Upgraded DCT trans fluid cooler?

[JPuehl]

Last weekend my wife and I auto-crossed my 135i with DCT, we dual-drove and didn’t have much time between attempts and on a couple of my launches later in the session the car appeared to be in neutral even though the car as in M1. After thinking about this later I assumed it was the computer doing this because the trany fluid was getting too hot. Is there an aftermarket upgraded cooling solution available for our cars? I did a search on this forum and either found posts that people are not having problems or posts asking where the cooler is located but none discussing an upgraded solution. Does anyone know of any? Eventually I do want to upgrade the trany cooling, engine oil cooling, engine coolant and IC, but will do it as needed.

[slonik]

did you have any fault codes on dash?
if you have overheat - gearbox goes to safe mode and you'll see yellow warning on your clocks. also you can overheat it harder, then you'll get red warning

we have small cooler, similar size to m3 stock cooler (we had it from our AT). one of our drivers shifts hard on track days (very often shifting) - he had got those warnings.

now we already ordered large oil cooler for dct.

[JPuehl]

I can't say that I noticed any different warning lights as there was already the lights from turning everything off and I was supposed to be on my way. This is the first time its happened. We've raced my car 3 times now and the outside air temps where maybe in the 70's. I was able to roll into the throttle and go full throttle after the car started moving so I'm not 100% sure the problem was over-heating. I'll pay more attention to the dash during the next event.

[katsooba]

Gintani has a nice oil pan for the DCT
made of AL, has cooling fins and a bigger oil capacity
it's worth a look

[houtan]

Originally Posted by slonik

did you have any fault codes on dash?
if you have overheat - gearbox goes to safe mode and you'll see yellow warning on your clocks. also you can overheat it harder, then you'll get red warning

we have small cooler, similar size to m3 stock cooler (we had it from our AT). one of our drivers shifts hard on track days (very often shifting) - he had got those warnings.

now we already ordered large oil cooler for dct.

Any information on the oil cooler and where you purchased it?

[slonik]

Any information on the oil cooler and where you purchased it?

it's usual oil cooler, mocal brand.

i can make some pics when we will install it.

Gintani has a nice oil pan for the DCT
made of AL, has cooling fins and a bigger oil capacity
it's worth a look

) it's not cheap. we will make some custom oil pan (cnc machined from aircraft aluminum) next few month.
price will be better of course.

[houtan]

Originally Posted by slonik

it's usual oil cooler, mocal brand.

i can make some pics when we will install it.


) it's not cheap. we will make some custom oil pan (cnc machined from aircraft aluminum) next few month.
price will be better of course.

Sounds good. Looking forward to the pics

[katsooba]

how do you pump the trans oil into the cooler to make the heat exchange efficient?

[slonik]

how do you pump the trans oil into the cooler to make the heat exchange efficient?

i'm planning to use stock cooler connection.
i think our problem not in oil circulation speed - oil doesn't cool enough after our current cooler, which is too small.
with larger size we will can get smaller temp with same circulation volume.

[JPuehl]

I'm interested in seeing how the OEM oil pump will work with a larger capacity cooler, it should be fine but I guess you won't know until you try.

[Mernardi]

I'm curious if anyone else has actually experienced DCT overheating. I drive road courses (Road America, ABCC, etc.) for 20 min sessions frequently and never have issues. Nor have I ever had an issue during autoX. I've boiled stock brake fluid and crumbled stock pads, but never had issues with the trans.

[houtan]

Originally Posted by Mernardi

I'm curious if anyone else has actually experienced DCT overheating. I drive road courses (Road America, ABCC, etc.) for 20 min sessions frequently and never have issues. Nor have I ever had an issue during autoX. I've boiled stock brake fluid and crumbled stock pads, but never had issues with the trans.

What tune are you running when you go to the track?

[Mernardi]

Originally Posted by houtan

What tune are you running when you go to the track?

I ran every Cobb OTS map, faulty PTF maps, and maps 2, 5, and 7 on JB4 last season while searching for the best results. Map 5 produces best results for me so it has been what I have ran this season. Never once had a problem with the trans in any scenario.

[houtan]

Good to know, thanks. What fuel (s)?

[Nugget]

Originally Posted by Mernardi

I'm curious if anyone else has actually experienced DCT overheating. I drive road courses (Road America, ABCC, etc.) for 20 min sessions frequently and never have issues. Nor have I ever had an issue during autoX. I've boiled stock brake fluid and crumbled stock pads, but never had issues with the trans.

I've had it be slow to downshift when hot on track, but not actually overheat.

[houtan]

Originally Posted by Nugget

I've had it be slow to downshift when hot on track, but not actually overheat.

was that with your stage 2 turbo? what fuel and tune?

[Mernardi]

I run E50-E60.

[spxxx]

Surprising to know that map 5 was the best performing, not totally surprising - that makes some sense for the track minus the unpredictability of the map at times. It also gives you comfort knowing that you won't drop to map 4 if something happens.

[spxxx]

FYI, I built a custom Tranny cooler for my 6AT with AN10 lines and a 7 row stacked core cooler post heat exchanger. I know there are several folks running this same setup (actually need to drop it down to AN8 which is the OEM line size) - haven't tested line pressure but it has run perfectly at the track w/ 25min sessions @ around 16psi (400- 450wtq or so)

[JPuehl]

I figured out what was going on with my car; it was launch control, so if I had just let the engine rev, the clutch would have engaged. I didn't think it was launch control because I was just going from brake to gas real fast, everything turned off, in M1 and sport mode on. I tried it the over day and with the new LSD, the car went sides and left in a cloud of smoke. Not a good way to start at auto-cross but was fun none the less.