Auto Transmission Coolers

pLethora

pLethora

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Hey all. I thought id finally make my first question thread...

Excuse me if this already exists but searching for radiator, cooling or auto gave non related results.

Ive read around and seen that the autos on lancers in general dont get enough cooling and is a very good mod to have done on our cars.

Has anyone done this? and if you have or havent, what are your thoughts?
 
Pretty sure the CE has an inbuilt tranny cooler. This cooler is located in the bottom of the radiator on the Auto models, and means the tranny oil is kept about the same temp as the engine coolant.
 
I thought there was tranny cooler too and thus why you need a manual rad for manual or you have to block the auto up.
 
pLethora said:
Then wtf was the rpw article talking about....

https://www.rpw.com.au/mitsubishi-lancer-ce-4g93-modification-guide/

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RPW are a business, and as any business would, they're trying to talk up a sale.

Yes tranny coolers are a good idea. Its not a great idea to use 95 degree coolant as the medium for heat transfer, but unless you're tracking the car/giving it a massive thrashing 100% of the time, its not really needed.

You'd only need a cooler, and a couple of lines, and bypass the OEM cooler-in-radiator with the new cooler, and it should work.
 
Just because the car has a heat exchanger in the radiator does not mean it is sufficient.

In my Verada I added an auxiliary cooler in front of the AC fan, which is also the fan that fist kicks in when the engine is starting to heat up in traffic conditions.
The cooler itself is quite large however I have a bypass thermostat that avoids sending ATF through it unless it is over 85 degrees or so.
So my setup is:
Hot ATF out of transmission --> radiator cooler --> if still to hot through auxiliary cooler, if not bypass and straight back to transmission.

What I would advise for you (since you are unlikely to race or tow with the car) is to get a very small cooler and line it:
Hot ATF out of transmission --> auxiliary cooler --> radiator cooler --> back to transmission
That way if after the auxiliary cooler the ATF is too hot/cold it will then cooled/heated to a more ideal temperature when it goes through the radiator cooler.

In saying that, I think rushing to install a cooler in winter is not necessary but having it does before summer wouldn't be a bad idea. A small cooler kit is likely only about $50 or so anyway and you can DIY it
 
Yeah. I saw they are pretty cheap. Im all for making the car safer and run/last longer (just like how im doing the brake upgrade). So if by running a smaller aux cooler means my auto lasts longer. By all means.
 
donki said:
RPW are a business, and as any business would, they're trying to talk up a sale.

Yes tranny coolers are a good idea. Its not a great idea to use 95 degree coolant as the medium for heat transfer, but unless you're tracking the car/giving it a massive thrashing 100% of the time, its not really needed.

You'd only need a cooler, and a couple of lines, and bypass the OEM cooler-in-radiator with the new cooler, and it should work.
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Yeah i wasnt planning on getting anything stupidly overpriced or pointless for my usage. Just thought it was something probably worthwile.
 
How spetz did it is probably the perfect way to go about it. Not like you're going to need it to be ice cold, but keeping it nicely temped should help everything work how it's supposed too. Just choose nice quality fittings, nobody wants leaky ATF. There's like 13L of the stuff too ahah. So id probably do a change of fluid when you go about that.
 
/ afterthought
My auto never had this and it used to screech and squeal, even before I started to properly abuse it (neutral dumps etc) so if it's the same autobox, they're really hard to break hahaha
 
You can go second hand auto too, and their out/rebuilt/in cost is around the 3k mark so quite expensive
 
I just had a burst trans cooler ,can I run it without it by joining the outlet to the return with a hose or will it be too hot and cause issues?
 
If you don’t use cooler, it would have to be for a very short time till you either fix the cooler or replace it with and accessory cooler, yes you can breach it with a hose, but either fix it or install aftermarket cooler asap before your oil breaks down, or worse, just remember you can’t keep auto fluid cool enough.

Just like motor oil, automatic transmission fluid (ATF) absorbs the heat produced by moving internal parts

A transmission cooler helps the transmission stay cool, even when working harder than normal, which in turn lets you get the best performance and long life out of it, especially if you are towing

Check out this article below, should answer any questions you have, as it says once oil reaches 220 degrees c , it’s downhill from there for the tranny.

Best to service auto while your at it, check oil colour/signs of overheating burning as well, if it hasn’t been low for a long period, and you stopped straight away, you should be fine.

https://www.transmissionrepaircostguide.com/low-transmission-fluid/Hi
 
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