^ Good plan. Glad to see you giving the Racing ATF a try.

 

Thanks Hleapha.. Ordered all the parts u listed for $93 shipped and i found out something cool... i went to order the racing atf and upon chkout it wanted to charge me sales tax, i then click on contact us and find they are in indianapolis where im located so i called them to order and if u go pick up u also get a 5% discount. So with the discount, and no shipping just tax total was $102!!

So looks like i will be doing my first 1x3 nxt wknd. I am wondering how long i should drive b4 doing the 2nd and 3rd etc? Was thinking a week but maybe go longer? Ill wait to install the internal filter and 3rd n 4th pressure switches til i do the 3rd drain n fill.

 

Slick deal on the oil. That's nice having a local dealer such as them

There's no added benefit for driving the car around for a week. The oil is as mixed as its going to be after a 1 mile drive down the road hitting all gears a few times. If your comfortable with the feel of the car, go back and do another. Doing it in the same day is more convenient for me b/c I'm already dirty and have all my tools out and accessible.

The pressure switches can go in before, after, or during the 3x3. They seem independent of the 3x3. I did my filter and the third drain as the same time. There's less particulates to be caught doing it last, but it's not that big of a deal. I'm just being anal.

 

Ok cool, guess ill do it all in one day then.. going to pick up the atf when i get off work here soon. Wont have trans parts until wed tho. Otherwise id do this wknd! I know ive read it in other threads but since you just did it do you happen to recall what all tools u used and torques etc? if not no biggie ill figure it out.

 

I agree. Leave your jack and tools laying on the ground. Hop in car and take a spin for a few blocks. Five minutes, 10 minutes max, and pull back into the driveway. Do another drain.

 

Or for the really lazy like me, I did the first drain and fill, fired it up while still on the jack for a couple minutes, shifted to 1st, 2nd, and reverse a couple times and then did another drain and fill.

 

^ Lol. That will work too I suppose. My anal retentiveness won't let me do it that easy although. So in a way, anal retentiveness is a good motivator.

 

Definately. I only do it on the first drain and fill. The other two are the normal way.

I really prefer the cooler line method because it saves so much time and fluid. 8 quarts and you have 100% new fluid and it takes 20 minutes max. I didn't do it with the racing fluid because I wanted to introduce it slowly to see the changes.

 

I did the 3x3 change last night with redline racing fluid. Very nice and quick, smooth shifts now. I had what seemed like long hard shifts b4 doing. Cant believe the difference so far. Only 20 miles since the last of the 3 changes so it may even get better as it works thru. So far very impressed. I should have my internal filter and pressure switches wed so ill change them out later.

Btw, i still have 3 qts of redline left... would it hurt or be overkill to do one more drain in a week or so, or just leave it with the 3x3 instead of 4x3 and wait to do it in a yr or so?

IHC.. what is the cooler line method?

 

If you've installed an aftermarket cooler or have a Type-S with a factory cooler it's much easier. You do a single drain and fill. Pull one of the cooler lines and put it into a bucket. Start the engine and add fluid through the fill hole at the same rate it's coming out of the cooler line. The old fluid pumps out and does not mix with new fluid like a 3x3 does. This way once the torque convertor pumps all of it's fluid out which is only another 4 quarts, you're done. When the old fluid is real dirty, you see a nearly instant transition from brown to bright red when the new fluid hits.

A 3x3 gives you somewhere around 75% new fluid (cant remember the chart) and the cooler method gives 100% new fluid and uses less fluid.

 

For sure, add it.

The timing between each drain/refill is not critical. Just do what is convenient for you. With each successive drain/refill, you will be reaching a higher percentage of that fluid that you are adding, and a less percentage of the previous fluid.

It is up to you to decide how quickly you wish to reach your goal. Also, it is up to you to decide what percentage of the new fluid is acceptable to you. For most people, doing three drain/refills is good enough, which will give you 78% of new fluid and 22% old fluid.

I do one with each engine oil change. Thus far, I have 5 drains. I am at 93% thus far.

Here is the drain/fill percentage chart

1= 40%
2= 73%
3= 79%
4= 88%
5= 93%
6= 96%
7= 98%
8= 99%
9= 100%

 

Nice. Looks like up to 5 would be worth it. After that it may be the point of dimenishing returns. I may change mine one more time for an 88% mixture before the "100,000 mile experiment" begins. Then again, I'll probably get bored after 20,000 miles and do another 1x3.

 

Are you taking the same fluid out to 100k?

 

I'm going to try and force myself to do it.

The non FM fluid shouldn't get more "slippery" as it ages. The ester base oil should hold up. The only thing I worry about is the contaminate load but hopefully the magnefine takes care of that.

 

Awesome, you are truly a pioneer! As far as the magnefine goes, is that basically a magnetic filter that pulls out metal particles? or does is have a paper pass-thru filter? Also, does all the ATF not pass through the internal paper filter?

