Hello all,

I will be replacing my warped transmission pan soon and I was looking for any recommendations that would help keep the gearbox cooler. It tends to get fairly hot where I am and I drive long distances on the freeway.

I wasn't able to find any finned pans, but I did find this deep pan from Induction Performance. Does anyone know if this will keep my gearbox cooler? I am lowered on coilovers but I don't think the deep pan is that drastic of a size difference.

Any input is appreciated, thank you!

 

Fit an OEM transmission oil pan and reroute the transmission oil cooler lines to a separate oil cooler.
It fits in front of the power steering fluid cooling loop.
This one ships from here in the UK, but I'm sure you can find something similar in the USA or even buy that one.
Since the UK Pound is in the sh!!ter it won't be too expensive.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203647234325
Another plus is that you never have to worry about your radiator leaking water into your transmission fluid.

 

Agree with above. Cooler > bigger pan. These transmissions seem weirdly sensitive to how much fluid they have in them. Don't know if a deeper pan will cause issues.

 

What do you mean by "Fairly hot"? Automotive oils and lubricants are specifically designed for high temperature environments. Engine oil operating temperature is supposed to be around 230-250 degrees. I'd imagine Lexus designed the built in trans cooler to cool the trans fluid to the correct level.

OEM's do hot weather testing where they test these in literally desert environments for extended periods. I wouldn't worry about trans fluid temp if it's within the Factory Service Manual specs and the Fluid specs. These engines/transmissions have millions of collective miles on them at this point, I don't see adding additional trans cooling as a common modification. Just keep your fluids changed regularly and you'll be fine.

Generally, the only reason you need trans cooling for torque converter set ups is when towing heavy loads for extended times. The extra heat load put on the torque converter dumps a lot of heat into the trans fluid, so if you don't have adequate cooling, you can screw your transmission. Or if you to track-days/enduro races, then you'd need more trans cooling.

 

The trans has a built in thermostat that routes the trans fluid to the cooler once it exceeds the optimum operating temperature range.
Whether you use the cooler built into the radiator or an external cooler will merely change the time it takes to bring the fluid back down to optimum temperature.
The larger area separate coolers will also operate better under heavy load or in very hot environments.