covalt

It's been a few months now since this all went down, but I've been wanting to share my unique experience with you all on the forums.
Work has been busy and I've been putting this off for too long, so now I'm finally going to share my story with Jeep.

I drove my 5-speed manual XJ for almost 10 years and loved it. This past March I sold it for a new 2010 JK. I had a really hard time deciding between getting the 4-speed automatic or the manual, but ended up going with the automatic being that 95% of my driving is in Los Angeles traffic.

About 2 weeks after driving it off the lot, I finally got a chance to take it to the hills. It was a nice day out, but nothing extreme - mid-70's I'd say. I was climbing a dirt road for about 10 minutes - again, nothing extreme here, in fact, you could take a regular sedan up this trail if you wanted to. I was in Drive, with 4High. About 10 minutes into the drive, I got a "HOT OIL" message in my dashboard. I was so close to the top that I continued driving another 3 or so minutes. Got to my destination and turned off the Jeep.
On the way back down, no problems (but I was also in 2 rather than D).

Got home that night and looked up the message "HOT OIL" and found out that it was my tranny overheating, and that this has been a problem for years now, and that Jeep has not fixed the problem, but rather has just installed a warning so that your engine doesn't catch on fire from boiling over trans fluid!
So after MUCH investigating, I came to find that my "TRAIL RATED" Wrangler was not even capable of driving up a road slowly for more than 10 minutes.
This was very discouraging news to me, and more so when I thought I could have just bought the manual transmission and avoided this problem.

Well I called my dealership, along with a few others in the area, and they all were clueless. Really - not a clue. One guy suggested I take it to "Jeep Thrillz" in Compton (the ghetto) and have them install an additional cooler, but to be careful, it might void my warranty.
NOT what I wanted to hear with my brand new Jeep!

So I decided to stop dealing with the screwballs at the Jeep Dealerships and call Jeep direct. I explained my situation with some entry level customer service guy, and he asked what Jeep could do to make things better - I replied, "take back my Jeep for a 6-speed." He wasn't sure if he could do that, so escalated my case to a higher level.
I later received a call from a lady that had enough power to help me solve the situation.
I explained the problem to her, and she assured me that Jeep was determined to solve this problem, whatever that would end up meaning.

First I had to take it to a Jeep dealership to have it looked at. I explained that it'd be difficult to replicate the problem, and she understood. She also didn't want me to take it to any shop, but to one way up in Woodland Hills (almost an hour away from me), claiming that it was the BEST Jeep shop in the greater Los Angeles area. So I took it there.

After the mechanic looked at my Jeep for a while, I got a call that they'd install an additional trans cooler, but that this particular Mopar part is not available domestically. They only make this internationally, but that they would have one shipped overseas to the shop and install it in my Jeep.
After waiting a few weeks it came in. I returned my Jeep to the shop and had them install it. Unfortunately, in the process of installing it, they drilled a whole thru my stock cooler, and thus had to order that part and install the replacement!
More waiting.
Finally, they get the factory cooler installed, the get the additional trans cooler installed, and I'm outta there.

JEEP PAID FOR IT ALL.

It was an inconvenience not having my Jeep for almost a week, but so worth it!
As I was leaving, the service guy there said something along the lines of
- man, you sure got a good deal. These Jeeps are great, but they really have a problem with overheating. You having that additional cooler in there is going to cover you now and you should never run into any further problems when on the trails.

And that has been just the case! I've now taken my JK out on the trails on 90º+ days and haven't had a single problem with the transmission overheating.

So, I wanted to share this with all of you because I strongly feel that Jeep needs to fix this trans problem on every Jeep BEFORE they sell them to customers for $40,000.
Again, they paid for it all - all I had to do was talk to someone higher up that could actually pull strings for me.

Good luck to all those auto trans drivers out there that might be experiencing similar issues.

arasco85

cool thanks for the advice. i normally just use 4wd low. and keep it in 1. figured it would be easier on the tranny. but im not an expert at all. but ive been thinking about getting a tranny cooler. ust heard it voids warranty. or is that not the case?

covalt

That's exactly why I didn't want to take it to some off-roading shop and have them install it because yes, I've heard that could void the warranty. But when Jeep did it with a Mopar part, it's all under warranty.

But keep in mind, if you go to Jeep and ask them for this part, they'll respond saying that Mopar doesn't make it for the JK... and that's because it's not in their domestic database.
As I mentioned, they had to special order the part overseas, and I only got it because I had Jeep Corporate involved.

arasco85

cool. ill look into it. apreciate the info

rutdigger

I agree with you 100%. The first week I had my Jeep i got the same "Hot Oil"warning light. Freaked me when it happened and just like you I dod some research on it. I will be installing a Trans Cooler with a 7" spal fan attached to it for added protection. Maybe I can raise a big enough stink that I can get them to pay for mine..lol.

spartan99

Good stuff! Are you going to be thrown under the bus for not accepting that your Jeep overheats, though, like I've been? Shouldn't you just accept the overheating transmission as a Jeep thing? You're not a real Jeeper because you got it fixed!

My Jeep's going in tomorrow for the auto trans; I'll mention the overseas thing. My dealer claims to have NEVER heard of a single JK with an overheating auto trans. They'll also look at the leaks and stuff. I'll have quite the list. And I don't need it back 'til next week so I'll be quite the dick.

spartan99

Covalt, which dealership installed your cooler free of charge? I'd like to connect the two dealers and get them talking.

DJSJK50

Was there any codes in the computer that it did get hot? I have an 08 rubi, took it up a lot of hills and have not getten the light. But, I have the auto and I rather have them fix it then me.

spartan99

I'm calling Chrysler directly about this. A vehicle that won't even tow its own weight w/o overheating the trans is insane.

Dj if you didn't get the non-recall where they switch the "ding" to the "hot oil" reading, you might've gotten the ding many times and just never heard it.

Fenrir

Wow, great timing!

I just called my Dealer about installing an aftermarket B&M cooler. They said they couldn't install it for me (was only curious, going to do it myself) and that it wouldn't void my warranty unless it was the cause of my tranny failure. In fact, the service person I spoke with highly advised adding a cooler!

I called parts just to see if I could price a cooler and they said they didn't have it in the books. They couldn't believe that every Jeep model they have, other than wrangler, had a cooler... the over seas thing makes sense now.

I have a feeling since I've not had the hot oil light yet, and if I approached them about installing it like the Thread starter did, I'd get laughed at. But I'm glad the thread starter got a great deal!

I have the Aeroforce Interceptor gauge now, gonna use it for this weekend's wheeling trip to monitor the Trans temp. After this real world test, I'll know just what I need.