vadey23

Hey everyone, I bought my first TL in February. It's a '07 base with 30K on it. Transitioning from American made cars to this has been a bit of a process but overall a pleasant surprise.

I'm nearing the time for my first oil change and normally I do that along with regular maintenance myself. However, this being the first oil change for me with this car would it benefit me more to actually take it to an Acura dealer to have them do it so they can also have a chance to look at the entire car?

I'm just wondering if it's worth the time/money to do that because it would give peace of mind knowing that a certified Acura mechanic signed off on the overall health of the car.

Look forward to the responses and thanks!

LoveMyTL-S

First of all welcome to AZ! If it will give you "Peace of mind", then take it in. Otherwise I'd just do it myself.

SharksBreath

iTrader: (33)

^who's to say they are going to look at the entire car when they do an oil change?

did you have the car checked out before you bought it?

i'd just do the oilchange myself. i avoid the dealer at all costs.

vadey23

I guess it's just the paranoid side of me thinking I'd need to get it done at the dealer. It's also a good 90 minute drive to the nearest Acura dealer so that is probably the deal breaker. I'm more than capable of doing it myself. One more question, has anyone performed a transmission flush/oil change on a TL themselves and if so is it pretty straight forward as with most American cars?

KaMLuNg

iTrader: (5)

for a regular oil change, you can spend like $30 and usually acura does a multi-point inspection... or so they say... so why not???

where did you buy the car from? is it a CPO? if so your warranty should be till like 7 yrs/100k?

vadey23

No, it's not a Certified Pre-Owned. From what I saw the Certified cars were all higher in mileage. I bought it from a Ford Dealership in Dubuque, IA.

SharksBreath

iTrader: (33)

to change transmission fluid, you have to do what's called the 3x3 drain/fill method. it's simple.

you drain 3 quarts of fluid, then replace with 3 quarts of new fluid. drive around for 5 mins or less, going through all the gears including reverse. then you do another drain and fill...drive around again...and then do one final drain and fill.

this is the safest way to get new fluid into your system without doing a machine flush. a complete flush is not recommended on our cars. hence, the 3x3 will get you a high% of new fluid.

also, don't use the factory Z-1 fluid...most here use redline racing fluid.

look in the performance section for the "racing atf" thread. it will answer a bunch of your questions.

vadey23

Nice, thanks for all of the advice. I really appreciate it.

VQPower37

at 30k miles it may be a good time to change the fluid although acura says 60k. if u decide redline d4 atf amazon is prob the cheapest from what i have seen