I'm a newbie to this site and have been looking around for the last 1/2 year or so in the hopes of ultimately owning a TL, 6-spd if the boss (wife) will allow..

Anyway, I've got a few questions regarding the transmissions offered.

1) In looking at consumers report, the transmission appears to be the only problem area for the TL. In looking at the site, there appear to be a number transmission failures. Granted, in general people vent problems/concerns/frustrations more than praise in this type of forum... Is there a design issue with the trans?

2) The 6-spd trans fluid. It appears that people here tend to use the OEM fluid. Have a good number of people tried something else, ie. Redline Synthetic MTF with success?

3) The automatic trans fluid. Same question as the 6-spd except Redline Synthetic ATF?

4) The folks who own the 6-spd and have had failures, are you power shifting, consider yourselves harder on the trans than most "normal" folks?

5) The folks who own the 6-spd how frequently do the clutches get changed?

Thx

 

I'm not sure that there have been too many transmission issues/failures like you mentioned, the tranny's on this car (AT and MT) seem to be pretty good. I do however think the clutch on the MT is a little weak especially if you do any HP mods.

 

the 3g's don't have aws many problems as the second gens. Anyway, the only thing that members do is change out the transmission fluid, if they have a MT, they used GM synchro mesh.

 

1) There have been a few issues with the 6MT unit. Mostly, it involves difficult or notchy shifting in cold temperatures. A change of fluid type has helped. As for automatics, I've only heard of two failures on this board. Both were with 2005 models, one with 20,000 and the other with 36,000 miles. I think both of these units were defective from day 1, as no other users have reported any automatic transmission problems.

2) Honda MTF is the only "approved" fluid for this transmission. However, some users have had cold shifting issues while running this fluid, such as difficult or notchy shifting. Changing the fluid to GM's Synchromesh Friction Modified has cured the problems for most people. Redline MTL has also worked for those who have tried it, which I prefer over the GM product as it's full synthetic and is actually recommended by Redline for use in Honda Manual Transmissions. It's best to drain and refill the manual transmission every 30,000 miles for maximum shift quality.

3) The Automatic transmission requires a Honda ATF-Z1 type fluid. Honda's genuine ATF-Z1 product is the only "approved" fluid for use in these transmissions. Amsoil ATF has worked well for many people with Honda units, and it's a full synthetic product costing about 50% more than Honda's product. Even more important, it's best to drain/refill the unit once, at least every 30,000 miles via the drain plug to refresh the additives and maintain good shift quality. It seems as though Honda's PCM does not "regulate" shifts to the same extent as GM's, because many users have discerned a significant improvement in shift quality following a partial, 40% drain/refill on the their transmission.

4) I've only heard of one 6MT failure, and it was due to incorrect operation by the previous owner.

5) No clue. I've only heard of one clutch problem and it was due to driver error, IIRC.

 

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This issue has been covered innumerable times. Bottom line is as noted above.

Edit: spelling error and partial post resection