Where is a good place to get Z1 ATF? I'm going to do the fill/drain 3 times method, so I'll need 9-10 qts.

 

go to your local honda/acura dealership and get a case It's not cheap though..

 

my dealer gave me a better price when I bought the case of 12...seems to be some wiggle room as far as what they charge for it...scammers they are...

 

go to a honda dealer rather then a Acura dealer. For the same ATF, honda dealers have it cheaper by about a $1.30 or so per quart ...

 

I got a case of 12 shipped off of ebay for $40

 

If I change mine, I'm going to the local wal-mart and buy Valvoline Max-Life ATF (red bottle). If you read the back, it says it conforms to the Z-1 Spec (as well as many others). Its the only brand I found that specifies that.

It was ~$3 a qt.

 

It'd be great if you could give us a report on the shift performance with the Maxlife ATF.

Valvoline Mercon V is also an alternative for about $3.50/qt from Kragen's...I think its a bit better than the Maxlife product.

 

I haven't changed it yet, but I have some sitting in the garage. When it stops raining I will change it and report back.

I might check in the Mercon V, didn't know about that one. I've always liked valvoline products, especially the max-life oil additive. I use that with Havoline for my oil changes.

 

Not quite sure what the point is of doing a 3X drain/refill with the OEM fluid. I did and wrote up a 3X exercise with Amsoil ATF, and posted on it a long while ago. It is still peforming great - passes the shift smoothness, "nose", and paper blotters tests easily. I do annual 1X drains/refills.

Just to change the fluid with Honda Z1 as a 3X exercise seems much ado about nothing. For most people unwilling to consider an alternative to Honda's fluid, I would suggest that an annual drain and refill is a good balance between possible increased longevity of the tranny, and the hassle of a drain/refill on this car.

 

Well, doing a 3x drain/fill with Honda ATF Z-1 will remove as much ATF as a T-Tech would...so you'll still be refreshing the additive pack of the automatic transmission fluid. Although the fluid may not be the best, it still does a reasonably good job in this transmission; it just requires a more frequent service interval.

At the minimum, I'd at least do a single drain/refill at <30,000 miles, preferably every 15-20,000 miles.

 

I did 1X drain and refill. The fluid that came out was mostly reddish and very clean (from what I got on my hands. It did have slight blue tint (I noticed this when I transferred it into containers after draining. I took this to mean that the fluid was relatively clean, but there were definitely signs of wear (probably from the break-in period). The drain plug magnet had some metal on it as well, looked more like mud, but it was bluish (like blue steel color).

New fluid seemed to shift as smooth or more smooth as the old fluid and I was glad to get the worn shavings out. I only started the car and drove down the street and back, so the fluid was nowhere near operating temperature. I'll be able to give a more in-depth report after my next commute to work (needs to stop raining so I can drive it!)

EDIT: I also could not find the fill plug. Don't know why, but nothing looked like the picture in the 3G Garage for the fill plug. I used the Dipstick to fill it. Had to modify my funnel to fit in that hole.

 

Look straight down past the end of the fuse box, and you will see the drain plug.

 

Found it --- that will make it easier next time. For some reason I was looking on the other side of the air filter (front side) by the dipstick. See below for a pic (excuse the lousy camera)

atf fill plug pic