Ok so, I've been having this issue the last two summers of the truck running hot in certain situations. I have tried a few things, and have a few ideas, but I wanted to get the opinions of the masses before I start doing some serious things, or throwing money at it. Here are the details:
2012 P4x w 72K miles.
When it runs hot:
When I'm pulling my boat with the A/C on, hot days (90º+) with the A/C on and under load or acceleration. Stop and go it doesn't get too hot, but if I've been sitting for a while, and then accelerate moderately (get into it), I can watch the temps climb on my BullyDog. Once I get to a decent cruise speed it cools back off (so maybe just when the trans is in lower gears?).
I have a friend who seems to think that my front bumper is blocking too much air (see pic below) but I'm not sold on the idea, since there are a lot of other trucks that have front bumpers that block a lot of air and they aren't reporting overheating issues. I plan to take it off and drive around for a few days when the temps are up in the 90s to see if that helps, and to rule out that as a possibility.
I had the dealership drain and fill the coolant recently, and I even topped it off again and burped the air out, but it still does it.
I have checked the clutch fan, and it seems to behave the way it should (spins but with a bit of resistance) I've even tried pressing a piece of cardboard into the fan to see if I can get it to stop when it's running, and it wouldn't. So it seems like it normal behavior (I think?)
The OEM electric fan on the back of the radiator is functioning (although really loud when it does) so I don't think it's that. I've even installed an efan on the trans cooler, and that doesn't seem to help much. Trans temps usually run 175-185º or so.
I have sprayed out the radiator numerous times, and even removed the trans cooler so I could clean out behind that.
I checked the trans fluid in the fall, and it looked good.
I'm running out of ideas of what else to try without just throwing money at it.
Anybody have any ideas of what might be causing this? I don't think it's the tstat because if it was I think it would be overheating all the time.
Here's the bumper that DRB thinks has something to do with it. I guess I'll find out when I take it off this weekend.
Whoever has the winning suggestion gets a sweet high five, and an awesome bro-hug.
2012 P4x w 72K miles.
When it runs hot:
When I'm pulling my boat with the A/C on, hot days (90º+) with the A/C on and under load or acceleration. Stop and go it doesn't get too hot, but if I've been sitting for a while, and then accelerate moderately (get into it), I can watch the temps climb on my BullyDog. Once I get to a decent cruise speed it cools back off (so maybe just when the trans is in lower gears?).
I have a friend who seems to think that my front bumper is blocking too much air (see pic below) but I'm not sold on the idea, since there are a lot of other trucks that have front bumpers that block a lot of air and they aren't reporting overheating issues. I plan to take it off and drive around for a few days when the temps are up in the 90s to see if that helps, and to rule out that as a possibility.
I had the dealership drain and fill the coolant recently, and I even topped it off again and burped the air out, but it still does it.
I have checked the clutch fan, and it seems to behave the way it should (spins but with a bit of resistance) I've even tried pressing a piece of cardboard into the fan to see if I can get it to stop when it's running, and it wouldn't. So it seems like it normal behavior (I think?)
The OEM electric fan on the back of the radiator is functioning (although really loud when it does) so I don't think it's that. I've even installed an efan on the trans cooler, and that doesn't seem to help much. Trans temps usually run 175-185º or so.
I have sprayed out the radiator numerous times, and even removed the trans cooler so I could clean out behind that.
I checked the trans fluid in the fall, and it looked good.
I'm running out of ideas of what else to try without just throwing money at it.
Anybody have any ideas of what might be causing this? I don't think it's the tstat because if it was I think it would be overheating all the time.
Here's the bumper that DRB thinks has something to do with it. I guess I'll find out when I take it off this weekend.
Whoever has the winning suggestion gets a sweet high five, and an awesome bro-hug.