fliplyricist1

Still scratching my head on this one...but did the 3x drain and fill procedure on the ackmatic this morning after tossing and turning in bed contemplating the risk of its ultimate demise.

First drain...my nose was immediately molested by the god-awful stench of burnt ATF fluid spouting from the drain plug. Shit smelled HORRID. Fluid was a pool of dark brown fluid with a close resemblance to motor oil 5k past a scheduled change. Magnetic drain plug showed a pretty thick layer of accumulated black metal shavings, though I'm really not sure what is 'normal' and what is 'excessive.'

Mind you, the car has been 'slipping' for the past 3 or so years...with it getting progressively worse within the past few months...having trouble holding basically all 4 gears.

Regardless, I prayed for the best and emptied 3 quarts of the newly formulated Honda ATF, and fired her up.

Started by cycling through the gears..WTF? Shit was a lot less 'jerky' and seemed to engage almost immediately. Put her in D4 and prayed for movement. She accelerated almost perfectly, without a hitch...a complete night and day difference from before. Took her out for a spin and the shifting felt amazing...I could 'maybe' only count 1 or two slipped gears between 2nd and 3rd, but honestly it may not even have happened.

Repeated the process twice, and each time it got slightly better. Due to the noted improvement, I decided NOT to use the bottle of Lucas Tranny Fix as I originally intended...only because I've heard 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

Now the tranny isn't perfect at all....but isn't this a bit odd that I would experience a noticeable 'improvement' after a drain and fill with completely burnt fluid and hard slipping gears? From everything I've read, if your tranny really was indeed toast and on its way out, doing so much as a drain and fill would never show any type of improvement and, in many instances, kill it instantly.

So now my question is...what do you think I may have on my hands? I installed an aftermarket cooler around 4 years ago to help prolong the life of this thing, but these v6 autos are just known for being pieces of Nigerian Scam. I'm pretty stoked that my tranny is still alive and working better...but still a bit paranoid. Has anyone with an ailing tranny experienced this before? Anything else I can do at this point myself to help the tranny performance even more?

Thanks!

RemieGino14

All I know is that your not really suppose to flush the tranny fluid out since draining it would only make it more prone to it being destroyed since not having to flush it out for a while, its not used to the new fluid. I don't know thats what I only learned about, could be wrong though.

- RemieGino14 -

fliplyricist1

Exactly what I was thinking. Which is why I was so scared to do this drain and fill. From what I've read on this forum and others...if the car is slipping and your fluid is bad/burnt...draining or flushing with new fluid is basically suicide, since the bad, thick fluid is basically the only thing keeping the tranny together.

Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon and the tranny doesn't suddenly get worse on me, but the fact it got better afterwards has me a bit perplexed

RemieGino14

If your car is a 2.2 or 2.3, probably should start planning that tranny swap to stick... Lol. That is saying, imo, if your planning to keep the car for a extra mile longer.

- RemieGino14 -

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Not surprised, I change my fluid every spring when I take my car out of storage.

Project_CLean

iTrader: (2)

maybe you're one of the lucky ones..honest. the problems with these transmissions were shift solenoids sticking, progressively worse with cold weather (winter), could be the previous owner really babied the vehicle,religious services and all, every little bit helps you know? maybe that gunked up fluid was actually causing the solenoids to stick worsee, but you're right, dont speak too soon..you just never know. honda never fails to surprise.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

^ that's not the only issue, there's also cooling issues that cause internal breakdown and bearings breaking loose

Project_CLean

iTrader: (2)

oh yea; that too. sorry.

Eband27

It might be running good now, but all the gunk that was holding everything together is now gone, and it'll fail sooner or later

dougdeep

Time may tell, or maybe, something plugging a fluid passage and it actually managed to break free and stay free.

You may have won the battle and will soon lose the war. Who knows, but you'll know in the next 6 months if you dodged the bullet. Just don't push your luck and stress it like I did.

DaInFaMMuS1

If Black changes his every spring and its still running well, lets hope you bought urself some time. The newer, less dense fluid might cool better than old fluid and keep the fluid motion and lubrication better, but then again it might've dislodged some clutch debris that was keeping it alive. We'll all cross our fingers for you lol

fliplyricist1

haha appreciate it guys!

