Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigbit
The worst challenge we put the Enclave / R-Pod pair through was an ascent up to Big Bear Lake... The going was a bit slow at times but the Buick was no worse for wear.
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How do you know?
This is not intended to be a snarky question, but the fact that it didn't cough to a stop at the side of the road, or gush big billows of steam, does not mean that it is no worse for wear.
If you overstress an engine, may give you some warning (cough, gush, or even a light on the dash) before it is badly damaged. A transmission will not. If it is overstressed and it overheats, it may simply die on the spot. And just as bad is that internal damage can happen without any external signs. The result can be a "mysterious" transmission failure later, at some time when you aren't really stressing it, and much earlier than it would otherwise have occurred. And transmission failures are inconvenient, time-consuming, and EXPENSIVE.
In the early days of this forum, RockyMtnRay, our Tundra towing expert, made a good and insistent case for knowing the transmission temp. In those days, adding a decent gauge was a major chore. Over the years the chore has gotten really easy and quite cheap. Simply get one of the gauges that plug into the OBD port that is on every car in America. Scan Gauge and Aeroforce Interceptor are two that come to mind, but there are others. I've used one for about 5 years, and I've been surprised at how the transmission temp behaves, especially since some of it is counter-intuitive and you can easily make the situation worse when you are trying to make it better. In my opinion, it is important to know what is happening inside the tranny, especially if you are thinking about towing near the limit.
Off my soapbox now ...
Bill