gearbox

[Mauro]

Hi,
I have now owned my surf , a 3.0 ssrx 2nd gen for nearly a year now and in that time it has been completely reliable and apart from a service, and rear exhaust box, not too expensive to run and good fun to own.
I was reading with interest and concern about the fact that these surfs use the radiator coolant to cool the autogearbox oil, and if the rad goes it can cause costly damage to the gearbox. I am not sure how old my rad is, and was wondering if it is worth changing the radiator in the near future for peace of mind? i intend to keep the surf for a few more years.

Great forum.

Mauro

Thanks

[stormforce]

Why not buy an external atf cooler instead.I haven't heard of a dodgy rad causing gearbox problems tho.If your rad is in poor condition then yea replace it but i would be more inclined to just fit the external cooler to help things keep a bit cooler

[Albannach]

If the radiator goes, the gearbox will be the least of your worries. If you have a spare £200 lying around, it won't do any harm to change it.

[NiftyNev]

There have been cases of the coolant contaminating the transmission fluid when the pipe in the radiator corrodes. This destroys the transmission and is very costly. If you want to do some preventative maintanance and have the radiator checked out thoroughly or even rebuilt or replaced then go ahead. Radiators don't last forever.

Nev

[slobodan]

There have been cases of the coolant contaminating the transmission fluid when the pipe in the radiator corrodes. This destroys the transmission and is very costly. If you want to do some preventative maintanance and have the radiator checked out thoroughly or even rebuilt or replaced then go ahead. Radiators don't last forever.

Nev

Could you ditch the radiator coolant pipes and put an external Transmission cooler (air) in it's place?

[oneintheeye]

thats what i've done, done away with the pipes going through the rad and have fitted a 5 bar oil cooler for the gearbox

[Mauro]

Thanks for the info, i think i will have the radiator and pipes thoroughly checked at next service and if it looks bad then change the rad. Is it easy enough to check, i guess the bash plate needs to come out?

Thanks

Mauro