I read to keep up with the tranny fluid change. Acura says every 35k-45k. Is this a good interval? Also I read about changing the shift switches. I asked my dealer today about change the switches and fluid and he looked at my like I had 3 heads. He said the fluid ok ( I am at 18k on a 08). But the switches he just looked at me like I was joking. Is this something I should really have changed ( the switches)? My car shifts ok just up hill she doesn't like go shift to 4th gear and will sit at about 3,000 rpm. Other then that no issue and 3k going up hill really isn't that bad.

 

The dealership is a joke. Replace the switches and swap to a better fluid like Redline D4, Redline Racing, or Amsoil ATF or Super Shift. It will shift better than new. It's amazing after all of the failures and the transmissions that switches have cured that Honda still ignores the fix.

 

find a new dealer and listen to the above advice.

 

Ok I'll go to another dealership then. And amsol ATF then it will keep my tranny happy? And when would be good to do my switches and how often? Also what's a reasonable price?

On a side note since I have to experienced members. What's a good oil and filter. I see royal purple filters are recommended slot on the site. Mobile 1 oil good?

 

OMG dude....search...obviously you are finding that what i said in your first thread was fairly accurate...and you dont' need to ask about oil in this thread since you asked in another thread you've already started...be patient and people will answer your questions...this forum is fairly active. i'm not trying to be mean...but really...the info is already here. (steps down from soapbox). your welcome.

 

Ok sorry.

 

Don't apologize to anyone. You're better than that.

I hate cars is right. The dealerships are programmed to steer you away from anything that may put a bullet in their cash cow; which in this case is their trannies. I'm listening to the guy and doing the switches in my wife's 08 TL and swapping fluid. I'm not sure of all the fluid choices which one is THE BEST. I may do a search for it. Or F that noise, I may just start a new thread cuz that's how I roll. One lazy mother F-ing noobie noobs.

I'm kidding veterans so just relax. (which fluid is THE absolute best while we're all here?).

 

Thanks dece207. With no disrespect to tltrigirl as well. Amsoil seems to be very well liked from what I read and redline. I think I am personally going to go with amsoil as long as it doesn't effect my warranty

 

Ok went in today to my local Honda dealer and the laughed as well at changing the switches and said was a waste and it was 200$ a switch to swap out! Is that a legit price?

 

No way. That's about how much total for the switches and some Redline.

 

You expected it to be cheap at the dealer? Welcome to Acura ownership.

 

I went to college to be a mechanic and I looked into how to change them out and it's very simple. I simply won't do it myself because I have a warranty and refuse to do any thing without documentation so I can't end up being screwed. And I get a discount on all my parts throu Honda and Acura and for it still be 400$+ is crazy. Money is not a concern of mine or a issue it's just shocking they would charge that much. I just wanted to see if that a reasonable rate. And see what other people paid.

 

Book time at the dealer...it ain't cheap. Keep all your maintenance documented with receipts and spreadsheet if you like and the warranty should be fine.

 

Wait, what? It costs over 400 for the 3rd and 4th gear switches? Something is way off. It costs me less than 100 bucks and I got mine through an AcuraZine vendor.

 

Would any of you do the Amsoil fluid swap and switches yourself (as in at home) if you had a warranty? Does anyone know with certainty if this would affect the warranty? And please don't say "Dude, call your dealer". I would if I knew I wouldn't get the usual ambiguous programmed service writer response.

 

no offense to service writers out there. I was one for VW. And I learned how to tap dance for certain questions.

 

Taken straight out of Honda's employee training handbook:


A: "When customer comes to you and ask about pressure switches, you tell them not needed"

B: "Never replace pressure switches until transmission begins to behave in a strange manner. Then proceed to tell customer that the transmission is beyond repair and must be replaced"

C. "Under no circumstances recommend non Honda Z1 fluid and/or 3rd, 4th pressure switch replacement on an interval basis to prolong transmission life"

D. "Enjoy your bonus when you have prevented the easy fix of 5 transmissions per quarter"

 

your car is only 18k like u posted. The switches from what i read thus far are 30-45k service same with your tranny fluids. If the tranny shifts OK then why are you doing all these things? I personally think the guy you spoke to at the dealership is right, "IT IS A WASTE OF MONEY" at this stage of your car life to change it now. It is like oil change, you have to change it at the interval required to keep the car at optimum level and durability of the car. Example, Would you buy a synthetic oil that is 5k interval and change it very 2.5k? i mean you could but that is not cost effective nor will it make your car any better than if you change it at let say 4k? You see my point? If your going do the switches and tranny fluids my suggestion would be doing it at at least 30-35k.

So save your money that your planning to use now, and take it to the dealer when your car hit the 30-35k(40k-45k is still ok to me) mark since your so worry about the warranty. Let the dealer do it. If anything goes wrong there are no fingers pointing.

Note: Don't be paranoid just because others had done it as a proactive step and you have to do it too. It's a precaution to prevent your tranny from going south and you shouldn't be doing it now at this stage of your car life. For god sake it's only have 18k, the OEM switches barely broken in. LOL You must have alot of money laying around. Ever thought of donating some of it to a poor college kid?? haha

 

There's a lot wrong with this statement. You need to research and you'll see the reasons why we swap them when we do. Your "guess" is leading people in the wrong direction when the real facts have already been posted.

These switches get out of calibration and it's more time related than mileage. If I had someone with an '04 with 20 miles on it ask me if they should replace the switches I would say yes. If your TL is more than 2 years old regardless of the mileage, the switches should be replaced. Search around on here and you'll see why.

 

So your telling me you should replace the switches when they are more than 2 years old? So from 04 to now you should of have replace it 3 times already?

 

Exactly.

