Automatic Transmission Cooler in Rodeo

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An additional cooler is pretty much necessary as with most things automotive the vehicles are built to do the job, just! Extended towing will greatly reduce the life of the fluid as it will with any auto. High ATF temps are to be avoided to extend transmission life.
See Temp versus ATF life chart

or here

I put an 80 series cooler in my Prado. Cheap, from the wreckers and it was the thick one so I get lots of cooling.
You should be able to find something that will fit in the spaces at the front of the Rodeo - doesn't have to be a Holden.

Bill

Just service it when it needs it. The 4jji motor and auto box will hardly change gear on the highway.
Towing a jayco swan up Fraser island at high tide would be a different story, but towing bugger all (1600 odd k.g. max) on a highway is well within the design brief.

Iv'e just spent 4k having the auto box rebuilt on my Landrover after it died prematurely due to excessive heat whilst towing. So i'm also in the process of upgrading the cooler to keeps temps down. Another thing that really helps is switching to synthetic fluid as it can handle higher temps and I have found that mine runs cooler since I switched to synthetic. I have also fitted a digital temp monitor on the input of the cooler and its a great way of knowing when to back off or pull over, I set the alarm at 100c and try not to let it go over 110c. The standard warning light comes on at 135c but as I found the damage is usually done by then and the fluid is pretty much useless afterwards. Check out this chart http://www.digi-panel.com/digidevicesweb/trannyoil.htm the monitor I bought is this one http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ENGINE-GUARDIAN-V2-COOLANT-MONITOR-GAUGE-ALARM-WATCHDOG-/180686278160?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2a11bdce10#ht_5051wt_802
The sensor can be bent around the transmission line and held in place with a hose clamp. It works well and you can see the temp drop by 20 degrees when you hit top gear and the gearbox is in lockup with less friction. Hope this helps.

Has the box been serviced as per the log book since new ? I ask as with the rodeo the autobox is " supposed " to have a fluid and filter change every 40,000klm yet very few service departments do so ,they simply tick the relevant box in the log book.

G'day Katie C
I ran 4 auto camrys as taxis over 10 years. All were fitted with Toyota Genuine gearbox oil coolers. Used to sell them off at 500,000 & never had gearbox trouble. I bought the coolers from Toyota & my regular mechanic fitted them. At the time he recommended I fit the genuine cooler as it was more suitable than the after market ones available at that time. It was something to do with flow rates. Seems they are not all identical. There wasn't a great price difference between after market & genuine at the time for those particular cars.
Before we leave on our next trip I will fit a genuine gearbox oil cooler to the hilux & we don't even tow. We just have a large canopy that creates a bit of wind drag.
What I would recommend you do is to not leave until you have fitted one. They are cheap insurance. You can't be certain before you leave that you are not going to flog the guts out of your gearbox into a big headwind.
What else I would recommend you do is talk to your regular mechanic, assuming you use a good one & ask him & also go to the dealers service center & ask them.
That should give you a fair idea of what type to use.
Happy travels Katie