I am in need of a power steering cooler for my car. The factory part GM GENUINE 25962984 has been on back order and "coming soon" on Summit's website since last fall. Both Summit and rock auto now have a listing for a Dorman unit but i'm a bit gun shy about it.
Should I pull the trigger on the dorman part, wait for the GM one to maybe come back in stock in June, or risk buying a used one...
Thoughts?
They seem to be decent from my experience, that PS cooler is a super-simple part and I wouldn't hesitate to run it. It's on the return side of the system so it has to hold approximately zero pressure.
When I sold car parts professionally to shops, everyone hated Dorman, including me. Return rate on defective on out of the box was over 50%. We had a rep come and show us a virtual tour of their overseas reman plant, and the conditions and techniques that they showed us were shockingly awful. I'd put a junkyard part on instead of a Dorman 11 out of 10 times.
Not a big fan of their reman stuff, but new product seems to be acceptable.
I have always had great success with Dorman parts.
seems like new = okay, reman = run away. how do I tell if its new or reman? The description doesn't say one way or the other
Dorman has worked for me, as long as great precision isn't needed.
Some Dorman stuff is OEM in a different box, some is hot garbage. YMMV. On a steering cooler I would run it after a good flush of brake cleaner.
That being said, how does one blow up a steering cooler? Back in the day you could pretty much just loop the coolers if it was a street car with no ill effects.
93gsxturbo said:That being said, how does one blow up a steering cooler? Back in the day you could pretty much just loop the coolers if it was a street car with no ill effects.
didn't blow one up, car came stock without and i've boiled the PS fluid a few times so planning on upgrading to synthetic fluid and adding the Z06/Z51 cooler to eliminate.
My experience is Dorman is a good short term solution. My F150 had a Dorman turn signal switch when I got it. It lasted a few years, but never had the same feel as the OEM. It eventually failed and got replaced with a FoMoCo one.
I've used other parts on occasion, mostly hardware type stuff. If it's something that is rigid, probably okay. If it is something with moving parts...meh.
The most recent dorman part I utilized on my Sequoia was a power steering rack because that's all that was available. It's leaked since day 1 of use but still working.
I've never used dorman's rebuild stuff. Racks/pumps/etc. But I used to the sell the crap out of everything else they made. Just like was said before, they had a wide variety of stuff from OEM with labels scratched off to playdoh plastic made just outside antarctica. On a PS cooler I would't even hesitate to use it. I doubt it'll last 20 years like an OE version would but I'd be surprised if you didn't get 5-10 years from it and is it even going to stay on the car that long or will it be upgraded later?
In reply to ClearWaterMS :
If you want serious PS cooling power for autocross there are much bigger ones available on the aftermarket, note that some may be labeled as trans coolers 
GameboyRMH said:In reply to ClearWaterMS :
If you want serious PS cooling power for autocross there are much bigger ones available on the aftermarket, note that some may be labeled as trans coolers
haha; Why does your car have 2 ac condensors?
I ended up ordering the dorman part and will install it the next time I put the car back up in the air.
For a part like this, grab it off a lower mileage junkie part.
Dorman most likely made in China out of recycled metal w poor metallurgical qualities.
Consider pulling a cooler off a model vehicle from the same manufacturer, but from a larger engine for better performance if it meets your requirements.
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