To all Territory owners. I am getting conflicting advice on the fitting of an external cooler to the transmission. I have just had the transmission serviced and told that it has its own cooling system but was told a while back to get an external system fitted. Can anyone enlighten me please on what would extend the life of my towing capacity and vehicle and what type to get fitted if needed.
Hi Tess, we have a 2012 Territory AWD diesel and have just completed a 30,000km big lap pulling a Legacy 630 van that was right on the maximum towable capacity. At no time did we have any issues with transmission temperatures and we do not have an additional cooler fitted. The Territory has now done 74000k without any mechanical issues. We crossed the Nullabor when temperatures reached 47 degrees without a problem. The vehicle is serviced every 7500k and at the next service I intend to change the transmission fluid for the first time. Trust this helps.
David.
We have an '07 Territory with over 250,000km and recently went round Australia towing our van - fitted an external cooler before the trip because once when towing the van in hilly country and NOT taking it easy the transmission did overheat...no harm done luckily.
We fitted the kit similar to the link below - easy to fit. The kit bypasses the original cooler and is not used in conjunction with the factory unit. The kit fits all models.
There are 2 reasons to fit the external bypass cooler - firstly to improve the cooling capacity of the transmission and secondly to avoid transmission failure due to the factory cooler failing internally and allowing coolant to mix with the transmission oil.
All cars can suffer from this problem if they use the engine coolant to cool the transmission oil....even BMW's etc. It's just the design that fails with age.`
I am pretty sure the 6 speed gearbox already has the external cooler. We had an external cooler fitted to out 4 speed gearbox as it is recommended if towing a van over 1600 kg.
Pete
The RTOC (Remote Transmission Oil Cooler) is more than satisfactory for towing, but it also suffers from failure causing coolant and trans fluid to fail. Best bet to extend its life is to do an annual coolant flush (which should be happening anyway for the radiators sake)
I would be fitting an external cooler ans disconnecting RTOC to prevent coolant damage to auto.. The exchanger keeps auto temps to keep fuel consumption on short drives.. Not required if your towing ..
Thank you all for your advice. Mine has done 225 000 and I did a 22 000 round aus trip two yrs ago without any trouble. Just want to extend its towing life for another 5 yrs then I probably won't be towing anymore. I might do the external cooler to be safe.
Happy motoring.
Tess
There is a lot of information on the Ford Forums web site --- www.fordforums.com.au/ however you need to register and just search for territory transmission cooler. You don't say how old your territory is and what the engine is if a SZ. Good luck