My car has about 48,900 miles on it and the transmission fluid has never been changed. I've been reading about it online (here and other places) and am confused on what I should do. Some say don't change the fluid if it is old or has a decent amount of miles on it because it could cause damage. Others say to go ahead and change it. I was going to take it to the dealer to get a drain-refill, and then change the pressure switches myself. Any suggestions, or similar experiences?

 

50K miles isn't a lot of miles. Start maintaining it now.

I also highly suggest doing it yourself. It's only a bit long the first time, second time you can get it done in 30 minutes, half of it is the ATF dribbling in the pan.

Drain and refill quick and dirty:
-Jack car so it is level
-Pop 4 Honda plastic retainer under the car on the plastic cover
-Loosen back 10mm bolt, remove front 10mm bolt and swing plastic cover out of the way
-Pop the hood and locate ATF fill bolt under the fuse box, remove using 17mm socket on a 1/2" drive ratchet using at least 12" of extension. Universal joint useful but not mandatory. You might need breaker bar, mine was tight. You don't need to remove the fusebox
-Get back under the car and remove ATF drain bolt using 3/8" drive ratchet. Unscrew drain bolt slowly so it doesn't spew out all over your arm like I did the first time
-Once drained completely, clean drain bolt magnet with clean shop rag then put bolt back and use gutentight method (or 36lb/ft from top of my head)
-Fill back 3qts, tighten fill bolt, put car back on the ground, check level, fire her up and profit.


In other words, if you did a motor oil change once in your life, this is just as easy.

 

Gutentight method?

 

German engineering.

Good and tight. 36lb/ft is hand tight plus a little bit.
It has a crush washer but not unlike most Honda crush washers its re-usable a thousand times before you actually need to change it.

 

I would recommend a drain and refill for the next 3 oil changes. After that just track your mileage.

 

Thanks for the info I was going to try to do it myself but I get nervous I'll screw something up or not do something correctly. Funny you say about changing oil once in your life....I just changed the oil in my TL last weekend. First time I ever did it myself on any of the cars I've had lol. How often do you personally go between the tranny fluid changes?

Why for just the next 3 changes? Also, how often after that?

 

I have just started doing the 3x3 ATF change. First drain and fill was like a month or so ago, second one 2 weeks ago and I'm going to do the 3rd at some point soon.

I swear, if you've ever done a motor oil change it's virtually the same. The biggest issue in my case was jacking the car up in my apartment complex parking lot since the asphalt is old and all wavy... You gotta break free the 17mm bolt too, hence my recommendation for a breaker bar or long ratchet. The rest is easy peasy. Don't be scared, I have no doubt you can do it yourself!

 

Well if you say it's decently easy I'm going to give it a try then. Plus I'll know everything was done right and not by some mechanic who is in a hurry or doesn't care. Is it necessary to jack the car up? When I did the oil I didn't jack it up at all (my car is stock height) and didn't have a problem other than the drain plug bolt was extremely overtightened. Also, is there a filter you have to change as well?

 

Undo the fill plug first, or you might find yourself with the ATF drained and you can't get the fill plug out. If it's never been done, that bolt is tight. In a pinch you can add through the dipstick tube, but it makes a mess and takes forever.

 

It is "technically" not necessary to jack the car up but you'll have a terrible time reaching the middle of the car to loosen the 10mm bolt holding the plastic shroud, same for removing the 4 plastic retainers and the other 10mm bolt.

Unless you are literally a giraffe and you can reach that far, I would jack the car up.

 

Oh and if you're ghetto like me and don't have an extension, you can also fill it through the dipstick

Use a long funnel with like aluminum foil wrapped around so that it fits in the dipstick.....make sure you measure what you drained out and fill accordingly the same amount

 

If you can change your oil, you can change your transmission fluid. It's super easy.

 

I think I'm going to try to get the fill plug out, if I can't I can always ask my dad for some help/better tools.

Lol I'm pretty short actually so I doubt I'll be able to reach that far. Does the entire car need to be jacked up or will just the front suffice?

That can be my backup plan but my dad probably has an extension somewhere. If he doesn't aluminum foil here I come

Everyone keeps telling me that so I'm going to man up and give it a go.

 

I did it and I was nervous because it was new to me, but it really is quite simple. It's basically an oil change with a few added extra steps: remove/slide the plastic shield, clean the magnetic drain bolt, and drive the car around after changing the fluid.

 

the only pain part is you have to break the fill bolt loose which I recommend using a towel or something to cover the fender. I would recommend you do drain and fill then drive for 5-10 k miles before proceed to the next drain and fill, this will give your AT adjust to the new fluid. After 3x3 I would say replace the fluid every 10k-15k miles depend on your driving condition. I actually did 5x3 to get all the old Z1 fluid out.

 

I just did my main seal. Pretty much lost all tranny fluid. Mind you my car has 115k 08 base

I refilled it with Honda atf took about 6 1/2 quarts.

I've read many time it's bad to do a full flush but in my case I had no choice. Am I heading towards disaster here? I can actually hear my tranny working from the inside of the car while driving and I'm freaking out about it.

Thoughts?

Can I add a thicker fluid to the tranny? I really don't want to damage it at all.

 

That should cause no problem as when they say flush, this is referring to the automatic flush machines, not just a replacement of lost fluid.

 

Yeah I'm not worried about that I'm just hoping I don't run into any problems when I do it.

