Honda 3.5 V6 Pilot Ridgeline Strawberry Milkshake Radiator Failure! How to Avoid it!

HOW TO AVOID the SMOD! (Strawberry Milkshake of Death)
Honda Ridgelines and Pilots from 2006-2008 are ticking time bombs.
The radiator has a heat exchanger with fittings that can fail and mix coolant and DW-1 Transmission fluid. This can contaminate the cooling system and ruin the expensive Transmission!
You can either Replace the Radiator, or be cheap like me and bypass the Heat Exchanger.

[@trevfamily5109]

Appreciate the video, so you connected the hose, but what did u use to cap off the remaining 2 pipes? Or did you just use that small hose line you took off and connected one line to another?

[@gregs_garage]

I didn’t show that very well. I used rubber vacuum caps. You could also use a chunk of hose and a plug. Or just leave them open no big deal.

[@lololollaughatlife1431]

So if this happens beyond the warranty- sounds like the owner will be in danger or pay a lot.

[@gregs_garage]

yes pay a lot. All of these are 15 years out of warranty

[@robertburke4263]

You only reference model years 2006-2008 so are you saying that Honda fixed the issue for later model years? I have a 2012 Pilot so should I be concerned?

[@gregs_garage]

Apparently Honda fixed the issue for 2009+.

[@robertburke4263]

@@gregs_garage I believe this became an issue due to lack of coolant change thus creating an acidic condition attacking the internal line. I wonder how Honda addressed this issue? What are your thoughts and TY for the video which was very clear.