Well I decided it would be a good idea to change the transmission fluid even though the car only has 18,000 miles. A few things I noticed:

The jet kit makes it pretty easy to change the fluid.

There seemed to be quite a bit of sludge on the drain bolt.

With the high prices of Honda ATF, multiple changes start getting quite pricey.

The thing that gets me is that changing 40% of fluid doesn't seem like it would do a whole lot of good. I am thinking of doing this once a year since so little is changed at a time.

 

thats b/c your suppose to drain, fill, drive for about 5 min, and then drain, fill, drive about 4 times total to do a complete flush per acura/honda.

 

Well what you say Honda tells me to do and what Honda says in my Helms service manual are two different things, I think. Doing what you suggest makes some sense, as that would replace about 88% of the original fluid. Still not exactly a "change."

But my Helms manual just says to drain and fill. I did not see to do that four times. I'll have to verify that since I let a friend borrow the book. Now the owner's manual does say to do that if you have used non-Honda transmission fluid.

The dealer charges $80 to do the transmission fluid change, whatever it is he does. I can't believe for $80 he's going to do what you suggest, as it would take about 12.5 quarts of fluid. I guess I should check.

And if I used that much at $9.10 from Acura and $6.50 from Honda that's about $80 to $110 just on fluid. And the dealer is charging me $80 for fluid and labor? That's the better deal then.

Doesn't quite make sense though...

 

You need to shop around, cause the fluid is cheaper than that. And the drain fill drive is what is recomended to do since it gets out more of the old fluid than just a simple (like the helms manual) suggests. (some dealers use machines even though they arent recomended to change all the fluid)

 

if you do a search, i have read this is how its suppose to be done, just draining and refilling once does a percentage of it, so you still have alot of old tranny fluid in there. really the best way is a flush, but honda/acura doesn't recommend that, just the drain and fill.

 

Our transmissions fail not because of the trans fluid, but because of the design flaw. In fact, I think too frequent changes could do more harm than good. My dealer charges $45 for a trans. fluid change, I belive its a simple drain and fill, which does not replace all of the fluid, but this is still good enough. I do it every 30K miles, I now I have 51K miles and my transmission has not failed yet. Even if it dies (I hope not), it won't be related to a fluid....

 

the tranny is better off not doing it at all IMHO

 

Better off not having it done? Hmmm....you are the guy who's had three or four go on him, aren't you?

 

I wish I knew where it was cheaper. This is Tulsa and there are only two Honday dealers in town.

 

ya, he's like on his 4th or 5th, but thats besides the point, you could change the fluid every day, it may just prolong the inevitable. its gonna go and thats why acura bumped up the warranty on it to 7yr/100k. nothing wrong with changing the fluid, its just that the fluid isn't the problem, its a bad design in where the fluid can't cool the tranny well enough.

 

Yea and the one that made it the longest didnt have the fluid changed until 60k, The one that made it the least was changed at every oil change (8k miles) and only made it to like 30k. You do the MATH.

 

Tranny svc is a drain and fill; that's all they do at the dealer--at least at mine b/c I worked there.

 

In that case I'll start changing it more often so the first one will go, and then I can get the improved tranny before the warranty expires. Perhaps I am better off not doing anything except praying.

 

I'd recommend you to save your money. If its meant to fail, it will fail, and there is nothing you can do to prevent it.

 

You recommend just topping off the fluid as needed then?

 

You should never need to "top it off" tranny fluid doesnt go down unless you have a leak.

 

the machine dealers use is for flushing just the tranny cooler on the radiator. external coolers type trannys. it doesnt actually flush the transmission fluid internally.

 

Our cars dont have the cooler in the radiator. And some do use a machine that actually draws the fluid out.

 

On most cars, I generally change the transmission fluid with a double drain and refill (so the fluid replaced will be ~70%) every 60,000 miles, provided that the fluid stays cherry red and does not smell burnt. Most of the modern ATFs should be able to go 60,000 miles under normal service.

Unfortunately, with the smaller sump transmissions, such as the Hondas and Aisin Warner units that have a 7-8 qt fluid volume, the fluid is depleted more quickly than in transmissions with a 13qt sump, such as GM units.

Honda transmissions in particular, seem to deplete the fluid more quickly than others. For example, most of the V6 Hondas discolor the ATF to a "brown" color within 20-30K, for some reason. Thus, I would change the fluid in Honda transmissions at least every 30,000 miles, sooner if the fluid turns brown. One drain and refill will be enough, two if the fluid is brown. In addition, I would avoid doing two drain and refills in-line. Instead, doing one drain and refill, drive the car for 500-1000 miles to allow for the new fluid to "clean," then do a second drain and refill.

There's no need to change all of the transmission fluid. Transmission fluid does not become "dirty," at least not as much as engine oil. The idea of replacing transmission fluid in partial drains is to refresh the additive pack and renew the oxidized base oils.

Oh by the way, Supertech Dexron-IIIH (Walmart) and Lubegard HFM converter (Napa Auto parts) makes a Honda Z1 like fluid for about $2.15/qt... They probably wouldn't even know...