Does anyone have any experience with having their trans fluid thoroughly changed using a machine. A guy I know who used to run the service dept of a acura dealer said he used them, they worked well, and he didn't have any problems resulting from it. The service manger at Honda when I had my accord said that it is stated that "Honda does not recommend it". My accord went through 2 trannys in it's 170K miles when I got rid of it. I was told when you get all the old fluid out and replace it, you can extend the life of it. Any thoughts

 

Don't get an automatic transmission flush. Acura Service Bulletin February 2006 covers this and further states any damage caused by trans flushing is not covered under warranty. The triple fluid change is what is recommended.

 

The 3 x drain and fill is the way to go if you want to do something in as far as a complete change. It was developed about 10 years ago as a way to remove valve body clogging particulate on the Legends. Probably overcompensation for standard maintenance.

Think of it as rinsing an air filter with a pressure washer......rather than get it clean or loosen accumulated particles, you're embedding the particles in places where the fluid can't do its normal dialysis.

 

If you really want to do a "proper" fluid exchange, the right way to do it, is to disconnect the input and output lines to the tranny cooler. Put the input line in a big (and I mean BIG) bucket of fresh tranny fluid. Put the output line in another big bucket... Have someone start engine... New fluid will get sucked in, and old fluid will get spit out... When the old fluid looks like it's the new fluid, shut-off engine, and re-connect lines...

You have now replaced 100% of your fluid.

I haven't done this on our TL, becuase I was too lazy, and just did the 3x swap. Does our TL even have cooler lines? (Never looked that closely at the tranny)

 

honda recommends against flushes. Just do a drain fill

 

Agreed. But I believe the TL brings the coolant to a heat exchanger on the tranny instead of running transmission lines to the radiator. It's too bad though. Makes installing an external cooler a lot harder.

 

So doing it that way totally replaces all the old fluid with new fluid ?

 

Not really....take a look at the below link, but three should be more than adequate for the job

https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/home-audio-gurus-your-2-cents-please-your-reccomendations-158369/

 

All I want to try to do is maximize the life of the transmission. I needed a new tranny when my 2000 AV6 was 6 months old and one at 120K miles. Will changing it with the method discussed vs the traditional way make a significant difference in prolonging the trannys life? I plan on changing it every 30K miles. I think that's often enough