2013 Santa Fe Sport Transmission Cooler Installation

Question:

It appears this Derale Trans cooler kit I keep hearing about may be a solution to my desire to install a trans cooler on the wifes 13 Santa fe sport 2.4L. Towing near the max rated load, I can see the trans temp is getting up into the 215-220F range bluetooth OBD II w/ Torque app and would really like to cool things off a bit if possible. Do you believe their kit would work for this application. Thanks for the great products/support thus far! Ive purchased two trailer hitch mounts and a trailer wiring harness thus far and have been very pleased!

asked by: Austin

Expert Reply:

Any vehicle that tows near its maximum trailer weight will benefit from installation of a transmission cooler. That said, vehicles that have a CVT, a continuously variable transmission, use a sealed system that does not provide the external fluid lines required for installing a supplementary transmission cooler like the Derale # D13504.

You can check your Santa Fe Sport to see if it has external send and return lines from the transmission to the radiator for its internal cooler. If so, you can tap into the RETURN line in order to install a supplementary cooler. With the engine cold, start it, shift into reverse for 15 seconds, and then shift pack to park and shut off the engine. Now check the lines; the cooler of the two is the return line.

Since coolers are not vehicle-specific you can install as large a cooler as you have space to install it. Ideally you will locate it in front of the A/C condenser. You can refer to the linked articles for guidance.

If you install a fan-powered cooler, rather than a passive one like # D13504, you can have the benefit of improved cooling at any speed. Remote coolers like # D13730 offer the advantage of not depending on driving speed to deliver the cooling air flow.