Southbound

I have an 02TLS bought last March with 12,000 miles on it now.

I did my first oil change at 3,500 miles.

I did my second oil change at 7,000 miles.

I JUST did my third oil change at 12,000 miles.

Because of the "Tranny paranoia" I have drained and refilled the tranny fluid with EACH oil change. For what it's worth... the first two times, the fluid had about a 1/16th of an inch of metallic/graphite type sludge on the tranny drain plug. This time after a LONGER change period, the drain plug only had a "slight film" of this black grime. I don't know if I'm prolonging the life of my tranny or not by going through this routine... but it seems to be getting better rather than worse with respect to fluid contamination. So maybe it's a good thing? Of course I've used ONLY Honda ATF A-1 fluid each time.

HERE'S MY QUESTION... This time I wasn't as careful with measuring, etc. I ended up pouring a bit too much fluid back into the tranny. On the dip stick where there are two "indicator holes"... my fluid level is about half the distance between those two holes ABOVE the top hole. I would guess that is about a pint too much.

Should I hassle with draining some of it back out? I hate to deal with the ramps again. Maybe I can reach things flat on the ground? If I left things at this level... what damage may or may not occur? How much overfill can the tranny take before it is a REAL problem... and what problems would develop?

I'll probably get the energy back up to drain a little out just to have things "spot on"... but thanks for any info on how critical this level actually is.

Thanks!

Southbound

ERRATA...

I just read my post above and see that I made a TYPO... I USE HONDA ATF "Z-1" in case someone was going to wonder what the hell A-1 was...

ALSO, 12,000 MILES, AND SO FAR SO GOOD WITH MY TRANNY PERFORMANCE. NO PROBLEMS AT ALL TO REPORT YET... I either got a good tranny, or the fluid changes are keeping it in good condition, or it's still waiting to happen... I hate to think that one has to change the tranny fluid every 5,000 miles on this car... but I'm doing it just to track the contamination levels from the beginning, to see if anything changes.

Thanks again for any replys on the level situation.

trouser chili

Interesting. My guess would be the initial sludge you encountered was due to break-in. It would explain why you see less and less as time goes by. I'd imagine that removing it would only help, but my understanding of the tranny problem is that it is due to a mechanical design flaw, not a fluid wear problem. In that case most likely foriegn material in your transmission oil would be a symptom of the problem, instead of the problem itself. If you see a sudden resurgence in the ammount of foriegn material in the oil, then I'd guess you've either changed the enviroment the tranny is working in to a much more harsh one, or that your transmission is in the early stages of failing.

asiankidd

why prolong a tranny that is destine for failure?

trouser chili

Why prolong your life when it is destined for death? Seriously, suicide may be an option for you. Remember to slash up and down the arm, not across.

Southbound

That is a good analogy chili... Thanks for the backup... LOL

The reason I'm trying to prolong the life of my tranny is for two reasons...

1. Maybe if I change the fluid frequently enough during the early stages... it won't continue to self destruct by having the contamination cycle accelerate the wear in an endless fatal loop. The more contamination, the more the wear... the more the wear, the more the contamination. This results in a tranny eating itself up. Maybe I could prevent that downward spiral???

2. If the tranny is going to go down because of a design flaw... then why are half of the dealer fixes, tranny flushes? Even in the bogus trannys, the fluid flush seems to keep it alive for a while longer. SO... now that the tranny is warrantied for 100k miles... I'd rather wait to have the dealer GUT MY CAR TO PIECES until I have a few more miles and years on it. At that point, I won't care so much when they put their scatches into the paint, and leave out a few screws, bolts, and strain reliefs, etc. Right now, the thought of them tearing my car down to the bone... scares the hell out of me. I just got my FIRST scratch a month ago... I'd rather have a dozen before I take it in for that kind of major repair.

Maybe I get lucky and I have one of the 95% plus trannys that end up being good, if I'm good to it??? Time will tell. If nothing else, it's an interesting experience. It doesn't take any time to drain while it's up on the ramps doing the oil... the money for the fluid... well call that insurance or research money... or shear stupidity

asiankidd

well unless your life come with a warentee from upstairs....thats a different story...perhaps you were blessed with a 50 year-50 million miles warentee but last i check i didnt come with an owners manual....the tl tranny in the other hand...well i think i made my point...

asiankidd

but isnt that just a luck of the draw....would you rather have a tranny that was flawless and one that kept the tranny fluid nice and pink, cus i recently checked mine and was comtemplating on changing my fluid, cus it was brown at 11k but if its gonna go i wanna fit as many trannies as i can b4 the tim runs out and if, i repeat IF im lucky i can get 3 trannies in and file as a lemon....the thing with our problem is that its a ticking time bomb i can go as early as 2000 miles and as late as 80k miles...wouldnt it suck if you got a new tranny in at 80 k and then the warentee last for another 50 k and your 2nd tranny dies at 80k again? by then your out of luck...also i agreee with you on the scratches issue but ..... whats a few scratches and bolts as oppose to a working no defective tranny? either way i understand your point of view...but as i was searching many people almost seem like changing the tranny fluid was the reason their tranny blew....dunno off the top of my head but this guys changes his at 3500, and 7k only to have the tranny die at 9k....what now?each tranny fluid change isnt cheap either.....

niko14

Let it die!!!

Bigfonsz

Heat can kill anything. What I would like to think is if you add a Tranny cooler and get a gauge to track the heat in the trans you should be fine. tl-s trans get's very very hot. just my 2cent. Good luck What's the psi in the trans for the tl-s?

Later