Archive → January, 2009
Car Crash!
Oops!
Just kidding! Since we use our ‘03 Odyssey for towing, I decided to install the heavy duty power steering cooler and transmission cooler. In this photo, the existing light duty power steering cooler is the looped thing below the bumper.
Taking the front off was cool:
Next, we remove the light duty power steering cooler. The heavy duty power steering cooler is on the snow:
Power steering fluid turns out to be less viscous than I hoped, so there was a bit of spillage when I did the swap:
Next, we bolt on the transmission cooler:
The last part was pretty tricky – the return hose from the internal transmission radiator needs to be routed to the output of the transmission cooler, and a new hose is added between the output of the internal transmission radiator and the input of the transmission cooler. Clear? I had to pull off a cowling under the van and use the jack to get enough clearance to get underneath. Thankfully, transmission fluid is plenty thick at 25 degrees, so there wasn’t much of a mess:
We saved about $100 by ordering the parts online rather than buying them at the local dealership, and cut out about $400 in labor. Not too shabby!