got some shuddering on the freeway last night, going to do this soon.

ken, did you resolve the slipping? was it worth it?

 

Where you having any issues prior to doing this and is the tranny fluid at the correct level?

 

I just got done changing my diff fluid and trans filter. It shifts a lot nicer, and doesnt hit as hard when going from park to reverse or drive. The atf still looked ok, but the filter was gross, and so was the drain plug. I got my parts from O'reileys for $20...seal, filter and gasket. The filter looked excactly the same. All i did to seal it was put a light coat of atf on both sides of the new gasket. It seems to be sealing so far (fingers crossed)

 

It turns out that the filter gasket was a bit off. It's been fixed since.

That's a good deal, it seems. Never thought I'd say that about O'Reilly's, though. Everything else is a rip.

~Cheers~

 

hmmmm, that does sound like a deal, i'ma go tomorrow and see wuz up with da O'reiley's here in town. if so i think i'll be changing mine out as well.

 

my car still doesn't shift the way I *think* it should...has anyone ever cleaned the shift solenoid screens?

 

Awesomeness! Did this and my first oil change ever today - and what a difference! You can see some of my before and after comments I made and the site I bought the parts from on this thread.

Scraping the old gasket off both the engine part and pan took over an hour or so. I used a few razor blades in the process.

To get the drain plug off, I used a cut piece of pipe to get some leverage. The rest was a big mess of oil and sweat and dirt under my TL with 199,900 miles. Can't wait for 250,000 to roll around and do it again!

Oh and make sure you allow plenty of time to jack up the car - I had my trunk car jack and two regular-sized jack stands, and it took me quite a while to get it to the max height of the stands.

Thanks again to the OP for his AWESOME DIY tutorial - I would have been too chicken to attempt it without his guidance.

 

My 1998 3.2 TL has been slipping some so I finally took the time to get the tranny flushed at the Baton Rouge, LA ACURA dealership. I specifically asked them to change the filter during the flush. When I came back to the dealer the service guy told me this tranny does not have a filter. Am I getting 2.5's & 3.2's mixed up in this forum?? Thanks!!!!!

 

I remember seeing DIY for both 2.5TL and 3.2TL, so there must be one for 3.2s too. Maybe they probably have never done one for these types of cars. I've never been to the Baton Rouge dealer before, so I don't know what service is like there. I usually go to Walker Acura in Metarie whenever something important needs to be done.

Oh, I've read that these transmission should not be flushed because of it's age. Changing the tranny screen, drain and fill should be sufficient.

 

is it shifting too firm or not firm enough? what kind of fluid are you using? have you drained and filled the tranny 3 times? if you have gone to the point of changing out the fluid and changing the filter screen, but still experience sloppiness, i would think about switching fluid to maybe a synthetic like Amsoil? i just did my first drain and fill with it yesterday... hoping to get some firmer shifts...

glad to hear that this worked out for you...

it is not actually a filter... so if you say filter, they will look at you funny... it is called a Transmission screen... if you look at my first picture, take the part number off of the rectangular box and bring it to the dealer... if you still have trouble locating the part at your local dealership, give Tim @ OEMparts a call... he is a vendor here and can get it to you and at a better discount than the stealership... 866-347-8355...

 

Im using honda atf. I dont like how hard it shifts from 1rst to 2nd. It also has a slight lag when shifting out of park.
I want to take the shift solenoids off, but they are so close to the firewall...i dont think i can get to them

 

Those solenoids were expensive... Anyone have pricing on them nowadays?

~Cheers~

 

I couldnt find ones for the tl, but the accord solenoids are between 175 and 225. Ouch

 

Kam--thanks for the reply. I can believe what you are saying. Maybe the ACURA folks thought I was asking for a spin-on filter to be changed like on an oil system. You would think they might just inform their customers that screens are installed not filters..... Oh well. If I get really ambitious 30000 miles from now maybe I'll take this on. The 3x fluid change that the local ACURA dealer did for me worked like a champ. 322,000 miles now. Will do this and maybe also screen at 350,000 miles.

 

hey don't mean to come in but you 1st gen have it easy i wish i could drop my pan and change the fliter why honda didnt keep the same trans for the 2000 tl

 

J series trans have an external filter you can replace. my acura dealer counter person was telling me this and showed me the diagram.

 

thaxs

 

I have a 2003 cl and just had the basic "pan fluid" change, getting the story from the dealer that there was "no filter to service", to which I told him "yeah" I mean the screen. However, I see the small spin-on canister filter which is offered for sale part # 25450-P7W-003. Again, the service manager at the dealer said, that was just a supplemental line filter that he has never seen changed; not worth doing.

Anyone know the real skinny on that part? Is it really a tranny filter worth changing and is it secondary to changing out the screen in value? I saw a post where someone had said they were changing it regularly. I just ordered one from Delray for like $35. and was going to install it; doesn't look hard, just a few bolts on a bracket and spin on the block and into the return line. Anyone know about this?

