Do you ever need to know your tranny/diff temps?

[george graves]

I was thinking of ordering some sensor for testing.

a.) Do you ever need to know your tranny/diff temps?
b.) What is a normal range for gear boxes and gear oil?
c.) Do you need to know it for maximum temps? Or for not driving hard on a cold drivetrain? Both?

THanks!

gg

[nando]

interesting questions.. I would love to know diff temps on the track. But I will probably use some of the extra logging capacity of MS3 when I make that step.. lots of extra ADCs for fun stuff like oil temp/pressure logging.

I would think rear diff would be a good one. tranny too but you don't often see coolers for manuals.. I think they tend to be pretty efficient.

[gearheadE30]

I've seen it before, but as far as I can tell the only reason you'd need it would be if a bearing went, the fluid got cooked, or there wasn't enough fluid to cool it in the first place. Or if you have an auto.

A few guys I've seen run a normal temp gauge with a switch that allows them to switch between sensor signals.

[Hellabad]

In my opinion you only need to keep track of it if it smells like absolute hell.

The tranny is fine, you can fry a diff with a tight LSD in 30 minutes if you use the wrong oil.

And when I say smell like hell..... a dead horse infested with maggots on the 4th of July will smell better than a fried diff.


Jay from GC

[Wh33lhop]

I've seen it before, but as far as I can tell the only reason you'd need it would be if a bearing went, the fluid got cooked, or there wasn't enough fluid to cool it in the first place. Or if you have an auto.

A few guys I've seen run a normal temp gauge with a switch that allows them to switch between sensor signals.

That's what I was thinking. Maybe if that pretty oil temp gauge in George's sig had a few inputs or something, and there was a quick and easy way to switch between them. I definitely wouldn't want a dedicated gauge for diff or tranny temp.

[e30pq]

I was thinking of ordering some sensor for testing.

a.) Do you ever need to know your tranny/diff temps?
b.) What is a normal range for gear boxes and gear oil?
c.) Do you need to know it for maximum temps? Or for not driving hard on a cold drivetrain? Both?

THanks!

gg

We installed a temp sensor in our Diff drain plug and have it hooked up to a temp gauge we were using for Oil temp before we went with a digital dash.

We have only had one test day on the track since its been installed. Hoping to learn more about diff temps as the season progresses.

[kishg]

diff temp would be useful.