I have had three different people tell me three different things about changing transmission fluid. Acura tells me I need to have the transmission flush, Honda tells me all I need to have done is drain the fluid and not have the flush, and that the flush could actually do more harm than good. Honda didn't want to do the work, so there motive for telling me this is not in question, however, Acura would gain by having me do the flush, because it would cost about three times what a normal draining of the fluid would cost.

What is the answer here? Do I need a flush or not, or can I get by with just draining the fluid? Thanks.

 

I just did a regular drain on mine at 10, 000 miles but I did it 3 times over.
Meaning, I drained used ATF and refilled with new HONDA ATF ; with engine running, shifted to d5 put some load on the engine with my foot on the brakes, to neutral ...to reverse ...load engine again for about 15 sec. Did this 5 times then drained fluid. Refilled fluid again to specs.......so on and so forth until drained ATF fluid turns from dark brown(dirty) to pinkish color(clean) .
I was just charged regular rate of 24.95 but I bought my own honda ATF of about 12 qts .......10 bucks tip.........car runs great.

 

So, did you do it yourself or bring it in for service? I'm at 22,500. Does it sound like a good time to get it flushed?

Axleback

 

I'm going to do my own 30k service...

1) Flush the coolant
2) Clean air element
3) Replace micron filter
4) Flush ATF

When I do the ATF flush, I'm going to:

1) Drain it, refill with 2qt.
2) Drive through the neighborhood using all the gears, take it onto the side road to speed up to 5th gear.
3) Repeat that process 3 times
4) Refill with 2.6 qt (or whatever the capacity is).

I hope I don't get burned...I've never worked on a hot car before...I did the oil change with a cold engine.

 

Me and my brother did mine it is fairly easy it's like changing motor oil

 

Just so that I don't screw this up, where exactly is the draining plug for the transmission fluid? Do you use only Honda ATF? There are no filters to replace like an oil change right?

axleback

 

There's a picture in the manual for the location of the drain bolt. It's about where the oil drain bolt is, except mirrored to the other side of the car.

 

Use ramps for the ATF flush. It's very easy. Plenty of clearence so you don't get burned. The only problem I had was the stuff splashes a bit at that height. I had to mop some off the floor of my garage when done.

The drain bolt is gold colored (cad zinc) and is designed so that a 3/8 square ratchet extension fits. It's on the drivers side. There is a fill bolt on top of the trans just behind the ATF dipstick. It's marked ATF. There are no filters. Just replace the plug washer. The procedure you outlined is correct. You'll need 9 qts of ATF and the drain plug washer.

Use only Honda ATF (Z1). Nothing else works well.

 

It'd be nice if Tim sold drain bolt washers for the oil and ATF...it'd probably work out to $0.30/washer and $1 postage.

Noone around here has the washers, and shipping is absolutely terrible for just washers...

 

While watching my dealer tech do my alignment I asked about ATF management. He said the system holds about 6 qts of which only about 3 drain out. The recommended Acura drain interval is 30,000 miles. He said the techs there recommend draining/replacing the 3 qts every 15k miles, then the full flush at 30k is not needed.

Makes sense to me and that is the plan I will follow.

 

given that many people seem to have trouble with their trannys on this site, i decided to go conservative and had the fluid changed at 10k miles. The tech said the fluid was real dark but fortunately the magnet had no metal particles (most all trannys have a powerful magnet that is literally just stuck in the pan to catch bits of metal). I will probably change my fluid every 15k thereafter. I know i can do it myself too, but Acura charges only $60 total for the job and they are open on saturdays by me for service, which is convenient, so its not worth getting the garage floor all messy at that price. Incidently this will be the first car i have ever owned where i did anything to the tranny at under 100k miles. I have never had a car where i had to worry about the tranny until reading all the horror stories on this site about the TL tranny. I am exercising greater caution now. I hope it helps.

 

I only have 10K miles on my 02 TLS....I did the drain and refill procedure 4 times @ 5K miles and used Amsoil Synthetic ATF. It works great....no noticeable shift differences from the Honda ATF.

 

Just so maintenance is convenient and easy to remember, I do ATF and radiator flush every 10,000 miles; brake fluid complete drain at 15,000 and
LOF at 5000 miles.
I just go to EZ lube for the oil job.
So far I'm happy with them.
juniel

 

Not that there's anything wrong with changing fluid early, but the coolant in the TL/TL-S (at least on '02s and newer) is good for 105,000 miles. Doesn't have to be changed until the first major "tune-up."