Yup, that would be me. I even have a transmission temp gauge. The light in my Trooper comes on at about 275. I have had the light come on a total of 3 times. The first time I was effectively pulling a load up a mountain and I saw the gauge creep up. Once it got that hot I let it cool down. The next time I was just "keeping up" with traffic on the highway in the mountains of NC. It got hot and puked fluid out of the breather. I refilled it and let it cool down before I proceded to drive a bit slower the rest of the way to Uwharrie.

The 3rd time I was doing almost the same thing, except the temp gauge never climbed above normal (around 190 on that tranny). The light came on, I pulled over, the gauge went up immediately after pulling over and I found that I didn't have any more clutch material left on 3rd gear. I'm guessing that the pump failed, which caused the tranny to heat up and burn 3rd gear (combination of high temp and low pressure). The pump not pumping properly would explain the lack of change in the temp gauge, and I had heard a whirring noise at higher RPMs for a month or two, which I though was a bad bearing in my alternator. Turns out that it wasn't.

The replacement tranny (from a 99 Rodeo) stays between 175 and 180 most of the time. If I have the hubs locked, tires underinflated and lots of weight, it will climb up to around 210 on the highway before I let up.

-Tad