Guys, The TL-S is now a year old and has almost 12k miles so I thought I'd treat it to an ATF change. I followed your instructions and ran it and flushed it a few times to clean it out. What I saw was minor metal paste on the drain plug which is typical, and while it wasn't burned to the smell, it was slightly darker in color, the new Honda fluid was of a much stronger odor too I noticed. All in all it is fairly easy with the plug on the bottom of the transaxle. The worst thing was that it had a couple of tight plugs but I ate my Wheaties and it wasn't a big deal! There is no reason that you shouldn't do this operation periodically as it is easy, and not messy at all. QuickRick .

 

Rick,

When I had Acura change my fluid my tranny problems got 10 times worse. Changed it for the first time, per spec at 30k. 5k miles later I had the tranny replaced, due to slipping and missed gears. I have a 2002 TLS.

Runs much better now.

Tom

 

Tom--I still feel better doing it as opposed to not doing the change. I keep wondering if the failures have to do with some part with a flaw in the casting, so some give trouble while others don't? I really like doing my own work as I know exactly what was and wasn't done. Quickrick