I put this in Evo X since it's fairly SST specific, but maybe it belongs in racing, moderators you can decide.

Saturday I autocrossed, 8 runs total. I use the factory "launch control" every time with no issue. The opening bit was a hundred plus foot straightaway so I may as well. It worked well!

Sunday I went to "Flashlight Drags" -- this is heads up drag racing with just a start light. It's not your typical backwoods "flashlight drags", but the concept is the same, this is just legal Here's where I had the problem. The start light is fairly random, could be within a second after you're staged, could be close to 3 seconds. If the start light was longer than about 1 second, I'd get the "transmission overheat" warning and have to let off in order to go. The one time I tried to floor through it I revved up like I was in neutral.

Should I be looking into a transmission cooler and new fluid, or is this just inherent and I shouldn't be asking the SST to hold launch mode for that long?

 

I'd definitely recommend acquiring an HQ transmission cooler if you're going to be consistently launching your car that frequently... and holding it in launch mode for longer than when you're actually intending to launch probably isn't the healthiest thing either.

Here's some information you can read up on the SST tranny and overheating.

 

"transmission overheat" is telling you exactly what is happening. Our car's launch control feature was really just put in as an added extra. It's not really designed to be a full out drag launch system, hence why it was never advertised by Mitsu.

 

The factory launch control is designed to only last for the 3ish seconds. It's not necessarily stopping you just because it's getting hot although it will stop you for getting too hot. The transmission can be cold and you'd still be stopped after the 3 seconds. When I first tried using launch control and didn't doing it right, I got the SLOW DOWN message and it took itself out of gear and reved like I was in neutral. That's also normal for protection. In short, I agree with the above poster recommended additional cooling options if you're going to be launching/tracking often

 

I think the main issue was the unknown start and the fact that sometimes I was staged for 3-4 seconds.

Real drag strip I have no issues.

I will be looking in to some additional cooling and upgraded fluid anyway just to be safe.

 

How many miles on the fluid?

 

25k. When I add the SSP transmission cooler I'll swap the fluid out too.

 

i'm not one for hazing or what not but really did you read your post before submitting it.
the car is basically trying to keep you from cooking your clutch plates in the nice tranny fluid that flows through them. when your tracking the car (especially) at a drag strip, you dont have fresh air flowing over cooling ducts and such as you would as speed. say 80mph. this is a case where the cars computer is simply doing what it was programmed to do. It thinks this (this idiot is trying to blow me up or what?!). there are plenty of post on here about beefing up factory parts especially the sst. I consider myself a noob here but even I know your only as good as your weakest link. if you do HP mods and do nothing to help stock parts cope with how much % you go over stock figures of torque and horsepower.

Do some research and see what you find as far as different vendor options. I here these guys are ok to deal with. http://www.sspperformance.com/sub-ca...n-performance/