I bought my outlander 11 months ago and I'm really happy with it. It's a great long trips car. We have a rooftop tent and take it everywhere around Australia. However every-time I take it sand duning (nothing crazy, just driving around in the sand on any of the many beautiful beaches here in Australia), I seem to run into transmission problems. It's usually fine until the 45 minute - 1 hour mark and then I run I get a transmission temperature warning on my dashboard. It automatically disengages 4WD and puts me back in 2WD mode, effectively stranding me on the beach.

The car is obviously brand new and I understand the computer does this to protect the transmission from overheating. However I have a few questions:

1- Is this normal? Or the transmission shouldn't be overheating to begin with?
2- Is there aftermarket transmission cooling for this particular model? And is that a valid solution?
3- What can I do to avoid this happening? (Other than not off-roading of course.)