Hi everyone,
I just purchased a new-to-me '08 Outback 2.5i Limited, approx. 78k miles, 4 speed "EAT" with overdrive. We're thinking of adding a trailer hitch, as we very occasionally rent a light trailer to move items from place to place. Nothing super heavy, like 1500 pounds gross weight including the trailer.
In keeping with that I'm looking at trailer hitches and transmission coolers. I notice the 2.5i doesn't seem to have a cooler standard. Do you think it's a good idea to put a transmission cooler on this car, regardless of whether much towing will be done?
They cost less than $100 and I cannot imagine it *hurting* the car in any way. You can't "overcool" transmission fluid, but if you put the cooler in the wrong place I can see detracting from the rest of the car's cooling capacity.
I ask because my Dodge Intrepid 2.7l with more than 200k miles came stock with a trans. cooler. I recently did some maintenance and took out some trans. fluid from that car, and the cooler is clearly doing its job - the fluid was in pretty good shape even after almost 100,000 miles (last time I saw it) and the car still drives and shifts very well.
So what do you think? Is adding the trans. cooler a decent preventative maintenance strategy if the car can expect to see a lot of miles? (Ours can).
I just purchased a new-to-me '08 Outback 2.5i Limited, approx. 78k miles, 4 speed "EAT" with overdrive. We're thinking of adding a trailer hitch, as we very occasionally rent a light trailer to move items from place to place. Nothing super heavy, like 1500 pounds gross weight including the trailer.
In keeping with that I'm looking at trailer hitches and transmission coolers. I notice the 2.5i doesn't seem to have a cooler standard. Do you think it's a good idea to put a transmission cooler on this car, regardless of whether much towing will be done?
They cost less than $100 and I cannot imagine it *hurting* the car in any way. You can't "overcool" transmission fluid, but if you put the cooler in the wrong place I can see detracting from the rest of the car's cooling capacity.
I ask because my Dodge Intrepid 2.7l with more than 200k miles came stock with a trans. cooler. I recently did some maintenance and took out some trans. fluid from that car, and the cooler is clearly doing its job - the fluid was in pretty good shape even after almost 100,000 miles (last time I saw it) and the car still drives and shifts very well.
So what do you think? Is adding the trans. cooler a decent preventative maintenance strategy if the car can expect to see a lot of miles? (Ours can).