I don't know if you do UOA's or anything, but if there was a good way to pull some ATF out of the system at say 30k, you could get a comparison to the new ATF, to see how it's holding up.

 

Yep, the Magnefine is a magnet and paper element. I'm going to change the factory paper filter right before I start this experiment. I'm not sure of how the flow is done but I think it goes though the magnefine first and then the factory filter.

I could do UOAs to see how the fluid is holding up but I have complete faith in it. I may do one once I hit the 100K mark.

 

great thread, i tried to read as much i can last night and felt asleep, lol. i have my tranny replace by the dealer under warranty around 32k because of shudding at 3 gear. now my car has around 60k and recently the shudding came back also on 3 gear. i want to change the ATF to see if it goes away. So should do 2x3 Redline racing fuild and 1x3 light weight. is this correct?

 

I'll guarantee the original trans failure was due to the switches and the second failure is because they transferred the same faulty switches to the new unit.

At this point you really need to do both the switches and the racing ATF.

Don't worry about the viscosity too much. If you live in a very cold area, do one or two of the fills with the lightweight fluid. The truth is, you would probably be ok with pure racing fluid and with pure lightweight fluid. But as you mentioned, a mix of the two would put you close to stock viscosity.

 

Or stated another way, 2 quarts RedLine Racing ATF PN# 30304 (click here) and 1 quart RedLine Lightweight Racing ATF PN# 30314 (click here) per every refill.

 

You're starting to wear off on me lol. I'm thinking of doing my last drain and fill with the lightweight stuff before trying the (20,000 mile) 100,000 mile interval lol. If I do it, it will be in the middle of winter just to see if it's possible to feel a difference.

 

Redline lightweight.........

"In Redline We Trust"

 

LOL. I think we have similar seasons and since you made it through a hot summer without running over your transmission I may give it a try lol. The other thing that's making me think about it is we may be taking a trip to a place that sees 0F this winter.

 

Yesterday, I did a single drain and fill with Redline: 2qts Racing, 1qt Lightweight Racing. This means my trans is now roughly 61% Z1 and 39% of this Redline mixture. Overall, the differences I feel in shift qaulity are better but it is pretty subtle. I might have even thought that it was just in my head EXCEPT that the step-on-the-gas downshifts are significantly quicker AND much smoother. It is clear improvement and the car feels much more responsive as a result. I honestly never expected my car to be this responsive at 130,000 miles especially when 20,000 miles ago I was experiencing shudder and was worried my trans was on it way to the grave. Thanks much to Innacurate, IHC and all who contributed to this thread and the pressure sensor thread.

 

So yesterday i finished what i started last fri (3x3 redline racing atf) i received my internal atf filter, spring, washers, 3rd and 4th PS's so decided id drain one more time and do 4x3 total with all redline racing. as it drained i swapped out the switches and filter. put everything back together and filled with my last 3qts of redline. After test drive i must say what an amazing difference..

wanted to mention.. the 3rd ps was covered by a plastic piece.. that thing got in the way and pissed me off haha.

next job will be the wifes mdx timing belt, wtr pump, plugs and POSSIBLY doing a 3x3 trans flush, tho not certain what trans fluid to use... any pointers? We are at 111k on the 02 mdx. Would really like to see a write up on the 02 mdx for all that. Maybe someone could pm me this info so i dont hijack this thread

 

I've noticed a shudder when passing through 2K rpm in 3rd gear - I was thinking this was an engine issue. Could this be a transmission problem? I have an 07 TL-S with the 5 spd automatic that I ofter use in the manualmatic mode.

 

That's a tranmission issue. I used to have the same thing. Try replacing your trans sensors. Take a look at this thread for more details:
https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/very-interesting-conversation-my-transmission-builder-tl-721508/

 

Thanks - that thread is all I've been looking at for the past 1/2 hour. I changed fluid so now I'll be ordering the sensors. 56K miles...

 

Just ordered a case of the Redline Racing....bye bye Z1! Also thinking about putting the Racing ATF in the wife's Fit!

 

Got 12 pints of the Redline Racing ATF and 6 pints of the Redline Racing Lightweight in earlier this week. Picking up the parts I ordered from Acura today. With Halloween this weekend not sure if I'll get to do everything or not.

