power steering cooler

[hhoenig]

Honda Odyssey towing specs call for transmission cooler & power steering cooler. Anybody out there have a power steering cooler?? Do I really need it?? Will be towing our new 2619 mainly in Conn. N.Y., Pa.  Not the Rockies (unfortunately).  Thanks  for all your feedback & info on this site. It made our decision to buy TM much easier.

[Cateye]

I belive that recommendations of this sort are very specific to the manufacturer of the vehicle. I have not seen this recomendation before as it relates to towing. However, I have a  Jeep CJ7 "tricked out" for rock crawling and have installed a power steering cooler to eliminate "foaming" in the pump reservoir created by such abusive use. I would contact the manufacturer or dealer for clarification.

Honda started requiring these beginning MY 2002. Supposedly the ambient inside the engine compartment becomes too much for the power steering fluid.

I would use a small LPD tranny cooler in line with the existing power steering cooler instead of the very expensive replacement finned Honda PS cooler. I would also use a large tranny cooler (such as the Tru-Cool 4454) instead of the Honda tranny cooler.

Check the color of your tranny fluid before you begin. Many owners report brownish fluid at 12K miles so when installing the tranny cooler it is also a good time for a flush. I use a synthetic transmission fluid in my Odyssey.

[BOB_STRONG]

Henry,

Way back in 1998 when I bought my 1998 Durango, the power steering cooler was part of the towing package along with numerous other things. I guess Dodge also thought this was needed for some reason.

Bob Strong

I don't know a whole lot about power steering coolers, but a while back I was looking at getting a hydrolic wench. They even sent me a tape about how great they were that the only thing required was the engine be running, didn't use a single bit of battery power except in the electronic controls, a failure of most regular electric wenches. As I probed deeper into the issue, I found out they ran off the power steering fluid, and burnt it up pretty quick. (How many people make it a habit to check that I wonder?) I guess one of the downsides they don't want to mention on the tape. Don't really know where I'm going with this, but thought I'd throw that out there anyway. I had never really thought about power steering coolers before, but it can be burnt up under extreme conditions, and no, don't know if it relates to the temps under the hood, or towing, but at least it's something to think about anyway......my $0.02

[glow=red,2,300]Happytrails...........[/glow]

I've switched all of my vehicles to synthetic oils (especially the tranny on my tow vehicle). Even skeptics can't argue with the amazing heat tolerance of synthetic oils versus regular oils (or trans/power steering fluids). You can drop fluid temps by 50 F in your transmission just be changing fluids... Same goes for PS fluid if a synthetic replacement existis.

However most honda cars use a proprietary PS fluid, which I don't know a whole lot about yet. So I haven't changed my honda PS fluid yet. I need all the specs to select the right replacement....

Please let me know if you need more info about synthetic oils and applications... It is my hobby and home business...

[quote author=oilspot link=board=1;threadid=5;start=0#msg7425 date=1059564420]
I've switched all of my vehicles to synthetic oils (especially the tranny on my tow vehicle). Even skeptics can't argue with the amazing heat tolerance of synthetic oils versus regular oils (or trans/power steering fluids). You can drop fluid temps by 50 F in your transmission just be changing fluids... Same goes for PS fluid if a synthetic replacement existis.

However most honda cars use a proprietary PS fluid, which I don't know a whole lot about yet. So I haven't changed my honda PS fluid yet. I need all the specs to select the right replacement....

Please let me know if you need more info about synthetic oils and applications... It is my hobby and home business...
[/quote]

AMSOIL ATF (synthetic) can be used in Honda ATF Z-1 applications.