Oil Cooler

Some engines have an oil cooler, a separate small radiator to cool the engine oil or transmission oil. Cars with an automatic transmission often have extra connections to the radiator, allowing the transmission fluid to transfer its heat to the coolant in the radiator. These may be either oil-air radiators, as for a smaller version of the main radiator. More simply they may be oil-water coolers, where an oil pipe is inserted inside the water radiator.

As water is denser than air, this offers comparable cooling (within limits) from a less complex and thus cheaper oil cooler. Less commonly, power steering fluid, brake fluid, and other hydraulic fluids may be cooled by an auxiliary radiator on a vehicle.