 

so by seeing the pix that was a 3.2..... soo for the 2.5 is it the same thing..???? also what weight of oil does the diff use...???

 

80/90 gear oil. I would use synthetic

 

yeah i always use synthetic.. lol... like how many would it use..????

 

great write-up thanks

 

hate to revive a dead thread, but I need some suggestions here...

I have a 99 3.5RL which, as I understand, has the same transmission as the 1gen 3.2TL. anyway, I ordered an aftermarket strainer kit from rockauto (wix brand, specifically for my car), did the filter replacement, and put in 4 quarts of honda ATF-Z1. now it shifts better than before in what I think is most gears, but if I'm going from 1-2 under moderate to hard acceleration, it will shift late or slip,which it absolutely never, ever did before. Anyone got any ideas why? here are the things I'm unsure about:

pan gasket: the included gasket was the wrong shape. only very slightly, but still wrong. i managed to get the pan off without damaging the old gasket at all, though, so I just left it on and have had no fluid leaks. i did not put gasket sealant on it, just left it on the pan.

strainer gasket: when i pulled out the old strainer, the gasket came off while pulling it out. I assumed the gasket slipped on over the top tube of the strainer, but it also looks like it could go inside the tube in the ridge. did i put it in the wrong place? the service manual is not specific.

fluid: filled to 4 quarts, which is more than it needs. fluid covers the entire bottom 'weight' of the dipstick, far above the top mark in the notch.

are any of these things the more likely candidate? like i said, all other transmission activity has been improved or at least not gotten worse.

 

u overfilled the fluid... if you overfill, you can also experience symptoms of not enough fluid which can cause slipping in your trans... drain out a bit of the fluid to get it between the top and bottom line on the dipstick...

supplement to this maintenance, you should be doing a 3X3 (3 times drain and fill) on the fluid to get most of the old fluid out and fresh fluid back in...

 

same problem i had except mine was slipping way worse. I recommend getting the OEM screen and gasket and make sure the screen fits forrectly before reassembly of the pan. The wix one is designed for Legends which also have a slightly different shape pan gasket.

 

I'd say its worth changing. a screen replacement is under $100. A tranny replacement is $1k+

 

my tranny shifts harder from 1-2 gear. i think its common for our tls to do that, no?

 

well i don't have time to replace it now, so i guess I'll put the OEM parts on order and just do it all over again. it was a pretty easy process, if a bit messy. a dewalt cordless impact driver really helped though, except the drain plug which took a breaker bar and some muscle. the screen did fit into place perfectly though. Thanks for the input, I'll let you know how it works once I get the proper fluid level in there.

 

still slipping in 1st. unfortunately, I'm about to go on a road trip and don't have time to do the whole process again, otherwise I definitely would. I wish there were some way for me to drop the pan and take a look at the strainer quickly and without draining the fluid. oh well.

 

alright, gentlemen, it works. I was having trouble getting to sleep last night, and what finally set my mind at ease was setting out all the tools I'd need to do the entire process over again this morning before work (recycling the strainer and fluid, but at least taking it out and putting it back in). I think that the strainer might have been on funny, or the gasket was. it didn't look like it was set wrong, but i took it out and reseated it, and it works like a charm now. The bonus: after only 3.5hr of sleep last night, I was able to do the process from drain plug off to replacing the dipstick after the fill in 25 minutes. I'm not messing around when I say an impact driver makes this job so much quicker. it's all 10mm! Also, i was using a less-than-optimal method of containing the ATF (an old milk container, VERY thoroughly washed and dried), and when i poured it from the milk container to the funnel to fill the tranny, a lot of it started running down the side. the fix? put a paper towel between the milk container and the funnel. not another drop leaked. unfortunately, my car now smells like ATF from the stuff that did spill. dipstick is perfectly in the middle of the notch, but I'm carrying extra ATF on my trip just in case.

 

your mounts maybe shot

 

just figured I'd give an update. 1200-mile round trip, no leaks, shifts fine, no more slipping. thanks for the help

 

 

gotta bring this back from the dead haha but ima be doing this soon...im gonna go oem screen,o-ring,gasket and royal purp diff fluid but is there also a magnet that goes into the pan? i know on my legend when i did this service there was also a magnet that fit into a little slot in the pan that would catch any metal shavings that may occur. i was wondering if our tl's had this feature as well? 3.2 that is

 

the magnet for the tranny case is on the bolt itself... so when you pullthe bolt off, you will see all the sludge and metal shavings caught on the drain bolt... no additional magnets...

 

I FINALLY got around to doing this today. Worked great. Thank you for the awesome writeup and sticky.

I no longer hear the 1 to 2 hard shift, and I have transmission peace of mind.

 

Great! Which ATF did you use? Honda Z1?

~Cheers~

 

Nice info thanks

 

booo!!!!

 

i have 130,000 miles on my 97 3.2 tl, should i drain the tranny fluid and change the filter?