How much do you think the trailer weighed? Your car is rated at 5,500lbs or 6,000 lbs towing capacity. I would guess that the car and trailer weighs no more than 5,000lbs (3,800lbs for the car plus maybe 1,200 for the trailer sound reasonable?). If the trans is overheating I wonder if there may be another problem. I don't think I have heard of overheating the auto tranny while towing before on this forum.



There is a transmission cooler built into the radiator of auto-tranny cars. I don't know how it could be broken other than being clogged, which seems unlikely. It is a good time to change the transmission fluid (since it overheated) and check on the status of that system. The cooling system is a ticking time bomb on these cars anyways, so you might want to consider an overhaul if the age of the components is unknown.



I tow with a manual trans, so I may not be much help on diag. I have never had any problems despite towing a 4,500lb trailer up a steep mountain pass with a car full of family and two paddle boards on top. WOT for 10+ minutes in third and fourth gears without a break.

__________________
2003 3.0 5MT Topasblau
Purchased in 2016 and sold in 2024
2012 35d Platingrau