What should I do about my ute overheating while towing?
QUESTION
Hi John,
Love you reviews and videos, we watch them quite a bit, very informative, entertaining and not boring at all!
Hope you have the time to answer a question for us about our 2018 MQ Triton please
We are towing a small single axle caravan 6.3m GVM 2000kg/tare 1240kg, The problem we have been having is temperature gauge going up to top bar when going up hills. Understand this would move a little due to change in conditions, but doesn’t seem right the temperature gauge would move all the way to the top and when we stop there is a continual clicking noise somewhere within the motor.
Have taken in to dealership, they advise this is normal but seems odd to us as we have towed vans previously and never had this issue ever. Are we being sold a dud in service advice?
I find it hard to trust these people as it feels as though they belittle what you say or try to make it sound as if you are imagining things (have had other issues and past experience in making this statement). Our Triton is still under warranty.
Hope you can make some sense for us or explain this is okay.
Regards
Karen
QUICK LINKS FOR TOWING RESOURCES
How to do heavy towing: A dummy’s guide hitching up >>
My Complete Heavy Towing Guide: GVM, ATM, towballs >>
How to bend your ute: Triton chassis-snapping truths >>
Load levelling and weight distribution hitches: Know this >>
Should I get a Light Rigid truck license for heavy towing? >>
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ANSWER
Hello Karen,
Thanks for the very kind words and your interest in my reports. YouTube Analytics tell me that, statistically, no women watch my reports - so clearly that’s wrong… (Actually they say the audience is 4.9% female.)
It’s not normal for the temperature gauge to do this. It’s symptomatic of a more serious problem with the cooling system, which should be comprehensively investigated - including the gauge, which might be defective. You could get a Bluetooth OBDII scanner like a BlueDriver (Google it) and watch the actual coolant temperature on the screen of your phone or tablet (from the passenger’s seat, while someone else is driving.
This might give you the evidence you need to pursue a repair under warranty. BlueDriver is about $130-$150 from Amazon/eBay and it uses a free BlueDriver app to get the data onto your phone.
You can also look at transmission temperature (I think) which could be part of the problem here - the transmission is cooled by pumping oil from the trans into the bottom tank of the radiator. You might find that one potential solution here is to fit a separate oil cooler for the transmission, which would A) do a better job cooling the transmission, and B) take some heat load off the radiator in the process.
But first you should eliminate obvious causes like radiator problems, etc. And of course if you have a non-genuine bullbar and two ridiculous driving lights blocking the front air intake, this could be part of the problem.
Hope this helps,
JC
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