Thanks for the tip. I was planning on doing a drain-refill every oil change for the next 3, then doing a drain-refill every other oil change.

 

I know there's threads on it somewhere, but what fluids are you guys using? I've heard honda, redline, and a few others.

 

I would do the first 3x3 "quicker" than that. I do an oil change every 6 months... it would take me a year and a half to replace most of the ATF at that speed.


I'm using Red Line D4. Some other people use a mix of different Red Line products. Others use Honda DW-1 which is perfectly fine if you maintain it.

 

I use honda dw1.

 

I drive a lot so it would be somewhat less than 6 months. Is there any advantage to redline over the honda stuff?

That is what I was leaning towards using.

 

I used Honda DW1

 

Synthetic vs conventional oil, meaning you can likely go a longer interval without a change. Friction wise they are also different (for instance you can use D4 which is similar to Z1 or D6 being more like DW-1)

 

Possibly doing this this weekend for the first time. Should I jack the car up front and back (on all 4 jack stands)?

 

Yes, the car needs to be level in order to drain and fill the transmission properly. If it isn't level some fluid may not drain out, and the dipstick will not be accurate when filling. This goes for both the AT and MT transmissions.

 

I was thnking about doing this as well..my 06 has about 85k on it and i dont think that the transmission fluid has been changed or flushed....although its overfilled by over 2 inches!!!!! ya thats right, its that overfilled..
what do you folks suggest?

 

I raised the rear of my TL to help get some more fluid out but not much more really came out, maybe a few drips. I poured the new fluid into the trans and put the old fluid back into the new fluid bottles, slightly over 3 quarts, maybe 3.1 came out. Refilled it with 3 quarts and the level is between the two holes on the trans dipstick when hot

 

That was on your 04 auto right? I wonder how much different the 6mt drains compared to the autos. I also wonder how much fluid would actually drain out if someone were to raise only the front end of the car enough to get to the drain plug. I imagine the result would be way worse than what you experienced since the drain plug is towards the front of the car (on the 6mts anyway).

 

MT is a completely different animal. I believe that the trans will let out almost all the fluid (MT Trans) compared to the AT trans only letting out 33% of the fluid at a time.

 

Trying to fit this into the day today, but wanted to ask if car should be recently run (warm) or not. Need to go somewhere before I do this, so car needs to be driven.

Also, any differences between base and type s on any of these bolts\refill locations? I'm assuming not, but figured I'd ask.

 

It helps if the fluid is warm/hot because it flows easier. Just be careful not to burn yourself with hot oil when you take out the drain plug.

 

I don't believe there's any difference. The only difference is for the pressure switches.

Warm (not hot!) is better because it flows easier/better but I've done it completely cold too (minus turning the car 180 degrees in my parking spot). It just takes longer when it's cold because it's more like molasses and less like hot tea.

 

Ok, so I finally attempted this tonight, only to not be able to loosen the drain bolt. I had an extension and breaker bar attached to my 17mm socket, but I couldn't make it move and I was worried about stripping the bolt, I definitely lost some metal from it. Any advice on how to loosen it? And what are the ramifications of stripping that bolt, is there any remedy if that happened?

 

You mean the fill bolt? Many people had this issue I believe. You just gotta be strong if you don't have power tools.
I got it loose after a few tries with a 1 foot breaker bar. Hold tightly with one hand on the extension where it meets with the bar so it stays vertical and sits properly on the bolt and put your other hand on the end of the breaker bar, as far as it'll go. Lock your arms and use your hips/shoulders to give it a little nudge. Took me 3-4 times, it was stupid tight. Use a quality socket too, impact socket works well because they do not bend and break as easily thus are usually exactly the size they claim to be.

If you strip the bolt you can also fill by the transmission gauge.

 

Fill bolt is exactly what I meant, not drain bolt, which I didn't get to. Hopefully that one isn't so bad.

I'm wondering if I should just try again, and, if it does indeed strip, use the dipstick tube to fill it that time, then pick up a new fill bolt and try to get the old one out with a rounded bolt extractor. I'd really rather be able to use the fill bolt, but from what I could tell there are certainly quite a few people unable to ever get that damn thing off.

Also, is the proper way to jack the whole car up to start with the rear wheels chocked, jack up the front and put on jack stands, then jack up the rear and place the jack stands?

 

It's up to you if you decide to fill it through the dipstick gauge tube or through the actual fill port. Like you and I said though a lot of people had problem with it.

For the drain bolt whether or not it's stuck (mine was somewhat tight and I pried it my ratchet with another ratchet handle) there's always a "solution" involving you jacking the ratchet handle very slowly to break it free.

As for jacking the car up, front or rear first is fine. Be sure to pull the handbrake and chock the wheels, put the car in gear for MT cars you need to jack or P for AT cars.

 

Thanks man, appreciate all the info. I actually used the jack once to break my oil drain bolt free the first time I changed my oil since whatever place had last changed my oil made it way too tight. I guess I'll use the same method if need be on this one.

OK, feeling better about this, I'll get it done one way or another. But before I attempt it again, I will have some 3/8" tubing to connect to my funnel if it comes down to that.

 

Definitely break the fill bolt loose or have a solution to be able to fill it before removing the drain bolt, yeah.

As for the motor oil change... you tell me. Did my oil change not long ago but the one before it was November, getting cold and I didn't feel like going under the car. I am 100% sure they didn't torque it near spec. It was gorilla tight...

 

drain and refill is still recommended. start sooner than later