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The specific cause of SS failures seem to be hard to pin down partly because Honda isn't talking. What is known is that it involves the clutches frying. That has to be from a design screw up (undoubtably) and probably a combination of heat and the resulting degraded ATF. The useful life of ATF is reduced by half every time you increase the average operating temperature by 20 degrees.
Adding a cooler now doesn't seem like it would help much if your clutches have started to fry but if the ATF doesn't smell burnt you might get lucky and they don't cost all that much.
I bought one of the last of the '01s available in Sacramento, all of which were SS. I added a cooler and an ATF temp gauge and change ATF 20 to 30 thou. No problems but that's worthless information considering I only have 40,000 on the car. What I can say is that even on 100+ days the ATF runs about 190 degrees. That (in most transmissions) should be cool enough for a 100,000 service life. So changing ATF as often as I do is way overkill. But then I like to go into the garage, drink beer and work on the car anyway.
I guess what I'm saying is a cooler and frequent ATF changes are the only thing you can do to improve your chances. There are SS's that have lasted a fairly long time but it doesn't sound like you have one that will.
So...if you can stretch it out til next winter my SS, babied as it is, will be for sale. I've been collecting the parts for a swap for a few years now, mostly trading parts and work, got about $250 into it and I just need a couple more parts. Thinking about an LSD and new synchros before I swap. Looking forward to doing the work. I'm lucky because it isn't my daily driver so I can take my time.
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