1995 Toyota Forerunner - Automatic Transmission Overheat Light

Thanks, Jerrell!

It's a Toyota. Put a piece of black tape over the light, it will make it easier for you to ignore it. It is more than likely just the sender.Even if it isn't, the transmission will still give you another couple hundred thousand miles. A friend owns several car dealerships. His GM dealership was built to the specifictions of GM for the size of dealership it was. He can't do all of the repair work he would like to because he has two service bays filled with warranty engines and transmissions. For what GM put into Saturn, which never has made money, they could have bought Toyota. For my money, GM, Chrysler and Ford can't get dead enough. Out of the wreckage there are enough talent people at those three companies to make one car company that might be able to build a decent car. Instead, the same culture that has killed them is going to be maintained, only with billions of my dollars holding them up. Cheers, Bloefeld

Check to be sure that the transmission goes into overdrive and the converter locks up at highway speeds. With the converter locked, the transmission generates very little heat. If this checks okay, you may want to consider adding a secondary transmission cooler.

I am with you. A transmission generates the most heat when the converter is forced to slip under high loads. On a truck at full throttle the temperature rises 1 degree F per second. The only reason I can think of for a transmission to run hot at steady high speeds, would be the oil pump working too hard trying to suck oil through a restricted filter.

Does your transmission have its own cooler? If yes, see if has got plugged with dead leaves or similar (mud does a good job too!).

Driving off road can seriously damage the life of your transmission.

Use a high pressure cleaner on low pressure so as not to damage it (too much!).

Forerunner

Read as prerunner in off-road race talk, the vehicles used to scout the race course before a race. Of course the production models have only a minor capability they are effectively off-road vehicles too.

At least some of those critters have an inline oil filter inside the radiator that gets plugged. Get someone to back flush or at least make sure the oil flow through the radiator is functioning properly.

The device in the radiator is going to be a heat exchanger. If it is clogged, there is a major problem in the transmission, or there was once. When a transmission has a component failure, it is the responsibility of the rebuilder to assure the fluid cooling circuit has been flushed to remove any debris.

I agree w/ comment 7 - change the filter, gasket and fluid - this is the most probable cause

I agree with Conway, change fluid and filter. Do not ignore the light and put tape over it. At least have the sensor checked for proper operation. I had a Ford Windstar that had a similar problem and my wife decided to ignore it. Long story short, overdrive blew out and the transmission had to be rebuilt.