Here is what I ordered from Acura:
QTY | Part Number | Description | Needed for
1 | 28600-RAY-003 | SWITCH ASSY., AT OIL PRESSURE (TEXAS INSTRUMENTS) | 3rd Gear Pressure Switch Replacement
1 | 28610-RAY-003 | SWITCH ASSY., AT OIL PRESSURE (TEXAS INSTRUMENTS) | 4th Gear Pressure Switch Replacement
2 | 90471-PW7-A00 | GASKET (10MM) | Crush Washers for Pressure Switches
2 | 90471-PX4-000 | WASHER, DRAIN PLUG (18MM) | Crush Washer for ATF Drain plug
2 | 90441-PK4-000 | WASHER, SEALING (24MM) | Crush Washer for ATF Fill Plug
1 | 25803-RAY-000 | SPRING, PASSAGE (ATF) | Spring for ATF Filter install
1 | 25450-RAY-003 | ELEMENT (ATF) | ATF Filter
1 | 91302-RAY-003 | FILTER, GASKET | Gasket Plug for ATF Filter install
1 | 91301-RAY-004 | O-RING (48.5X2.95) (ARAI) | O-Ring for ATF Filter install
2 | 94109-12000 | WASHER, DRAIN PLUG (12MM) | Crush Washer for ATF Filter install (older washer)
2 | 90471-RGR-000 | WASHER, DRAIN PLUG (12MM) | Crush Washer for ATF Filter install (newer washer version)

I ordered extra washers just in case and as I have an '06 I got both versions of the drain plug washer. Was to lazy to jack up the car to see the VIN of the transmission to see which was the one to get.

Can't wait to get this done!

 

Quick question. As I'm replacing the filter and pressure switches at the same time as the 3x3 do I change them out before the first drain, after the last fill, or somewhere in between. Figure it doesn't matter for the switches but may for the filter.

 

Doesn't matter at all. If it were me I would do the filter after the fluid so you have clean fluid from the beginning.

If you were interested in seeing the difference from each change you could do each one separately. If not, do it all at the same time.

 

Thanks, I left the switches and Filter to the end right before the final fill.

However I ran into a bit of a snag. The very last bolt I needed to remove (very bottom one on cap over the AT Filter) is stuck and has partially stripped. Anyone know of a good tool to get that bolt out keeping in mind the tight location it is in?

 

Nevermind. I got really lucky. My vice grips were just small enough to reach down in there and by some chance the head of the bolt was in the exact orientation needed for the vice grips to work. Got it out.

 

I've read the thread a few times and some people worried about the Racing Fluid/Lightweight. Someone suggested that you should do a 1x3 every few thousand miles to see if you like it or not, if not, go to D4. What I wanted to know if that would work for me? I have literally 3 different fluids in my car. 1 unknown, one from Castrol? (forgot), and one from Z1. (3 Quarts each) I'm about to buy the Redline Racing ATF 12qts and wanted to make sure it will be OK. Even though I know it probably will, but just wanted to be on the safe side (actually really want to do a 3x3) and sell the other 3 quarts. Than repeat 3x3 every 25k miles with redline racing (if it turns out good).

 

I am a bit corn-fused. You guys were going with Redline D4 mixed with racing fluid. And then it went to racing mixed with light racing.
I was planing on running 2 parts D4 to 1 part racing fluid.

What are the majority of you guy's running successfully?

Thanks, Kevin

 

Straight racing fluid unless you live in an extremely cold climate. Then you would do a drain and fill with the lightweight and the other two with the regular racing fluid.

Myself and I'm sure Inaccurate were a little uneasy to recommend a non FM fluid at first since it had never been tried and we had no idea if it would cause drivability issues. I knew it would help the reliability but I didn't know if shifts would be too harsh. Then Inaccurate did the whole 3x3 with racing fluid and the rest is history.

Since there are absolutely no drivability issues with the racing fluid and the non FM formula significantly cuts down on clutch wear, the D4 is obsolete as used in the TL.

Dont get me wrong, the D4 is a great fluid. Think of it as exactly the same as the racing fluid but with FM added.

There are only a few categories of trans fluid....

Dex III

Dex VI

Type F

Honda Z1

D4 falls in the Dex III FM class.

Racing falls in the Type F non FM class.

Honda Z1 is a super FM fluid for soft shifts but tons of wear on every shift.

D4 would be in the middle of the two but unnecessary now that we know the racing fluid works.

FWIW, the new Honda fluid is like Dex VI. Lower viscosity and likely less FM than Z1. It looks like Honda is finally barely starting to see the light in regards to FM.

 

Good explanation IHC.

 

Got the 3x3, pressure switches, and Filter done this weekend. I left the pressure switches and filter till the end right before the 3rd fill. However I could already tell a difference after the first fill. Now that it is all said and done my car shifts like it is new again... probably better. It's amazing how smooth it is.

Well worth the cost of doing this and the extra tools I got to buy was definitely a bonus. Thinking about doing the Transmission cooler as well now but may wait till spring as I also want to do the TL S rack swap. Why oh why did I get back on the forums again!

 

My wife has an 03 TL with around 100,000 miles on the trans would it be crazy to go to the redline racing fluid at this milage?

Also thank you, I hate cars.

Thanks

 

There new motto of Redline.

"It's never too early to change to Redline"