mystreba

Hello all - I own a 2005 RL. I'm new to Acura forums and little frustrated trying to find things. My radiator went bad which apparently drained the tranny fluid, and then the shop refilled. When draining/replacing the radiator, it appeared that my coolant and tranny fluid had mixed together, creating a light brown, frothy mess. So I want to flush the coolant out of the engine. However, I'm also afraid the tranny now has coolant mixed in with the trans. fluid, so I want to flush that also.

The radiator is replaced, and the car is ready to start. Can someone point me to DIYs for flushing coolant and flushing the tranny fluid?

Thank you!

mystreba

Anyone? I can't be the first person this has happened to. I can find flush DIYs for other Acuras, but not the RL.

oo7spy

The transmission drain plug is about a foot from the front of the car. It is to the drivers's side of the mid-line, and it faces the passenger tire. You have to remove the splash guard or lossen enough to pull back. The fill plug is just in front of the firewall on the driver's side about 8" from the top of the engine bay. You need to remove the fuse box bolt to push the fuse box off to the side and use a 12" extension to remove the bolt. You will also need a long funnel to fill. Getting to the fill bolt can be a PITA, so some people fill through the dipstick. However, I didn't have enough trouble to resort to that.

A single drain removes 3 qts out of 8 if I remember correctly. You cannot remove all of the fluid and don't even think about using a machine from a lube shop. You have to drain, fill, and then run the car through all 5 gears making sure to lock the torque converter in 5th. This will mix the new fluid with all of the old fluid in the different compartments of the transmission. After that, you can do another drain and fill to replace more old fluid. I have done the math here before (search "3x3" in the "search this forum" bar of the main forum page), and 3 drains and fills gets ~80% of the old fluid out. 4 gets you close to 90%. You will never get all of the old fluid out, and the more you do, the more new fluid you throw away.

Hope this helps.

mystreba

YES - awesome! That is what I suspected based on DIYs for other models and my own under-car inspection, but wanted to make sure. Thanks so much.

Know any links for the engine coolant flush? I found DIYs for the other models, which reference a coolant hose near the oil filter that doesn't appear to exist on the RL.

The only thing I can think to do is turn the engine over until the water pump pushes all the coolant out of the radiator return hose (which I'm not sure is the top one or the bottom one). Even then, I'm not completely sure of the procedure for refilling from scratch.

oo7spy

There is a service manual in the Garage (sticky thread in the main forum) with the proper procedure.

I don't suspect there is anything special about flushing a radiator. Pull the bottom hose, drain, give the engine a turn or two like you said until no more fluid comes out, and then refill through the top hose or cap until the radiator is full with the car running.

mystreba

Yeah, I tried that. None of the links in the garage seem to work.

Also, I should have mentioned in my original post (can figure out how to edit it) that my RL is the SH AWD, if that makes a difference.

Megatron

All of our 2005+ RLs are SH-AWD!

mystreba

Doh!

oo7spy

One huge file with the whole manual can be found here: https://acurazine.com/forums/second-...wnload-856199/

The original link pointed here: https://acurazine.com/forums/second-...t-11-a-734029/

mystreba

And that is awesome - thanks!