In one of his videos in the comments he mentoined in a sand testing the only problem we had in the sand... the trans was not going back to 1st and sending full power to the wheels. So it was able to do the hill barely.
His statement is a bit vague. Why couldn't it deliver full power? Possibly because it kept upshifting to 2nd too early? I have a 2015 Accord, which has the same trans, and on the Accord sister forum, they are constantly grousing about how the trans upshifts from 1st to 2nd way too early, not letting one take full advantage of 1st gear. Perhaps this was the issue? Dunno...
...In one of his videos in the comments he mentoined in a sand testing the only problem we had in the sand... the trans was not going back to 1st and sending full power to the wheels. So it was able to do the hill barely….
The transmission overheating stems from the TFL Truck guys doing their offroad comparison of mid sized trucks. They were slowly crawling up a big hill and over large rocks. This is basically a worst case scenario for an AWD transmission. Slow speed, so there is limited air flow for cooling, and constant slipping because they were crawling over rocks.
I haven't seen any other complaints of over heating.
I do believe the D4 lock changes the shift points of the transmission to hold those first gears longer. I could be totally wrong but acceleration seems way more potent when locking it in to D4.
I doubt the TFL guys had the truck in "L" or in any of the modes available - those guys tend to struggle with the off road tech in vehicles, IMO.
But also, off road is basically the one thing the RL just isn't really designed to do. That should be obvious just by looking at it, and that's ok! It's good or great at a ton of other things.
Agreed - I didn't buy it for off-roading. I had a Toyota 4Runner before and didn't take that off-roading either! I think the truck hits the exact demographic that Honda has targeted - those of us who are on the road 90% of the time, that may take the vehicle in sand, snow and muddy backroads (maybe) who want a good ride, good handling, a sophisticated AWD system along with the ability to haul 5000 lbs. Perfect for what I need and expect.
OK, I found that video, and it is the transmission that overheated, not the i-VTM4. He had a message in the dash display that said "Transmission is too hot!". If the i-VTM4 system overheats, the AWD idiot light blinks instead. So why would the transmission overheat? Something blocking the cooler? Inoperative electric fan? I've never heard of a transmission overheating except when there was a malfunction of some sort.
EDIT: Here is the video. The overheating issue starts at 15:00.
Probably not a good idea to go rock crawling without a low range anyway. A little disappointing that the RL's cooling couldn't handle this but then again, that's not what the RL is about. Off road and ground clearance are probably it's weakest attributes but Honda has this truck dialed in for it's target buyer.
Hey guys,
I got the "awd to hot" light this weekend. I was out with some friends and got the idea to go out into a corn field with maybe 6-8 inches of snow in it. I ended up finding a snow drift and getting stuck. The light came probably 30 seconds into me trying to back out of the drift. Now I know I had been driving around in this field for a few minutes before I got stuck. But I still couldn't believe it came on so quick considering it was negative 4 degrees outside. I'm not 100% sure where the cooler is located but even after letting the truck set for 5 plus minutes while we where digging out around it, the popped back on just seconds into spinning the tires. I tired snow/stuck vehicle and sand modes to get out but neither worked. That's when my friends chimed in that the rear tires were not spinning. I still can't figure out why that was. We ended up calling a buddy and he pulled the truck about a foot with his impreza and the rear tires on my truck started spinning and I backed right out. It was a wildly disappointing experience. I wish vtm-4 lock was still a thing because I don't think I would have gotten stuck had I been able lock the truck into awd. I'm coming off owning 5 Subaru vehicles and at least in those you know what the system is going to do.
My very first guess on this, and just a guess I really can't find much about how the AWD system is cooled, is that in the drift the snow packed in someplace blocking airflow around the heat exchanger for the AWD system. If that's actually up front with the radiators or if it relies on air movement under the vehicle, I don't know. But if you nose any vehicle into a snowbank well enough that it blocks airflow through the grill area, the engine and transmissions will begin to overheat very quickly, as in 30 seconds or so would not be surprising at all. Depending on where the heat exchanger is for the AWD system and exactly how the snow was packed around that, I would not be surprised that it would overheat that quickly. To prevent damage the system probably disengaged the AWD which is why the rear tires weren't turning. As soon as you get some air moving around the heat exchanger again, it'd cool down just as quickly and start working again. But without air movement, like when you're out trying to dig it out, it'll just sit there and bake in its own heat taking a very long time to cool.
My Ridgeline transmission has overheated twice now. Both times, I was backing my camper uphill. Pulls the trailer just fine. Honda should have installed a transmission temp gauge rather than the light.
...or you could avoid backing a trailer uphill in reverse!
1st gear ratio is 3.359. 2nd gear ratio is 2.095. Reverse gear ratio is 2.269. Taking off in 2nd gear with an empty truck is hard enough on the transmission. Imagine how hard it is trying to push thousands of pounds uphill in reverse! That's beyond reasonable expectation for just about any vehicle.
Without a low speed gearbox the trans fluid has to absorb all the heat from any slippage.
In a no air flow or low air flow situation there is only going to be limited amount it can absorb.
The "heavy duty" trans cooler is a tiny 3 row affair just in front of the radiator.
I suspect a larger unit would give guys an the edge some of the temp buffer they need.
Ive been looking at Derale and other units myself not because of any problem Ive had but because my towing temps to be near max and the temps I tow in quite severe and a few degrees relief cannot hurt.