CRD Auto Transmission - To cooler or not to cooler?

[Wilf]

At the end of the day you can run without any real issues with the stock tranny cooler. If you intend to keep your vehicle for a while you might want to invest in a good cooler as any auto trans specialist will tell you heat is the enemy so the cooler it runs the longer its expected life before a rebuild.

With the heat of the air con and the tranny cooler working in one unit cannot be a good thing in Australia’s climate. Also with modern engines designed to run at higher temperatures and not a lot of space under the hood, could be another reason some of us have had batteries fail prematurely.

We use our Jeep as a tourer towing a camper trailer and have installed a cooler over the rear diff so now when it is getting worked hard it is not competing with the heat exchanger for the air con or adding heat into the engine bay. Link to some info - http://www.ausjeepoffroad.com/forum/...postcount=2518

We intend to do a lot of remote touring and have given it a good test crossing the Simpson towing the camper and all worked well. In summer going up into the Blue Mountains we can make the factory temp gauge move so when it heats up this year we will give it another test with the new cooler to see if it does make any difference.

[aydanrogers]

did you buy the full derale kit or did you have to buy extra parts to get it all to work? did you have to buy a temperature switch for the fan or is it always running? also did you need extra line to make it all the way to the gearbox or does the supplied hose reach all the way? also did you mount the new lines straight onto the box or did you cut the factory lines? i would really like to mount it straight onto the box so i don't have to cut the original lines so i can use them as a spare incase i want to go back to standard for some reason.

[robbo1959]

Originally Posted by jkinfection

nice install.
From the posts I have seen the top hose from the radiator is the return line to the transmition and is the line which should be cut. Is this correct?
I am installing a mopar cooler in the front cross member as I couldn't bring myself to put anything else up front.
Cheers......Shane

I've looked at one of these on ebay as to the search you said to do.

Have you installed it yet and if so did you have any problems?

Plus did in come with the instruction's?

[Wilf]

No did not get a kit just Derale part # 15800, yes needed extra tubing and cable to run the fan.

I had planned to install this myself but ran out of time before our trip so got it done when the long range tank was installed. Fan runs full time one less thing to break but do have a relay under the bonnet to stop the fan when needed.

We cut into the factory lines just out of the box and got a hydraulics guy to fit barbs to them so we had a solid connection. For the old factory pipes we just used one piece of hose to join the two with hose clamps so if I want to use the factory cooler I can with just hose and hose clamps.

Originally Posted by aydanrogers

did you buy the full derale kit or did you have to buy extra parts to get it all to work? did you have to buy a temperature switch for the fan or is it always running? also did you need extra line to make it all the way to the gearbox or does the supplied hose reach all the way? also did you mount the new lines straight onto the box or did you cut the factory lines? i would really like to mount it straight onto the box so i don't have to cut the original lines so i can use them as a spare incase i want to go back to standard for some reason.

[aydanrogers]

for the guys that have mounted them uo the front behind the grill, how does it go cooling the transmission when your driving around slowly where there isn't air flow? does the box heat up quickly until you start driving again or does the factory fan draw enough air through it while going slow?

[aydanrogers]

is the rubber line where you join the hoses up to under the car 5/16 or 3/8? also has everyone been bypassing the factory cooler or have they been still using it? is it possible to bypass it all together and just rely on the aftermarket cooler?

[aydanrogers]

also i was talking to a transmission tech today and he was saying to bypass the factory cooler. is there any reason as to why no one has done this and still includes the factory cooler? he said to bypass is as if it leaks and you get coolant into your auto it will kill it.