car has 202k on the clock got the car in a trade so idk if the trans was rebuilt at some point . would it do anything to my trans if i put the new acura atf fluid in there ?

 

Is your tranny shifting ok ? How does the fluid look ?


If anything were to happen by replacing the fluid, then all that was holding the tranny together was the sludge within it. Not knowing the previous history leaves you in a guessing game scenario. All you have to really go on is the fluid's condition along with the way the tranny shifts. If in doubt, have the tranny professionally evaluated. If it were my car, I'd take the chance of replacing the fluid. But then there are those folks who would'nt kick a sleeping dog. Do you feel lucky ?

 

open hood and look at trans
See any bolt heads with blue paint on them?
thats an acura warranty unit

take a 3 oz fluid sample and send to blackstone labs, 25 bucks gets a mass spectrograph reading, and evaluation by a human of the results
if there is normal amounts of crud and clutch material - change out the fluid to new dw`1

if the news is bad = start planning a trans replacement
200 on an original unit would pretty much set the record

what color is the fluid now,,red reddish brown black
smell like burnt sugar?

 

Whatever you decide to do, don't do a 3x3 fluid drain in one day or you may toast it. Do a 1x3, drive it for a few weeks to a month before doing the second drain. I did my 3x3 over the span of 3 months and had no problems. I did notice smoother shifts though.

 

kinda hard shifting on all gears its a 1999 so it has the 4 speed trans thanks for the info about the lab and the bolt

its brownish blackish and smells like a melted crayon

 

You're very fortunate that it's a '99, having the four speed tranny which was much less problematic than the five speeds which replaced it from model year 2000 and up.

Having said that, and with what you described.......I'd personally chance dropping the old fluid in the pan and replenishing it with only Honda fluid. Try that and see if it helps any at all. You may also want to research replacing the ATF filter and after a few thousand miles, perform another 1x3. That way you are not shocking the unit too much.