suggestions for transmission cooler

[MrPulldown]

Yep always manual shift. This will allow you to ease up on the throttle and stay in gear. Always hated how the gear selector will allow you to bump it all the way down to 2nd with out depressing the button. This has happened at freeway speed when the shotgun riding passenger moves to the back. Luckily it wasn't very fast and only to 3rd.

One of the climbs that I over heated the trans was on Old Priest Grade just outside of Yosemite. Found a video. Get's to 20% grade at points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxWOqVD3eYI
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2002 EVC

[orbeamike]

[bcolins]

[quote="Abscate"]

[samba415]

[quote="bcolins"]

[bcolins]

Thanks!

[Zeitgeist 13]

There are a lot of EVs here in the PNW, and anecdotally I've observed that approximately 60-70% of ads on Craigslist indicate that auto vans have had or are currently having trans issues at the time of sale. I strongly suspect that a majority of these trans problems could've been resolved with some efforts far short of a full rebuild; e.g. Replace solenoids/ribbon, rebuild valve body, etc.

My original trans had a hard 1-2 gear shift issue that I think I can fix, but I found an affordable used trans, so they were swapped. When I have time I'll tear into it to investigate further.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[Abscate]

Three things to add

1 Thanks for the help in transliton above - Alas , Obtuseness is my weakness

2 There is probably a big difference between T4 and T4 Campers - there is a huge load and different drive patterns on a T4 camper

3 Make no mistake - if I were buying a T4 I would evaluate the AT like any other car - cold performance, shift under load, shift under full throttle. User history, and a sample of fluid to Blackstone if I had more uncertainty.
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.ssS!

[Stripped66]

[samba415]

While I'm not going to argue against talking about transmissions and timing chains and "best practices", it's important to realize these issues don't define the T4 necessarily. There are perfectly good VW vans out there, just.... do your research on the platform and then your homework on the individual van you want. Flaunt that advice at your own risk, and understand that "VanLife" is not so simple.
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Old stable: '63 Baja, '69 Square, '72 Bug, '65 & '67 Samba, '73 412 wagon & 2dr 4spd

Current: '04 Golf TDI, '03 Weekender

[pdebarber]

Hello newbie here. I recently bought a 2000 EVC with 150k from the original owner. No transmission issues, so far, however I'm definitely interested in adding a cooler as I plan to do a good bit of mountain driving. Here's my question: why do the aftermarket (air/trans fluid) coolers eliminate the factory (engine coolant/trans fluid) coolers? Wouldn't it make sense to keep the factory cooler and simply add in series the aftermarket cooler, essentially increasing the cooling capacities by having two coolers working to keep the trans fluid cool?

[Abscate]

Remember it heats as much as it cools. The Stock system exchanges heat with the coolant, which is sitting at about 90C, regulated by the thermostat. The ATF temperature can easily go below thst if it isn’t working hard in town traffic.

A modern transmission wants a specific viscosity of fluid to operate smoothly, so the design controls the temperature if the ATF more tightly than the good old days of the Hydramatic
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.ssS!

[MrPulldown]

[EurovanPete]

New guy here, new to me eurovan owner. But I’m not new to VAG products. My van has 146k miles on it it’s lived all over from Denver to Seattle to Portland and Boise. It has no aftermarket cooler but has a perfect maintenance record from euro Indy shops and the dealership. I plan to install a cooler it’s a weekender that I plan to take all over. I’m one that thinks it’s probably going to be fine but also I don’t believe Volkswagen is infallible. A clear sign of this is when “lifetime” is used for a fluid that is highly stressed. There are plenty of things that other manufacturers do better and plenty of things the aftermarket can do to make them better. An aftermarket cooler with a thermal bypass shouldn’t let coolant through the cooler if the atf temp drops. There are probably bypass’ that could be found with higher bypass temperatures not the typical 80degree tru cool bypass.

[MrPulldown]

[orbeamike]

Go Westy's article and some other places reference Eurovan ATF as lifetime fluid. The owner's manual of my 2001 EVC states 40K change intervals, clearly not "lifetime".

[pdebarber]

Following up here on my initial post. I went ahead an purchased the trans cooler from German Transaxles. I'm reasonably "mechanical". Any estimates as to how much time it takes to do the install? From watching the Tx pigeon poptop heaven youtubes, I'm guessing 3 hours??