. curious to see if that is to high or is that how these transmissions run?

Tystevens

Mine gets up to 190* or so within 20-30 min of driving and stays between 190* and 200* virtually all of the time, whether it is 40* or 105* outside (I haven't had it colder or hotter than that). So much so that it must have a thermostat on it.

I was initially a little worried about it, but towing (I have a 6500# 28' travel trailer), it seldom gets any higher than 200*. It has been in the 215* range a couple times towing in the mountains, but never higher than that. So I don't worry about it anymore.

Hope that helps ...

xcntrk

Same here, mine gets 190-200* unloaded and loaded down. On real hot days with highway climbs, it will get up to 205*. This tells me everything is working as it should! I had a Jeep Grand Cherokee that I used to tow with and the tranny would get 250* while towing :|

Gracie_Lou

Thanks! This helps out a bunch!!

smokeywren

The tranny system includes an oil-to-water (OTW) tranny cooler, with a thermostat that will open to allow more ATF to flow through the cooler if required to maintain tranny temp around 200°. It runs hotter than older Ford automagic trannies, but the Ford engineers designed it to run around 190° to 200° most of the time.



If your truck includes the factory trailer towing pkg, it also has an auxiliary oil-to-air (OTA) tranny cooler to pull even more heat out of the ATF when towing. The regular trailer towing pkg is standard on 2011-up Lariat and better trim levels, and optional on XL, XLT and FX trim levels.


The red line is 225°, and I have never seen over about 205° on mine with around 20,000 miles of towing in mountains both back east and out west, including several trips through the Texas Hill Country. So the factory tranny cooking system works fine.


I'm **** about tranny temp, because I know that the tranny will have a very short life if allowed to exceed 225°. So I watch my digital tranny temp gauge like a hawk. But on my 2012 F-150, the tranny temp has never got close to 225°. 45,000 miles so far, with about 20k of that towing.

rxfoot

Well, this is scary! Bought a new travel trailer late last year. Little over #5800 dry, maybe #7000 loaded. Drove to Outer Banks. On the way back got an error msg about tranny and cruise control light started blinking. Stopped overnight, next morning no problem. Ford dealer said trans overheated. Had someone tell me about Edge so bought one. According to it, trans temp goes over 200 deg driving around town. Get the same trans error msg when temp goes over 275 but will clear itself when temp goes back down. Dealer has checked trans & cooler and declared OK. Set Edge on 'towing' mode when towing, stock otherwise. Don't know if I can get larger trans cooler but was thinking about trying for a second cooler if possible. Advice? Ideas?

Krack499

iTrader: (1)

Idk how big the trans cooler is on this gen but I put a trans cooler from a super duty onto my 99 it's between 2-3 times bigger and has helped allot it dropped my temp almost 30° mine use to get up over 200° allot but now it rarely breaks 185°

5.0GN tow

Mine seems to stay on the low side of normal all the time on factory gauge even pulling the 3H GN trailer. I look at the cooler and think it should be bigger but it seems to be working ok so far.

Chris's FX4

Mine stays between 190-205 normally. Highest I've ever seen it was 207 and that was hot rodding it around town on a 98* degree day. Dropped back to 201 within a couple minutes of normal driving. Also running a 5star 87 performance/tow tune.

smokeywren

If your F-150 is a 2011-up and has the stock suspension (not max tow or HD Payload pkg), then you're probably overloaded with a 7,000-pound trailer. My 2012 F-150 SuprCrew 4x2 is overloaded with my TT that grosses only 4,780 pounds when wet and loaded for a long trip.


If your F-150 is relatively new, then that's expected. The air flowing through the cooler(s) is minimum when poking along in town, so the tranny temp goes up. That probably won't hurt anything unless the tranny temp goes over 225°. At highway speeds, the tranny cooler(s) work much better to hold down the tranny temp to less than about 210°.


Your tranny will probably go south and require replacement long before its normal lifespan if you see 275° more often than once in a blue moon.


If you don't have the factory OTA tranny cooler, then you definitely need to add it, or a bigger one. I would install the biggest OTA tranny cooler that will fit in the hole in front of the radiator, and consider adding an even bigger one with a thermostat-controlled fan under the truck. That was a common mod to SuperDuty pickups with the 7.3L engine and inadequate factory tranny cooling. Here's the most popular cooler for that mod:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/prm-13215/overview/


You must fabricate mounting brackets to install the cooler under the truck. In addition you need a thermostat installed in the tranny cooler return line, set to about 205 to 210°. The fan turns on any time the cooled ATF temp goes over your set temp. If you do this mod, be certain you install the thermostat in the return line, not the hot line.