I certainly would!

Drop the pan and drain the converter, blow out the cooler lines, better yet flush the cooler. Replace the filter and refill with the same amount of fluid you removed.

 

I heard that if you drain all of it then you ruin your tranny by loosing all the frictional components. True?

 

Flea, Not sutre what you mean, but draining all the fluid won't hurt your tranny. Put in about 10-12 quarts, fire it up, shift into forward, reverse, then shut it off. Add the remaining amount. Run it till it's good and hot then check the level. I run mine a tad low cuz overfull is bad for the tranny.

Make sure everything is clean, pan, magnet, cooler ect. ect.

 

I had an Acura wants that I drained all the fluid out of and it went bad and slipped.

Fletch

Thanks for the info.

 

Maybe the hondas don't like it, but I've done it many times without hurting the trans.

 

Drain the tranny and the torque converter. there is a drain bolt in the torque converter, 7/16" i think but its been a while. you will get 6 to 8 qts out of the TC then use full synthetic ATF to refill. To check the TC lockup you will need a scantool that shows a data stream and the status of the TC solonoid. Because I ID's the problem as the brake being constantly applied, I didn't need to checK the TC status as the TC will not work with the brake applied.

 

does the '97 have a tranny cooler installed or does it go into the radiator on stock trucks?

 

My 97 does not have an external tranny cooler. It's plummed into the radiator. It's a GREAT idea to get an external cooler if you tow. I switched to synthetic about 100,000 miles ago and use no external cooler. My temps don't even register on the gauge normally. If it's 90+ out it will hit 170 if alot of idiling. I was caught in hurricane Rita last year. In the truck for 16 hours straight.. Temps were about 180.

 

ok. I'm a little confused about the brakes. I believe I have a similar problem on my 97.' My electronic brake controller would always stay on leaving me tailights on all the time. I eventually cut the wires to my brake controller. So this BPA which is on the top of the master cylinder could cause that?

 

The BPA doesn't activate the brakes lights. Maybe your controller was wired wrong or just screwed-up.

 

Yeah. I figured it was junk.

 

If you have an automatic, you have an external tranny cooler. The line from the tranny to the cooler does flow through the radiator first to warm the fluid up.