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Keeping Your Towing Vehicle Cool

Have you traveled over a pass lately and seen a vehicle pulled over with steam rolling out of their engine compartment? You can’t help but feel badly for them, but is there something that could have been done to prevent that? Towing puts extra strain on your engine and transmission, causing them to run at a much hotter temperature. To avoid becoming one of those unfortunate people on the side of the road, you should seriously consider at the very least, a trans-cooler and if possible, an engine oil cooler as well.

Since excessive heat is your transmission’s worst enemy, a trans-cooler is an ideal and often necessary towing accessory. Long trips, hill climbing and towing larger trailers are especially hard on your transmission. Hot transmission fluid running through the cooling system causes 50% of all radiator boilovers. When oil temperatures exceed 200 degrees F., oil breaks down causing seals to crack and leaks to occur. Every 20-degree drop in oil temperature can double oil life!

A transmission cooler will protect your radiator by reducing the temperature of transmission fluid by as much as 80 degrees! The fluid constantly passes through a series of air cooled tubes before re-entering your transmission. The engine oil cooler functions much the same way. You can purchase these two types of coolers separately or together. You should also check your engine oil regularly throughout your trip.

If you are towing on a regular basis feel free to call Burlington Automotive and speak to one of our Service Advisers about your options for keeping your vehicles engine and transmission cool.