Tranny cooler installed

tw1st3d_cl0wn · Post by **tw1st3d_cl0wn** » June 20th, 2005, 9:55 am

Hey all. My dad and I spent most of the day working on my car yesterday. It's rough being outside in the hot Florida sun all day, but it was worth it.

I finally got my tranny cooler installed, and changed the fluid. Kind of upset because the auto parts store gave me the wrong filter, so I wasn't able to change that. Filled it back up with Royal Purple Max ATF, since I heard so many of you use it, and swear by it. When I drained the fluid, it was a brownish-red color. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But my car shifts ALOT smoother now. I also put in new spark plugs, and a fuel filter, cleaned my air filter (K&N filter).

I found out that my transmission had been worked on about a year and a half ago, so that's why my fluid looked better than I thought it would look. Kind of made me feel better about the filter, it's only a year and a half old compared to maybe having been 10 years old. But I want to thank everyone who gave me advice on the tranny cooler and fluid, and whatever else. It's a really good investment. I think if anyone hasn't installed one yet, they should.

neutral · Post by **neutral** » June 20th, 2005, 11:27 am

Good deal and your tranny will thank ya for the TLC.

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » June 20th, 2005, 1:02 pm

Good work! And I agree.. likely your filter will be fine for now if it was indeed done only a bit over a year ago.. might want to make up a arbitrary mileage figure like 15k miles or something and just tell yourself thats when you will change it for certain.

One thing of note though.. if your tranny fluid was "Brownish-Red" as you say.. well thats not a great thing.. ATX trans fluid should be bright ruby red. If you have brown in there.. then your trans has been getting hot. Putting the tranny cooler in there will help that quite a bit.. but I would say in 5 or 6 months at the most (if it was my car this would be the plan I would set for myself) I would plan on changing the fluid again just to get more of the burnt fluid out. But thats me and admittedly I am more anal about car maintenance than most

Glad to hear its shifting smoother

Best of luck.

Tunes67

tw1st3d_cl0wn · Post by **tw1st3d_cl0wn** » June 20th, 2005, 1:21 pm

Yeah, I plan on changing it again in a few months just to get more of the older crap out of there, and then replace the filter. I'm going to wait until the weather is a bit cooler though, it was brutal yesterday.

I feel relieved though, knowing I could have possibly lengthened the life of my transmission. Whenever I think about tranny problems I am reminded of my mom's old Blazer. She always had problems with it, her fault mainly. But her transmission had stop shifting into reverse, and it wouldn't go past 2nd gear. Not wanting to pay to get it fixed, I'd be the one to get out and push the truck out of the parking space, or wherever else. lol...embarassing.

But all I know is, all those bad times with her truck have made me very concious of taking care of my car. But pushing an MX-3 would be alot easier than pushing that stupid Blazer.

jrors · Post by **jrors** » June 20th, 2005, 5:50 pm

Glad to hear you got that fluid changed and and even more happier to hear you got a tranny cooler on there. "GREAT INVESTMENT!" I've had my coooler on for almost 5 months now and after almost 3000 miles, the gear shifts are wonderfully crisp and I'll be changing my filter and fluid again this Thursday before I make my summer road trip......... destination........

!ATLANTA!

atlantamx3 · Post by **atlantamx3** » June 20th, 2005, 6:47 pm

Be sure to drop us a line or come by and see us if you are going to be in town.

We hang out every Thursday night.. but could possibly arrange to meet up another night if you are in town and want to meet up.

http://www.mx3-atlanta.com/mocaforum

Thanks

jrors · Post by **jrors** » June 20th, 2005, 9:15 pm

Thanx atlantamx3. I will surely take you up on that as I am moving down there to stay and being apart of the MX family down there will be very cool! I love the ATL!!

Wish it was fast · Post by **Wish it was fast** » July 19th, 2005, 6:33 pm

does the tranny cooler really make a diff??

atlantamx3 · Post by **atlantamx3** » July 19th, 2005, 6:42 pm

Wish it was fast wrote:does the tranny cooler really make a diff??

YES

jrors · Post by **jrors** » July 19th, 2005, 6:50 pm

Yes, yes it does. The factory cooler along with the inadequate cooling design of the tranny itself, yields for a short life span for of your tranny. However, there have been reports from guys on this board that have admitted that they dog their auto trannies out......... and it still works fine! But in most cases, they usaully go out from over heating. Just read up on the other tranny topics here and you'll understand better...... if you haven't read them all ready that is.
So, getting a cooler installed will be to your advantage. That and making sure to check the color of your tranny fluid from time to time. If it's ruby red, it's good.........If it's anything other than the color I just wrote....... you need to change your fluid and filter ASAP.....and hopefully, no damage was done.