I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice that the Renegade plastic grille has only the lower third or so of its area with actual air passages for cooling the radiator. In hot weather, 80s, maintaining 55 on long hills, I see coolant temps at 214, transmission temps 184 and that's only driver, no payload or trailer. Engine rpms 2200, What's the upper limit for transmission fluid temps? It's a synthetic fluid, won't break down like old fluids did, but inquiring minds want to know. Since the Renegade Trail Hawk is rated to tow 2000 lbs, how would that push temperature of engine and transmission ? Thanks in advance
I’m no mechanic but from what I have looked at when I saw this is that the holes force the air to go through the radiator and other cooling components. If it was opened up to allow air to flow around more easily it would cause the air to just bypass the radiator. I’m just making an educated guess on this though. I do have to say I base this off what happened to my RX-7 FD when I went to swap the radiator and intercooler set up. If you allow the airflow to change to much around the coolant components you run the risk of not forcing the air through the grates and then the radiator would be virtually useless. The air temps in and around the engine would momentarily cool but the actual coolant temps would begin to climb as the coolant flows through the radiator with lower air flow to cool it. Again I’m not a mechanic or engineer just an enthusiast so if I’m wrong someone please pipe in
That sounds reasonable, I'm used to the big grill openings in the Wranglers, so the Renegades take some getting used to...
Ya agreed. But just remember the wranglers full grille is the radiator. So it holds true to my theory.