I've been reading good things about this fluid on Bob is the oil guy and that it's superior to Z1. Had anybody used it here for our transmissions? I simply want to use what's best for my 2007. From what I've been seeing is that the newer Honda formula doesn't have some of the ingredients of the Z1 and that Z1 really isn't that great of a fluid to start with. I know years ago when I worked for Acura, I saw a lot of tranny jobs being done, from TL's to MDX's. I quit in 2006 so the RL was still too new to see anything come in for major repairs. BTW, yes I did search lol.
Opinions?

 

Honda transmissions are generally the weak link of the car after the motor mounts. The 2G TL and CL had the infamous glass 5AT, along with some Accords. These were a symptom of a bad batch of transmissions built in Japan and sent to Marysville for assembly. In general, the Japanese builds are more robust, but we have seen at least 2 RL trannys here need swapping.

I have heard the concerns about DW1 being less protective than Z1, but I feel that if you change your tranny fluid every 4th oil change, DW1 will serve you just fine. As for the whole point of this thread, .

 

The RL's transmission is not the one that saw all the trouble. Those were the 40-speeds in V6 Accords, TLs and Odysseys from roughly '98 through '07. Our tranny is related to the more robust 5-speed unit used in newer Odysseys, Pilots and MDXs.

As for Valvoline MaxLife, I used it. My experience with it is detailed here; skim down a bit to find my post.

https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-rl-2005-2012-76/new-atf-rear-diff-fluids-795607/

 

I have the infamous 2G TL-S and I can say that RedLine ATF is a good oil for tranny.

 

^I didn't think the MT had an issue?

 

only CL had MT in those years, TL got it in its 3rd gen, 04+