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Looking at gauges... Why tranny temp??

1K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  Mark Kovalsky 
#1 ·
Ok Ford Gurus:

My research tells me that digital/electronic temperature gauges have been around for quite some time now and are still relatively unchanged.

So here’s my question. Why does everyone not trust the factory transmission temperature gauge? Everyone that I talk to recommends transmission temperature being one of the “big three” you buy when you get a gauge cluster on the A pillar. I understand boost and pyro since those are not displayed anywhere else. But why tranny temp when it’s already displayed?

The second part of my question: If, in fact, the OEM tranny temp sensor is bad, wouldn’t it just be easier for a company to come up with an aftermarket sender that would be more accurate but still map to the stock gauge.

I’m about to buy a cluster and just want to get my facts straight before deciding which three to get. Two are no-brainers, but I can think of a lot of other engine parameters that are not displayed that would be nice to have, i.e. fuel pressure, oil temperature, HPOP pressure, etc.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.
 
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#2 ·
Not an expert by any means, but figure I'll give you the 2 cents I got. From what I understand, and so do you by your post, the factory trans temp is inaccurate. I'm not sure why as I said I'm not an expert, but it probably has to do with location of where the sender is located. I have even heard that the port on the side of the pan where most ppl place their senders, like me, is off by 25*. I have been told to add 25* to what my temp gauge reads for an accurate "valve body" temp. So food for thought I guess. Keep in mind you could always get a 4 gauge pod like me and add that extra gauge you have been eyeing...
 
#3 ·
If you do a lot of towing, then you really should get a tranny temp guage. An aftermarket tranny temp guage is easy to hook up to your tranny. You will see a bolt sticking out of the tranny on the drivers side just above the pan. That is where you would hook it up. There is a 4 pillar guage cluster as well as a single mount that goes on top of the stearing colum. So, right there is 5 guages easy. There are a couple of other clusters as well. Good luck.
 
#4 ·
The factory trans temp gauge is very accurate, but not very useful. It is calibrated to read in the middle of normal between 50° and 230°F. All you can tell by that gauge is that you are somewhere between those two.

I suppose it is possible for someone to design a sender that can feed the stock gauge. The problem is that it isn't a normal gauge. It is driven by a computer in the instrument cluster. There is no wire from the sensor in the trans to the gauge.

The stock sensor is on the valve body inside the pan. You will only have a port in the pan if you have an aftermarket pan, the stock pan does not have one. There is a port on the side of the transmission which is where most people install the sender. This is a very good place to install it. In my testing the port temperature was usually within 5°F - 15°F of what the stock sensor was reading. Most of the time the internal sensor was higher, but not always. Such a small difference is not worth worrying about.
 
#5 ·
The factory trans temp gauge is very accurate, but not very useful. It is calibrated to read in the middle of normal between 50° and 230°F. All you can tell by that gauge is that you are somewhere between those two.

I suppose it is possible for someone to design a sender that can feed the stock gauge. The problem is that it isn't a normal gauge. It is driven by a computer in the instrument cluster. There is no wire from the sensor in the trans to the gauge.

The stock sensor is on the valve body inside the pan. You will only have a port in the pan if you have an aftermarket pan, the stock pan does not have one. There is a port on the side of the transmission which is where most people install the sender. This is a very good place to install it. In my testing the port temperature was usually within 5°F - 15°F of what the stock sensor was reading. Most of the time the internal sensor was higher, but not always. Such a small difference is not worth worrying about.
Mark:
So on that note, since the stock temp gauge is reading off of the computer, would that mean that a temp gauge that went through the OBD port be more accurate? I know that several programmers out there also can serve as your gauges as well with the exception of the pyro (which can be added).
 
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