So I finally got around to doing my ATF change on my 2005 5AT after 75,000 miles.

The result: Much smoother acceleration and shifting!

Needless to say, I should've done this earlier!

On a side note, they normally do a drain and fill, not the 3x drain and fill, but they ended up doing it 3 times because they screwed up on my oil change (they didn't use my oil and filter) and thus I told my SA that I didn't trust the technician that did it. He agreed and had a new tech do the drain/fill two more times. Thus, I got the 3x anyway..

I think I'll do the next one in 30k miles.

 

Nice! I called the dealer they quoted $105 for drain and fill one time. Im undecided whether I should do it myself or not. BTW how much do they charge for oil change if you provide your own oil and filter?

 

walshstl, if you can change your own oil then you can drain and refill the ATF yourself too. it's about just as hard as doing the oil. look in the 3G garage for the DIY tutorial. the DIY will tell you the additional tools you will need cus some of the bolt heads (the transmission has 1 bolt in the engine bay and 1 underneath the car under the driver's seat) are different sizes.

i'm doing mine this thanksgiving. i'm gonna jack the car up, change the oil and do the first ATF drain and refill, then i'm gonna use ramps for the other 2 drain and refills.

 

it's recommended to do a tranny flush every 15k - with the history on our transmissions, i OBEY the recommendation!

 

the dealership has some sort of machine that actually "flushes" the fluid out - i believe they do that 3 times. that's the only reason i'd take mine out to the dealer.

 

thats not correct- acura does NOT use a powered machine!!! thats what destroys our trans!
Their ~new~ method per tech bulletin- has the car on the lift and runs thru the gears-run up to 2500 rpm... simulating the road drives but saving them substantial time. then change fluid- repeat...

A proper DIY 3x3 is warm the trans by driving on freeway 15 minutes
do the first drain and refill
- now drive 5 minutes using each gear up and down a few times so old fluid is pushed forward.... towards to drain pan. This procedure will force the main amount of fluid from the torque convertor- you want that to happen~

then drain and refill- drive 5 using each gear---drain refill...

Whats the sense of replacing 3 of 7.2 qts of fluid anyway???
thats dilution, not replacement~ do it right -start early in the cars life and stay with it
IMO its easier than an engine oil change, because there is no filter to deal with

Reminder- if your car is 3 years old its time to flush the brake fluid- and every year from now on!

 

^^ So if you do it at home, using that method, would you raise your car on 4 jack stands, and run it through all the gears while its the jack stands? That sounds scary lol.

And by flushing the brake fluid do you mean just bleeding out all of the old fluid and replacing with new fluid?