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Just had a u-haul hitch installed. Thinking about Tranny Cooler


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I just had a 2k lbs hitch installed on my 2009 v6 ford fusion. I love it because you can hardly tell it was there. It was expensive with the hitch receiver and ball with installation and wiring 385. I am now deciding if its worth it to add the u-haul transmission cooler. Its 120 installed. And If 120 dollars saves my transmission, its worth it. Since I live down south anything north is up hill, So that Is my reasoning, I will not be pulling more then 1200 total lbs with trailer included. Has anyone had a uhaul cooler installed? I am new too this forum and that is why I signed up because I don't know much about my car as I have only had it a year.

 

Any suggestions.

 

 

Thanks.

 

Jason

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While I can't say much for your car.. The cooler the better. For $120 I would add it.

 

The are easy to installed and functional. My durango has a cooler for the ps pump, one for the tranny, one for the front AC, one for rear AC and of course the motor. Never had issues unlike other durangos like mine without the factory HD tow package that seem to run a bit hotter and require more fluid exchanges

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The max I would pull with a FWD vehicle is 1000 pounds. Technically you're not supposed to tow anything as per the owner's manual.

 

I would do a test run in hot conditions and watch the ATF temp on a scan tool to see if you need the cooler or not. You want to keep the transmission fluid under 200ºF or so.

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It can very. Sometimes It will be a short run and sometimes it will be a long run etc. I am a small business that goes to jewelry shows and my cargo will not exceed 1000-1200lbs including the trailer weight. I was just wondering does the 09 fusion even have a cooler? But More to my question is about this u haul cooler.

 

That's a good Idea with the scan tool. I never thought about that as well just to read the temp in general. Do you know if those cheap ones at harbor freight will tell me. OR can you give me some examples of some cheap ones.

 

Thanks again for all the Ideas. But as for a test run, Its pretty hard since, One day I will travel 100 miles and the next 500 miles. My fusion has 130K Miles on it and drives like new. I love it. So I want to take care of the transmission. Yes, I know a suv or truck would be better but why spend 20 thousand dollars or go in debt when the fusion will do it.

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The ATF cooling might be integrated into the radiator (liquid to liquid heat exchanger).

 

You can buy a cheap bluetooth ELM327 clone on eBay and use that with the torque app if you have a droid phone. Otherwise you could use it with a Windows laptop running a program called FORscan. So decide smartphone vs. laptop and how much you want to spend on it.

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For $120 just add it. Otherwise spend that or more on a scan tool?

 

Tranny coolers are made and come standard for a reason. But $120 in pocket change to me may be food or no food to someone else.

 

As for the SUV.. I purchased my durango fully loaded with no torn leather or issues for $1,600 a few years ago with 158k on it. Rebuilt the whole suspension and a couple other random parts for piece of mind. Total, $4k. Swapped transmission computer from a jeep to turn my four speed auto into a five speed auto seeing mileage up to 22mpg hwy (best $45 mod yet).

 

Drive this thing road trips the last few years. 179k on it now.

 

Point is, you can buy a good SUV if you know what to look for. I got mine for my German shepherd dog. Otherwise it's a spare vehicle.

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The ATF cooling might be integrated into the radiator (liquid to liquid heat exchanger).

 

You can buy a cheap bluetooth ELM327 clone on eBay and use that with the torque app if you have a droid phone. Otherwise you could use it with a Windows laptop running a program called FORscan. So decide smartphone vs. laptop and how much you want to spend on it.

I may or may not have been distracted by this post and bought an ELM327 off Amazon.

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I Went to uhaul and had them install the heavy duty tranny cooler. It was 150 bucks. I seems that my engine temp runs a little cooler according to the gauge. Which ELM327 did you buy on ebay. There is one for 11.50 and another that's double the price. Can you are anyone send me a link to one that is stable etc. The one for 11.50 is a cheap price to gamble. And reviews look good.

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I got this one from Amazon.ca (I'm Canadian)

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0051DUVK0/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

"Sold by SainStore(CA) and Fulfilled by Amazon"

 

I ordered it on the 22nd (in the evening) and it arrived on the 26th. This one wasn't the cheapest but it had good reviews.

 

So far I haven't had any issues with it, though I had to re-pair it after unplugging / replugging it in the car (seems to stay warm even with the car off). And given it says the MAC is 11:22:33:44:55:66, it must be a "top quality" one.

 

I used it paired to my ASUS TF700T Tablet. It's cool that you can get it to log data against the GPS for GPS speed and position. I can also use the ambient temperature display since my car doesn't have automatic climate control :P

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^ Yes, that style works just fine. They're shipped in bulk and sold by all sorts of outfits, so just pick a seller that has a good rating. They make these things for probably like $2 in China so spending more than $15-20 is just extra profit for them (it doesn't really buy you any added quality).

Edited by FusionDiffusion
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