anyone remove theirs? almost finally got the dakota back on the road ( been off the road since about JUne, sigh) noticed a ps leak..cooler is bad- going to eliminate temporarily...how needed are they? no plans for larger tires, snow plows, etc.. most I plan to use dakota for is pulling my boat

 

I would suggest against removing it. As far as I know, from factory all the power steering systems came with them on the Magnum motors. Most vehicles don't have one stock so it might be needed to cool the fluid under normal conditions.

You said you have a leak but you didn't state where or why the cooler is bad. If it is just at the inlet or outlet where the hose attaches you can just cut off the bad hose and use a high quality clamp to hold it on.

 

I don't have a cooler on mine. It didn't have one when I bought it but it was leaking at the rack and pinion. Installed a new rack and pinion after it finally wouldn't hold fluid. If you have the proper hoses to hook to the rack and pinion then I dont see why you couldn't remove it and be ok. Since your not towing or wheeling you should be fine. Later when you have the extra cash I would install one just because heat is the death of most all components.

 

do you mean automatic transmission cooler? i've never seen a power steering cooler except on spikes "trucks"
if it's the auto tranny cooler you do need it to haul a boat. replace the lines, the coolers usually never fail.

 

my old p/s cooler was rotten ( bought another ebay- this one is like brand new almost ..I like the cleaner look without it but agree about heat being a big enemy

 

all my cars have a power steering coolers on them. my trucks on the other hand never came with them. my suggestion is if it came with one, then it should always have one then.