Does the 2001 Chev Suburban 1/2 ton have an adequate transmission cooler?
by admin on Friday, January 28th, 2011 | 4 Comments
I have a 2001 Chev Suburban, 1/2 ton, 5.3 liter V8. I pull a 28′ camper trailer and once in a while when going up a long hill the messenger on the dash tells me the transmission fluid is hot. I pull over and wait a few minutes and it cools down to the point I can go again. Would putting an after-market transmission cooler help?
if your towing, the 1/2 ton suburbans are not rated for heavy loads and I was actually driving a 97 Suburban towing like 8k lbs when the trans dropped because of the undersized cooler. Try to get the trans & oil coolers upgraded if you tow a large trlr like that.
changing coolers will help it but its no guarantee it wont still give problem,when they get hot this is hard on them,the transmissions there using today are good but the payloads are also getting heavier to pull,so you cant hurt it by adding an aftermarket cooler to it,it will help it,good luck on it.
I have had Suburbans all my life, and love ‘em (currently I have a 90 4×4 that I’m restoring). BUT, the trans coolers are very undersized. I had 2 transmissions go out just because I was pulling my boat, which isn’t even that big! (its a 18 foot Lund tri-hull). For all 5 of my ‘Burbans I have gotten cooler kits from Summit racing. They run about $100-$150 for the full deal, and the only thing that you have to do is bolt it on and slightly re-route the cooler lines. It took me about an hour and a half to do it to my current Burb.
Once the tranny fluid gets much over 180 degrees it does not work well anymore. In other words you can’t heat-cycle it. Once you run it up in temperature you should replace it as soon as possible. To keep it from getting hot add a tranny cooler, it will help. You could even put it inline with the one in the radiator.