This past weekend my buddies and I went on a rafting trip in Paradise Valley outside of Livingston,MT. This is about 120 miles from where I live but there are not too many hills. I was pulling my own raft, which with everything included, trailer, raft,oars,loaded down cooler, etc. might weigh 1000-1200lbs, but I doubt it is even that much. My "AT OIL TEMP" light came on after I had only gone about 20 miles. I stopped and let it cool down and then limped it into the next town. Luckily we were traveling with a group of people and one of them had an F-150 that we hooked my raft up to and he pulled it the rest of the way.
This happened once before, but the first time it happened I was actually pulling the empty trailer, which might weigh 500-600lbs, and the light came on after about 80 miles. After this happened I took my car in and got a transmission flush, as I have no idea when the last time that was done. (I just bought the car in January). The mechanic that did the flush said the tranny fluid "didn't look right" and that it had almost a greyish tint to it, on top of it being very worn out. He told me to drive 10-15k and then get another flush to see what the fluid looked like. After that I also installed a transmission cooler, just to make sure I had my bases covered.
Since I did that, I've only towed it across town a couple of times, without a problem. This last weekend was the first time I tried to take it out on the highway since the flush and tranny cooler addition. Obviously the problem has not been fixed. My gut tells me that there is something seriously wrong with the transmission and I'll be forking out a nice chunk of change to re-build it or replace it altogether.
Both times the transmission has over-heated, its been about 80-85 degrees out. So it has been warm but not really hot, so I don't think that is the case.
My car seems to shift just fine when I'm driving back and forth to work everyday, there aren't any hard shifts or hesitation. It has 151,000 miles on it now.
Has anyone experienced anything remotely like this? Any ideas? Like I said, I'm almost sure it will have to be replaced but any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated. As you can imagine, this is incredibly frustrating, especially considering our other car is a 08 Legacy 3.0R, so this is the only thing I have to pull a raft with and I just got it so I'm really not wanting to get something else so soon.
This happened once before, but the first time it happened I was actually pulling the empty trailer, which might weigh 500-600lbs, and the light came on after about 80 miles. After this happened I took my car in and got a transmission flush, as I have no idea when the last time that was done. (I just bought the car in January). The mechanic that did the flush said the tranny fluid "didn't look right" and that it had almost a greyish tint to it, on top of it being very worn out. He told me to drive 10-15k and then get another flush to see what the fluid looked like. After that I also installed a transmission cooler, just to make sure I had my bases covered.
Since I did that, I've only towed it across town a couple of times, without a problem. This last weekend was the first time I tried to take it out on the highway since the flush and tranny cooler addition. Obviously the problem has not been fixed. My gut tells me that there is something seriously wrong with the transmission and I'll be forking out a nice chunk of change to re-build it or replace it altogether.
Both times the transmission has over-heated, its been about 80-85 degrees out. So it has been warm but not really hot, so I don't think that is the case.
My car seems to shift just fine when I'm driving back and forth to work everyday, there aren't any hard shifts or hesitation. It has 151,000 miles on it now.
Has anyone experienced anything remotely like this? Any ideas? Like I said, I'm almost sure it will have to be replaced but any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated. As you can imagine, this is incredibly frustrating, especially considering our other car is a 08 Legacy 3.0R, so this is the only thing I have to pull a raft with and I just got it so I'm really not wanting to get something else so soon.