Funny thing is...when I was draining the first cycle, about 20 seconds in I did hear a large 'plop'...like a large chunk of debris had fallen out along with the fluid. Not sure if it was just a temporary lapse in flow or if something did get dislodged, but I'm hoping for the best. I only drive the car maybe once or twice a week...so if this gets me past this winter I will consider it a success

thanks for the kind words, fellas!

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

This reminds me, I didn't change my trans fluid this spring

Well, we don't say the tranny's taking a shit for nothing

DaInFaMMuS1

LMFAO!

Eband27

the thing is, blackack changes his fluid all the time, so his tranny will last for ever... yours wasnt change for a while..

fliplyricist1

yeah, honestly I don't have super high expectations for this, but if it can even buy me another two months or so then it was worth my time. Very simple procedure and only around 60 bucks total

asianspec

iTrader: (1)

Hope it gets better for you man.

JDMCRX

Heat and valve hang up eat these trannies. I would pull all your sensors and silnoids out and clean them out.

The engine runs at 180deg so the fluid going back into tranny is at the same temp also.

Liner Sil


lock up sil


Valvebody Strainer this one your can not clean unless u take the trans apart.


Takes a hour to clean out the silnoids and you will notice a difference.

How thes trans work in N all the clutch pack return diaphrams have pressure on them to dissengage the Gear. As you go thru the gears the pressure moves from the release diaphram to the clutch piston and ingages it.

What happens with the dirty silnoids is the pressure is not bleed off fast enough or the silnoid is slow to respond. And the tranny is trying to put pressure on the clutch packs to engage it and you have the throtle WOT and the clutch pack is only seeing 50psi and climbing when it should have 110psi. I dunno if this makes sense.

Ive treated a few of these trannies and flushes do work. some dont all depends how the drivers imput was.

fliplyricist1

Have driven the car every day for the past few days and it appears to be getting consistently better. The upshifts and downshifts are so smooth now that I don't even realize the car is shifting unless I give it a lot of gas to make the car really move. But regular cruising speeds the car feels great now, night and day difference. But I am still extremely interested in cleaning the selenoids. However, I have no idea how to go about doing so. I know you said you were going to make a DIY on this with pics, and totally don't mean to rush you if you're busy...but were you still planning on doing this? Or do you have a link to a guide showing how to locate them and clean them?

Thanks again!

fliplyricist1

https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-tl-problems-fixes-117/cleaned-shift-solenoid-filter-screen-fixed-problem-644943/

same thing?

JDMCRX

Yeah but thats just the lock up convertor. I would be more worried about the liner silnoid and shift silnoids.

fliplyricist1

ok, so based on your picture, I'm gathering this is the liner selenoid? (due to the 2 large cylindrical figures protruding from the ends)



It's located right behind the ATF dipstick.

Unfortunately, I don't think I can wait for someone else to do a DIY as I've been waiting quite awhile and putting this off, so I'll just be tackling this myself. My only real question is...are there things I need to look out for, or things I could possibly break? Visually, I can see the 2 'plugs' that go into selenoids, as well as a few exposed bolts. But is there more to it? Anyone with a helms manual that can help a brutha out?

Any help would really be appreciated. Thanks

JDMCRX

Ok here is what i would do.

Take a pressure washer and wash the top of the trans and make sure there is no dirt there. Dont go closer then 18" to any piece on the trans

Now let it dry or blow it off with a air compressor.

Take the complete intake out of the way, battery and the thrtotle body side engine cover off. Im going by memory been a while since ive seen my cl with a motor in it lol. I think you will have to pull the tranny cooler steel lines off the trans also. Take the plugs off the liner silnoid and that should be good then there is 4 bolts 10mm on the out side of it. If you got to pry to get it off dont pry on the silnoids and pry up. It should come off pretty easy with your hand on both side.

Now there are 3 tubes on the liner silnoid pull out them out and make sure you know witch one goes where. Now if you are doing this .

IM gonna start a thread.

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