A/T Temp light came on and then off. What should I do?

I have a 2004 sr5 with 125,000 miles on it.

Long story short: Was driving through medium-heavyish snow fall at high elevation in 4 hi. After about an hour my A/T temp light came on. After a few minutes it turned off (during a long descent where I wasn't hitting the gas much). I kept driving about another hour and it never came on again.

I did some research and it seems with 2004 models they made the transmission "closed system" and I can't even check the color or level of the transmission fluid with a dip stick.

I see a lot of suggestions of "drain and fill".

There's no other signs of transmission issues like delayed gear changing or rough sounds.

My questions:

1. Is this common that the light would come on in this kind of scenario?

2. Is a drain and fill difficult to do? How much would it cost to get this done at a shop?

3. I see suggestions of changing transmission fluid every 100k miles. If this wasn't done would it be a reason for that light to come on?

Any clarity would be appreciated.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

I can't answer all of your questions, but the best thing you can do if your trans overheats is to replace the fluid. It's not related to you not changing the trans fluid at 100,000 miles, more likely the conditions you were driving in. I've heard of the occasional overheating trans in scenarios like you describe. Mostly when using 4wd for a long time ascending up inclines.

The trans oil is not hard to change, but it's important to make sure whoever is changing it uses the proper trans oil when replacing. Maybe someone will chime in with the proper oil specs because I don't know them off-hand.

 

Thank you! I do have a dip stick. I checked my fluid and it’s right at the full mark when hot and cold. It also still looks very red. I’ve had the car for the last 15k miles (2 years). So that seems to be in good shape.

Besides that light coming on it seems like nothing is different. Is that fluid getting that hot once a guarantee of greatly reducing the transmission life? I'm tempted to let it sit and just drive slower in 4 hi from now on.

Unless it's very likely that this can be a silent killer a year or two down the road.