Almost every automatic transmission vehicle has an integral transmission cooler thats built into the bottom of the engines radiator. The integral cooler cools transmission fluid by transferring its heat into the engines cooling system. Unfortunately, on the first couple years of V10 powered F53 with the 4R100 transmission, Ford didn’t include this integral cooling system. Instead, they added a small transmission cooling radiator mounted in front of the vehicles radiator. This works ok when traveling down the road and there’s air flowing through the radiators, but if you’re driving slow in stop and go traffic, there’s little to no air flow through the radiator.
Ford faced a lot of overheated transmissions in year 1999 and 2000 F53’s so they issued a TSB to install an inline filter. The filter didn’t do anything to address the cooling issue, but did a great job of collecting all the parts as the transmission grenaded itself due to overheating.
Symptoms of overheating include hard and erratic shifting. I experienced this on one occasion while driving in warm weather in slow stop and go traffic. To help reduce some of the heat being generated by the transmission, I’d shift into N whenever possible. I knew I had to do something about this so decided to add an external electric cooling fan. I also added a PID to the TORQUE app on my android so I could monitor the transmission temperature.
NOTE – If your experiencing weird shifting even when the transmission is cool, there’s a TSB for bad grounds that will resolve this..
This installation was fairly easy, taking about 45 minutes. When I wired it up, (diagrams included with fan) I didn’t use an automatic temperature controlled switch, Instead, I installed a standard ole ON/OFF switch on the dash. If I’m in slow moving traffic, I turn the fan on. I’ll probably add an automatic switch later when I find one.
The fan is 10 inch model I got from Amazon that mounts directly to the front of the transmission’s cooling radiator. I had to loosen the radiator so I could get in behind it to push the mount straps through the fins, Other than that, things went smoothly.
Congrat for you website. It help me alot with my 1999 F53
I also add fans for the transmission cooler. I use 2X 7in fan from amazon instead of 1 10in.
The 7in fit better. Let me know if you want pictures
Yes, send me a couple photos.. Also did you hook yours up to a thermostat?? if so what thermostat did you use?
Added this fan to my 1999. with a direct power switch, instructions were to run it all the time while driving. Unless you go to Canada in the Winter…
Do u know which models had this issue? I am looking at one that has three radiators attached (different in size) this pic appears to only have two?
1999, 2000, and some early 2001 chassis. Its easy to verify, look on the bottom of your engine radiator, If you don’t see two transmission cooling lines attached to the bottom tank of your engine radiator, then this applies to you.
I am curious to know, did the fans make a difference? Does anyone have before and after temperature data? Any input would be appreciated.
I haven’t looked at the trans temp with and without the fan running to compare. I probably should do this next opportunity. What I’ve been doing is, anytime I’m low speed in any traffic, I turn the fan ON.
I have a 2000 32v just did the whole cooling system. replaced the radiator with one that has the internal cooler also replaced the old cooler with one from Amazon that has the fan and shroud attached to the cooler, it came with a 180 thermostat which I’ll be changing to a higher one cuz it’s basically running continuous when engine reaches operating temp. Also added the external filter and deleted the bypass. 105k mile and runs and drives awesome! thanks for your posts!