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Caravan magazine's expert says there is a danger in overheating the auto gearbox when moving slowly before the turbo kicks in eg when on site ,reversing on to a pitch or in slow traffic. possible cost £1k .

I am going to look at a Toyota Surf TD auto with intercooler tomorrow so I contacted him and his reply concluded"With the current state of conventional automatic transmission development we would not recommend a turbo diesel automatic as a tow car."

Help !

I tow with a 2.0 CRDI Kia Sportage Diesel automatic and the Kia owners manual says I am good to tow up to 1600 Kg braked. My caravan is well within that limit so if the tranny does give out (and I don't expect it will) it looks as though Kia will have a warranty claim on their hands. I can't see they would state a towing limit of 1600 Kg if they had any doubt it would damage the transmission.

I know few years ago the fitting of additional transmission oil coolers was recommended on quite a lot of cars so depending on the age of your Toyota Surf you are wise to check. Have you tried asking the question in a Toyota or Toyota Surf forum anywhere?

Also, although I am not a mechanic, the bit about "danger in overheating the auto gearbox when moving slowly before the turbo kicks" puzzles me a little. Surely if the turbo does kick in it is going to put more torque and energy through the transmission and stir up the transmission fluid a bit more thus producing heat, rather than taking it nice and steady at revs below the turbo push to try and keep thing running a little cooler. I could be missing something here though maybe and could be enlightened by this thread from someone who knows better.

Thats what I thought at first but there is an 8 page explanation ,most of which is very technical. I have had no problems with my auto Mercedes but it is non turbo .

The way I read it is that its like riding the clutch. I had to do this prior to getting an auto which I bought to avoid a burned out clutch.

I have a really nice Surf lined up and it leaves me in total confusion.

Hi misterg -

Not too good on the technical stuff (hence the username!!) but I tow with a Citroen C5 2.2 Hdi (turbo diesel) automatic and not had any problems so far (weight match is about 82% so generally OK there). The turbo seems to kick in at quite low revs so I am not sure how much time the vehicle will spend pre-turbo even when in slow moving queues.  I do tend to hold back a bit before moving forward rather than creep forward continuously.

Previously had a Jeep which was a Turbo diesel, although not auto and no problems with that either.  In fact, the only car I had problems with due to overheating when towing was a 1996 BMW 5-series - and that was a petrol manual model!!

Jon