I was driving home from work last night and did the gauge scan and notice my tranny temp in the red at about 260 degrees. Everything seemed to work. I pulled over put it in neutral and checked the fluid. I pulled the stick and felt the tip. Seemed cool. Fluid smelled normal. Is it possible my sender on my gauge just went? I hope that is all it is. 260 is pretty hot and I would think the tip of my dipstick would have been hot. Any ideas? This morning I drove my wifes car and wanted to post this first. We had a major cold front come through and the temps went for abou 45 to 15 in just few hours. Probably nothing to do with it but who knows. I have been through tranny problems a couple of times since I have had the truck. I am pushing 60k on a rebuild. Fluid change a couple of times.

 

The dip stick should have been warm , going under the truck and feeling the pan is a good way to double check .
But as for touching anything that may be hot , proceed slowly .
I do not have the spec.s , but the temp sensor will have a varying resistance [ depending on the temp of what is being measured .
So with a Ohm meter , you should see a variety of resistance as the trans. warms up .
Also check the connection to gauge from sensor , on some temp sensors , it will max out , if disconnected .

 

I had the same exact issue with my other truck (240 degrees just driving around normally) and it ended up being a bad ground on gauge. After I reconnected it, everything worked normally. I checked the dipstick and pan and both were no where near the 240 it registered on the gauge.

 

I did not stick my hand on the pan but I will drive it tonight and try that. It is nasty cold out today. Hopefully it warmed up a bit. I think I should check my connections also. Could have a bad ground or something wierd like that. Thanks for the advice.

 

If it did actually run 260, you would've smelt a very hot transmission.

 

Sender, or Gauge is the problem. I looked at it last night. First clue. Turned the key to on and it was at about 260 already. Probably did not need to post this in Help section but thanks for the feedback!

 

well since the topic is already going what is a safe max temp for the tranny? oh and mines a 98 12V if that makes any difference. Thanks!

 

That depends on where the sender is located. In the pan: 240 is pushing it, in the hot line at its hottest point, 250-260 is pushing it.

 

Sweet! i'm pretty sure its in the pan as it doesnt fluctuate too much at one time. (it was installed by PO) i was seeing 180 at the track and getting worried. thanks for the info!