Thread: Does anyone use a trans temp guage ?

if so how do you hook it up?

I stumbled across this recently: Transmission Temperature Gauge

much help thanks

Aeroforce. Plugs into the OBD port.

Trans temp is really not needed on 97-03 cars, I've never seen mine reach past 190 even after hours on the freeway.

Originally Posted by Fivefingerdeathpunch

Trans temp is really not needed on 97-03 cars, I've never seen mine reach past 190 even after hours on the freeway.

why is not needed on 97-03 cars?? is there something im unaware of? ha i know the 05-08 gxps have the most issues with overheating the trans but I think its a nice feature to have and a good thing to keep tabs on in every car

Originally Posted by Fivefingerdeathpunch

Trans temp is really not needed on 97-03 cars, I've never seen mine reach past 190 even after hours on the freeway.

You also live in Minnesota. Highway driving isn't whats hard on trans temps. Its constant shifting on windy, hilly roads. I've seen my trans temp over 220* on a few occassions, and never on the highway.

From everything I've seen on thie website and others, the 97-03 cars never seem to have high trans temps compared to 04+ cars. For whatever reason 04+ cars can't cool aswell from either a lack of air flow over/under the trans, smaller cooler. GXP's transfer the engine heat into the trans aswell as having a huge oil pan, which stops alot of air flow to the trans case under the car.

Personally I would see where your trans temps are currenty at before you invested in a cooler. Also 220 is not really hot either, might be 10-15º over normal, but a trans running at 175-205ish should have a fluid life of atleast 50,000 miles.

Even after beating on my car during tuning session in the summer, the trans maybe got within 10-15º of coolant temp.

What temp is most transmission fluid rated for until it starts to break down. I was told before that 175* was a point were it starts to break down but i know thats crock

A chart taken from the internet, just about every chart you see is a little different, but most are close to this. I would never run the fluid past 50-60k anyway.

Here are two (coldest and hottest) readings for my transmission.....

January 18, 2013, 29*:
- Coolant @ 183*
- Trans @ 145*


August 29, 2012, 70*:
- Coolant @ 206*
- Trans @ 194*


The car drives so much nicer right now, with the cooler running tranny. My drive to and from work is 30-40 minutes and 90% highway (cruising at 50-60mph). If I head for the hills or a long trip, she's gonna get real hot and not be happy with a 4-6 hour windy/twisty/uppy/downy highway day. A trans cooler is a must in these scenarios.

My Comp G shows the trans temp in the DIC, before I got my tune it crept up around 200-210 during the summer.

After I put the tune in though, I dont know if it's because of the higher line pressures, or different shifting, or maybe just the fans automatically kick on around 194*, but I havnt seen it get above 180 since.

In my 04 GT, the highest i saw was 228. The coolant was around 210-215, outside temp was 97* and i had been in stop/go city traffic for about 90 minutes. I had been on the highway for about 6 hours before hitting the city traffic.

On the highway my winter/summer average trans temps are 145/180 city between 160 and 210 year round, again depending on how much i am demanding from the car.