Its cheap insurance for your transmission!
I bought a cheap tranny cooler and tossed it on my Civic today. I bought a hitch for it so I can tow my boat, so we can take both the boat and popup when we go camping and I don't have to make 2 trips to the house and 2 trips back to bring everything. The boat is 860lbs with a full tank of gas and deep cycle battery. My civic can tow 1000lbs.
And, with as windy and hilly as some of the roads are around here, I decided it would be a good idea to put a transmission cooler on the civic.
The cooler helps keep the transmission fluid (for an automatic) cool - overheating is the #1 killer of transmissions.
You just put it in series with your existing stock-cooler thats built into the radiator. You put the new one BEFORE the radiator one, because you actually don't want to over-cool the fluid in the winter time, and the radiator will help heat it up to temp as well, when its cold out.
The one I bought just uses zip ties to attach to your AC condenser.
It came with JUST enough hose, but I had another 4 feet on hand just in case, but I didn't want to use it because the hose it came with was a lot nicer and thicker.
I had to pull the front bumper off the car. Its WAY easier than it looks. Its just 2 screws in the wheel wells, then a bunch of those stupid plastic rivets, then the whole thing just lifts off.
I used some wire loom to help protect the hose around any sharp edges.
Once the bumper is back on, you can hardly see its there.
I just removed the top hose in between the transmission and the stock cooler, and put this in, in place.
The hardest part was taking the battery out so I could get to the existing transmission hoses.
Once your done, you add about half a quart of fluid due to the additional capacity of the new hoses and cooler. Check for leaks, take it for a spin, and check the fluid and for leaks again.
I started around 3:30 and was done by 5:30.
Now I don't have any worries about frying my transmission from towing my boat to the lake.
And yeah, before it comes up, a plate and fin style cooler like this one - https://www.amazon.com/Hayden-Automotive-678-Rapid-Cool-Transmission/dp/B000C3DDKO Is WAY better. But, I already had this one on hand (I think was going to use it for water cooling a PC at one point but never got around to it...) and the Civic isn't that big and I'm not pushing its limits too much, so I felt it was ok. In my van that we tow our camper with, I have the Honda OEM plate and fin style cooler added. I would have went aftermarket and used a Hayden, but I have 40k miles left on the warranty and didn't want Honda to complain if they saw I used a non-stock part.
I bought a cheap tranny cooler and tossed it on my Civic today. I bought a hitch for it so I can tow my boat, so we can take both the boat and popup when we go camping and I don't have to make 2 trips to the house and 2 trips back to bring everything. The boat is 860lbs with a full tank of gas and deep cycle battery. My civic can tow 1000lbs.
And, with as windy and hilly as some of the roads are around here, I decided it would be a good idea to put a transmission cooler on the civic.
The cooler helps keep the transmission fluid (for an automatic) cool - overheating is the #1 killer of transmissions.
You just put it in series with your existing stock-cooler thats built into the radiator. You put the new one BEFORE the radiator one, because you actually don't want to over-cool the fluid in the winter time, and the radiator will help heat it up to temp as well, when its cold out.
The one I bought just uses zip ties to attach to your AC condenser.
It came with JUST enough hose, but I had another 4 feet on hand just in case, but I didn't want to use it because the hose it came with was a lot nicer and thicker.
I had to pull the front bumper off the car. Its WAY easier than it looks. Its just 2 screws in the wheel wells, then a bunch of those stupid plastic rivets, then the whole thing just lifts off.
I used some wire loom to help protect the hose around any sharp edges.
Once the bumper is back on, you can hardly see its there.
I just removed the top hose in between the transmission and the stock cooler, and put this in, in place.
The hardest part was taking the battery out so I could get to the existing transmission hoses.
Once your done, you add about half a quart of fluid due to the additional capacity of the new hoses and cooler. Check for leaks, take it for a spin, and check the fluid and for leaks again.
I started around 3:30 and was done by 5:30.
Now I don't have any worries about frying my transmission from towing my boat to the lake.
And yeah, before it comes up, a plate and fin style cooler like this one - https://www.amazon.com/Hayden-Automotive-678-Rapid-Cool-Transmission/dp/B000C3DDKO Is WAY better. But, I already had this one on hand (I think was going to use it for water cooling a PC at one point but never got around to it...) and the Civic isn't that big and I'm not pushing its limits too much, so I felt it was ok. In my van that we tow our camper with, I have the Honda OEM plate and fin style cooler added. I would have went aftermarket and used a Hayden, but I have 40k miles left on the warranty and didn't want Honda to complain if they saw I used a non-stock part.
