Tranmission temp gauge reading low. Not "lo" HELP!
 

I just installed my cyberdyne tranny temp gauge in my 92 ls-l. In my Permacool tranny filter on the passenger side frame rail near the exhaust manifold. And I have no undercover.
I took it for a short drive(about 5-10 minutes) both downhill and up a steep "mountain".
It never got above 90!!!
Is this normal!?
Did I wire it wrong!?

I hesitate to ask, as I installed the filter more than a month ago but...
Is it posible something is clogged and not flowing!?
I "hope" if so my AT TEMP light would have come on since the tranny wouldn't be getting any cooling.

I will do a flow test I guess tomorrow

Someone please advise!?

Re: Tranmission temp gauge reading low. Not "lo" HELP!
 

I think that's unlikely. How do you plan on doing your 'pressure test?'

I was just going to unplug the hose coming out of the radiator/into the tranny and start the car.
Something I probably should have done already, but it's late, I have to work tomorrow, I'm sleepy, and there are no glowing trouble lights on the dash...

Re: Tranmission temp gauge reading low. Not "lo" HELP!
 

Is that 90 degrees C or F. Do you have an additional cooler fitted?
The oil must be flowing or it would not get to 90 C or F. Normal temp is 90 C or 180 F.

Harvey.

;)

I don't know what that would tell you. I mean, if there was no fluid coming out, that'd be one thing - but then your car wouldn't be working, either.

You need to hook a pressure gauge up to one of the test ports to get any useful info.

I don't think you have a pressure problem. If you did, your transmission would be slipping and burning up the fluid and its clutches...and you'd see higher temperatures, I'd wager. :p

It routinely takes my tranny a full 20 min. or more to heat up. Check for flow as you mentioned and drive a little longer. Also my pod gauge starts at 100 degrees. My sensor screws directly into the tranny. You can try a couple different sensor locales to see if any thing changes, good luck.:)

Ok, I hope mine does too. I probably should have driven it a while longer, but I was tired and needed sleep.:o



I don't have a cooler yet, as I was waiting to get the gauge installed to see if I even really need one. Or at least to see if it helped afterword.
I assume it's in Farenheit as there is no "switch" and it's supposed to read from 70-300. There is an adjustable blinking/warning point however and I set it to 240.

Guess I'll just drive it to work today as I've been doing all along and watch...

Thanks!

What temperature does it start out at?

90°C = 194°F which would be about right.

No, it was reading in Farenheit.
It turns out I had the filter hooked up "backwards".
I had the in and out reversed.
I checked on here and at the time was told that the passenger side hose on the radiator was the "in" hose.
Perhaps I misunderstood and they meant it was for the "in" on the filter.
Either way no fluid was getting through it.
The gauge was only reading the ambient underhood temp.
When I reversed the hoses and started the car it immediately read 196.
I had suspected this and today at work bought a cheapo filter just in case it was that, or clogged.
I really hope I caught it in time.
I'm going to buy another filter and some cheap dino oil(I can't get synthetic locally in a hurry) to replace the possibly "damaged" $8/quart Mobil 1 ATF I had in it.

At least when I bought the car I bought most of a parts car as well. So I have another tranny waiting to go. But I was planning on either building that one, or selling it to fund a manual swap.
Either way this was certainly not in any of my plans...:mad:

Also for a reference, I had a problem with the gauge not reading and I found that it was not grounded properly. Once it was, it started to work properly. :)

That would be on my car. No filter so no ground. :)

It read under 100 until we grounded it (thanks for spending all that time on my gauge there E :D). But since I don't run through the radiator it stays in the 100 - 140 range on the HWY. Heats up quite a bit more in traffic though.

Yes, I found many posts about making sure it's grounded, and not using teflon tape on the sender...

Another question, If I had no flow through my stock ATF cooler(radiator) would that have been a problem??

My AT TEMP light never came on. Which is good as I understand it only does so at 302.
And when I hooked the hoses up right it was "only" at 196.
After no more than 5 minutes of cooling time with the engine off.

Does the stock cooler even cool the ATF? Or does it just raise it to operating temp?
When I had the car idiling last night the fans came on and the ATF dropped about 2 degrees. Which I attributed to the fact that there was now air flowing past my sender, and I have no undercover.

I haven't noticed any unusual shifting. And I really don't want to get rid of my Mobil 1.
Someone tell me I can keep it!:confused:

You'll probably be just fine. If you run a B&M supercooler and a stock external filter it will run cooler tho. Good rule of thumb is 100 degrees plus ambiet temp. So if it's 70 degrees weather wise your tranny "with cooler" will run about 170 degrees. A little less at freeway speeds. I was pretty paranoid too when I first got my car, especially after reading about others numerous tranny failures. Welcome to the world of SVX. :D

Just to emphasize, make sure to hook up your filter(and or cooler) properly.
As I did not.
On MY car at least(as I assume it is on all LHD SVX'S) the PASSENGER side of the radiator is the exit flow of the radiator.
I.E. The fluid(from the tranny) goes into the drivers side of the radiator.
So if you're hooking up your filter before the radiator, you want it coming out of the filter, and going into the drivers side of the radiator.
Which "geographicaly" would put it(the filter) on the drivers side of the car.
Again, not like I did.

To put it graphicly(without graphics) it would go from the tranny, into the drivers side of the radiator, through the radiator, and than back into the tranny.
At least of course on cars without factory tranny filters.
Like mine. (92 LS-L)

I don't even want to think of the damage cause by not having even the stock cooler like my car just did for several months.

TG I at least had syn fluid. Not that it
helped with the possible temps my tranny saw.
Although my "ATF TEMP" light never came on.

I know the stock temp sensor comes on at 302f, but does anyone know where it's located?

BTW, since I have no idea how "hot" my tranny was getting, I'm changing my tranny fluid. And hoping no shiny peices of metal come out with it.
From the Mobil 1 $6 a quart fluid to MORE Mobil 1 $6 a quart fluid.
Although now instead of 7 quarts without a filter, I need 8 with a filter.

ALSO BTW I really do LOVE MY SVX! :D

ALSO ALSO Where do I get the FACTORY manual. I.E. NOT the chilton one?
I'm assuming subaruparts.com?