What do you guys think the normal color of tranny fluid after 26000 miles since last change? My car is 09 Tax auto tranny. The dealship told me my tranny fluid is brown and dirty that need to be changed, but I only drove 26000 miles since last chang. How come the tranny fluid is dirty again. What is the normal interval to change the auto tranny fluid with normal driving conditions? I have posted the color of my tranny fluid? Is this color considerd dirty fluid? I don't mind to change it, but I wanted to know the truth. Any advice is appreciated.

 

New transmission fluid is red. 26K miles isn't too bad but what's another 3 quarts of transmission fluid versus the cost of a new transmission..

 

Because of Acura never recommend to flush your transmission fluid, always drain and refill. So your brand new red fluid will always mix with older fluid inside the tranny. Is it possible you get red fluid after the change? Yes, the cost of 3 quarts is nothing in comparison of new tranny but also don't want to change something which it is not necessary. Thanks for your inputs.

 

Who said anything about flushing? Typically people will drain and refill 3 quarts, drive a few thousand miles, do it again, and then one more time to have a total of 9 quarts refilled. This will get it to the red color. It's known as the 3x3 (x3) and is talked about pretty frequently on the forums: https://www.google.com/search?q=tran...hrome&ie=UTF-8

 

The ATF color on that paper towel is pretty decent. I don't see anything wrong with that. But yes, doing a drain/refill more often than necessary is always a good idea with any Honda transmission. It's easy to do and DW-1 ATF isn't terribly expensive. Get some from your dealer or buy it on Amazon.

 

Thanks for the valuable info. I have never heard 3x3 until now. Since I don't diy. It will be costly for shop to do 3x3. I will stick with changing the fluid more frequently, maybe every 10,000 miles. I think this may also do a job.

 

My 2012 has has had drain and fill at
30k
63k
118k

runs excellent, no issues

 

I do it every 50000 km's. 3x3 drain and fill

 

The car will ask for a tranny fluid service about every 30-50k miles. You can't go by color and the shop is just trying to make another boat payment for the GM (or braces for the kids)

The service is a "3" service in your maintenance minder.

Speaking of this service, what is the expected cost at a dealer? I've had one service at roughly 30k, then the dealer told me at 62k that it should have been done at 45k. I said "fine, do it and bill Acura for it since I had the maintenance plan until 60k." I was surprised that they actually did it.

Now my car is asking for an A123 but I've never actually paid for the tranny fluid change - so - what is the target price, so I'll know what to haggle with them?

 

I got around to changing the ATF on my TSX recently. Unlike changing the motor oil which just requires the front to be jacked up, changing the ATF requires the car to LEVEL on all four wheels.

Also, a drain and refill requires 2.6 quarts ATF per the manual. I put in 3 quarts the first time and immediately noticed the transmission was sluggish after. Corrected the fluid level and all was fine after.

 

Doesn't look concerning to me, but a change in the next 10k miles would probably be a good idea.

I bought a 2011 and afterwards discovered the transmission oil likely had never been changed, the worse I'd ever seen. Wish I had tried inspecting that before buying the car... Shortly after a change 2nd gear started going out. At first it was annoying but as it got worse I went to a Jiffy lube asking for a flush because I was at the point I didn't care if it made it better or worse and they would not do a flush on my car even though I was asking for it. About a month ago had a used transmission swapped in...