I headed out for a 4 to 5 hr. trip last Fri. with a light load and two 4 wheelers on a trailer. This is the first time I have towed any distance with this truck and I watched the Edge closely, having it set for engine temp and trans. temp. Everything on the truck is stock. My temps ran between 130 and 150 in the trans. and 188 to 194 in the engine. I played with running in overdrive and using cruise control to see what happened with temps. I had no problems until I got in slow traffic at construction on the interstate, about 20 to 30 mph, and the engine temp. went up to 204 and the trans. temp went to 178. Does anyone have an idea why this occurred? It took some time when I got back to speed to bring the temps down. It did not happen again even towing over the biggest hills in Maine in the Sugarloaf region.

 

my guess is that in the traffic there isnt as much air going through the grill like it does when going down the road

 

Airflow? In a properly "engineered" system, the amount of airflow at 30 mph should cool down the amount of heat generated by the work to go 30 mph. And that has nothing to do with the trans. as I was going uphill and down without a lot of effort. I should mention that the air temp at the time was about 53, not a smoker of a day. If it can't cool itself at that temp I would think you could never tow anything in the summer! I also should mention that my factory gauge showed no change that I could detect, it was 10 degrees so I think it should have moved some. Maybe a glitch in the Edge? Doesn't seem likely as it is reading the same sensors the truck uses.
Very strange and it did not happen again as I slowed down in small towns after getting off the interstate and even when going slow after pulling up steep hills in the mountains. Seems it would overheat after a long hard pull up a hill if it was going to. No easy anwer I guess, I will watch it when I tow in the future.

 

O/D slowed the engine RPM down, which in turn slows your water pump circulation. It also increase trans temps at lower RPM, because your trans is working that much harder to pull a heavy load at lower speeds and your torque converter is continually flashing in and out in the stop and go stuff. Since the two of them run through the same cooling system, they played off of one and other and increased temps as a whole. The low airspeed and airflow only compounds the issue.

In any case, 204F/178F is really nothing to get excited about....especially considering you were towing.

 

There was a post on here where someone found the rubber skurting under hood at the front was torn and hanging down he put it back in original spot and fixed his low speed temp. rise. worth looking at .

 

I really don't think 204 is that high considering you were towing, in traffic, slow speeds etc. And they went back down after you got more speed right?

 

The temps your talking about are fine...no concern there.....but it is an airflow situation none the less.

at 60 mph you'd probably be running around 1600 rpm's on the highway.....(thanks to OD).....and be flowing (theoretically) around 6000 cfm of air though your grille

Now at 20 mph you'd still be probably running 1500-1600 rpm's due to being in 2nd gear.....but now you'd be running 3000 cfm of air though your grille.....thus not having the same cooling effect.

 

as for the reasons why it didn't heat when going up hill.....the airflow at 40 mph (or what ever speed you headed up those hills at) is still more than sufficient to keep the temps down far enough where it wasn't an issue....

 

Maine has an exceptionally rugged country side and pulling a trailer is bound to work the drive train to some degree. I don't consider 204F to be that outrageous. Likewise, if one to refer to only stock gauges, then this small temp climb would never have been an issue.

Tim

 

Oh...and one more thing about your stock gauges...the reason you never saw a change in them...is they're designed to display exactly in the middle so long as the engines in the safe operating range.....once it moves out of that range they'll move....but you won't see a small change in the gauge

 

Thanks for all the replies. I did not realize that my guages were just idiot lights without a bulb. Way to go Ford.

 

It's not that big of a deal. As Ryan stated, the gauge will stayin the middle as long as everything is normal and with in specs. as soon as something goes wrong, the gauge will indicate the problem.

Tim

 

I tow alot with my 06 FX4 and i noticed my temp gauge around the 200 - 210 alot witch like alot of guys say is not bad... As i tow anywhere from 4-9 K with my truck... I added a fan to my trans cooler and i changed my thermostat from the 192 that ford put in the truck to a 180 and now i have alot cooler temps when towing... Think i hit the 204 mark once and that was towing my 30 ft toy hauler in the mountains of NY going to the watkins glenn race track in aug.... for the nascar race.... Some guys say not to do it some say it's fine... I made a post about it months ago do a serch and you will find it. I take very good care of my truck as i do tow alot with it. As i type this the truck sits in the drive way with a 6x8 duel axle dump trailer loaded with a cord of wood behind it. This truck has been a great truck to me.... Mark

 

You added a fan to your trans cooler, is the cooler a factory unit, if so would you post the details on the fan and the controls. I could use a fan to aid with reducing trans temps when I'm plowing.

 

Yes my FX4 came with the factory tow package. What i did was bought a fan off of e-bay for a suzuki gsx 1ooo and i mounted it to a braket i made. I ran a a switch inside the truck and a wire off my battery (12 volt) This really helps out. I will try to take pic's.

Mark