I spoke with a transmission shop today who is rebuilding my wifes transmission and they told me the transmission cooler which is supposedly connected internally to the radiator was completely clogged and to replace it means replacing the radiator.

I'm sorry but that sounds like BS to me especially with the $300+ pricetag that comes with the radiator replacement. I have not personally looked for the factory cooler to see if it was internal to the radiator so I cannot be sure. Can someone confirm? I can't see Honda using this design but I also never thought they'd make such a crappy product in the Odyssey.

 

Any automatic Honda I ever saw was set up the way your shop described. Cooler is part of the rad. Specifically its a copper tube that runs through the lower tank, nothing more.

 

that is correct. trans fluid line running through bottom part of radiator. automatics only, not 5 spd. $300 is a little steep though. Tall them you'll supply the radiator and go buy one for $100. If they have the trans out, then swapping the radiator will take less than 2 minutes (literally) and shouldn't cost any extra labor . . .

 

just add a larger tranny cooler in front of the radiator.

I find it hard to believe the OEM tranny cooler is clogged.

 

You can buy a tranny cooler kit for $40 at summitracing and have them put it on instead of the new rad.

 

Thanks all for the responses. A friend of mine confirmed this the other day saying the Honda Technicians usually just blow it out. So I called the shop doing the work and asked what was the status...

The guy told me that they tried to use a high pressure flush method and were unsuccessful. I told him in so many words I'm not paying another $300 for a radiator and if this was his car he'd find a way to make it work. He said he'd try again and call me back with an update.

So...last night about 5:00 I get a call. Guess what, he mysteriously was able to get it flushed out. I had already planned on doing an aftermarket B&M tranny cooler once I get the van back but I needed them to fix it so I can also get their 3 year warranty. I ordinarily would pass on a warranty but in this case it just makes sense.

Once I get the van back I plan on adding a transmission cooler and an inline Magnifine filter.

 

So the question now is whether the trans is any good if there's enough **** in the fluid to clog the cooler. Just imagine the oil passages inside the tranny...

 

Hence the rebuild... But more importantly the shop just called and said they replaced the VSS and for some reason it "ate" the new one up.

So it looks like we are without our van for the weekend. Ugh. My wife's gonna be pissed!

 

ouch! i hope you get the problem fixed