Any advice on whether a tranny flush (done correctly) can result in problems with this equipment. I have 62K on my 01 CL and do the flush every 20-25K and am due for one soon. Car shifts OK with only misstep a bump into 5th when engine is cold. Don't want to push my luck by flushing and stirring up crap in the tranny or some other ill effect. Advice?

 

A flush cannot stir up any debris, at least magnetic debris, as the magnetic drain plug should already take of this. If you have big chunks of debris floating around your transmission, you probably have bigger problems.

Honda is against machine flushes because many operators of machine flushes use cleaning/conditioning additives that Honda does not recommend. In addition, many of them do not use the approved ATF-Z1 either. Therefore, Honda only recommends doing the three drain and refill method in the event that the transmission needs to be flushed as part of a repair, not scheduled maintenance.

Even though Honda only requires one drain and refill when transmission maintenance is called for by the service schedule, I still feel that it is a good idea to do a "flush" to remove as much old fluid as possible. Not required by Honda, but still a good idea IMO.

Also, I have no problems with doing a machine flush. As long as the magnetic drain plug is cleaned (or has been cleaned recently), and you are using the correct fluid, I don't see anything wrong with it.

However, I think you should take your car to the dealership immediately and duplicate the 5th gear issue. You are still under warranty right now (or it just expired) and I would bring it in and have them replace the transmission since the out-of-pocket is either $0 or very low.