 

this is where i got all my infos from. It from one of your threads.

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/very-interesting-conversation-my-transmission-builder-tl-721508/

"Very interesting conversation with my transmission builder on the TL
I was talking to my builder who I used to work for. This guy has been doing this his whole life, owns his business, and sponsors many race cars.

We got into the TL for about an hour and I learned many interesting things.

For one I got to take a look at the trans disassembled. The third gear clutch pack is not undersized by any means. It has more than enough capacity for the TL and looks like it could support an extra 100hp easily. My builder agreed.

What he said causes the issues are the two pressure sensors going bad slowly. To make a long story short, they reduce line pressure and control shift timing in order to provide soft shifts. When one or both start to go, line pressure falls and third starts slipping. He recommended to replace both of these sensors at 50,000 mile intervals and says it will live a long and happy life if you do so.

Again, after looking at this trans first hand and especially it's frictions, there is nothing wrong with the holding capacity of the notorious third gear."

And i read throughout the thread and i don't see that the problem is time related issues instead what I'm seeing what people are saying it the mileage that indicates when you should change these thing as a precaution for your tranny. Seeing that you changed the switches in your 06 TL when it had 74k and no problem before that would lead me to think the 30-35k mark is the best "interval" to change it. But now you said the interval should be based on time instead of mileage, I will leave that to the OP.
I'm just read the threads on here with people inputs and experiences and with my own judgement, i draw the conclusion. That's how i got my conclusion of the 30-35k is the best interval but i couldn't be wrong, if so I apologize.

 

That was what I thought in the beginning. That thread was a work in progress. 50k is not an unreasonable interval but for me that would have been every 1.5 years when I first bought the car and now it would be every 10 years since I don't drive it much.

Based on the failures and near failures (shudder) that were caused by the switches, mileage didn't seem to play a big part but time was usually consistent to the failure. After doing mine for the first time, right around 2 years it was just beginning to shift sloppy again. Not as bad as it was the first time but it was showing signs of the switches getting out of calibration.

2 years is a bit conservative but that's right about when they start acting up. From the time they first start getting out of calibration, additional wear on the clutches starts occurring. I'm sure it's not that bad at first but it's still happening.

Mine had no shudder but the bump shift was getting so bad that I had started saving up for a new trans. I was a drivability specialist many years ago and I'm very good at recognizing potential issues based on shift feel. I knew mine was on it's way out but someone else might not have noticed anything was wrong. After doing the switches, it was a night and day difference. 74k and about 4 years was way too long. I had the bump shift and corresponding wear for the past year or so before doing the switches.

I'm sure some people could get away with a lot more but 2 years is a safe number to make sure no additional wear is occurring during shifts. Honda really dropped the ball here. I feel bad sometimes telling people to drop $100 on switches every 2 years but it beats replacing the transmission.

There's a couple posts buried in that big thread somewhere where a member tested the old switches and they were significantly out of calibration after a few years. There's a diaphragm that triggers the switch after a certain pressure has been reached. This diaphragm stiffens up over time and more pressure is required to trigger the switch.

This is why not only are upshifts screwed up but downshifts become harsh, cold shifts become harsh, and the lag from park to drive becomes greater since the TL shifts to 3rd gear momentarily before shifting to 1st gear to reduce shock to the driver.

 

So, what's the pressure switch for 07 TL Type-S?

 

Thanks I hate cars. I learn something new everyday

 

Ok, Follow these steps exactly and you will know WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW about our transmissions. Very important stuff.
1)set aside several hours of your time over a few days.
2) read both threads from beginning to end without posting on AZine.
3) Once you are done, post about how you learned everything you ever need to know about a TL's transmission.
4)Take this advice

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...ISSION+BUILDER

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...ISSION+BUILDER

 

If the pressure switches are bad, will it make the car downshift erratically and actually go into "neutral" or at least act like it's in neutral?

Also, when my car does this, I can cycle the key off then on again and it's fixed for about 3 miles and starts acting up again.

 

Brought my car (UA7) in to the dealer for a full ATF change since "car is still under warranty". I asked to do the pressure switch but the acura tech said "no need since it's not throwing any engine codes, there would be a engine code if they are bad".

Car would shudder once in a awhile but after the full ATF change, the shudder was gone. I've driven about 300 miles after the change and no shudder around 3rd or 4th gear.

So is the car not smart enough to detect the pressure switch is slowly deteriorating?

 

My 06 tranny did fail (that sucks) on September 26, 2010 with what seemed to be 57k, but that was messed up mileage so it was probably around 90k.

Instead of swaping the tranny, my dad and I decided to check it out inside and find out if it's fixable. when we opened it. It was obvious that the drum with friction plates for the 5th gear were worn out (looked like it was on fire and tinted with smoke).
So we replaced the friction plates, and 2 filters and some other parts that we broke . put it back together AND fill it up with ATFZ1.
Thank God it worked.
The whole job done at home cost me around $650 (friction plates, fluid, filters, broken parts...)

QUESTIONS:
So I wonder if why is it that only 3rd and 4th switches need to be changed?

Doesnt the 1st, 2nd, and 5th switches get old and wear out too?

Or Do you guys think that only 3rd and 4th switches can go out of calibration and cause the tranny to fail on any gear?

I have changed my 3rd and 4th switches recently, but havent noticed much of a difference. actually, i think it shifts about the same.
Or is it the RedLine fluid that does the magic?

FYI: I have made 10k since we put together the tranny

If anybody has any info or answer please reply.

 

First off congrats on the DIY tranny work! I am probably going to have to pop my cherry on my girlfriends Camaro with the GM 4L60e b/c she has no money to fix it.

Anyway, if the switches are in good shape then you won't notice a difference but you did good by changing them out b/c they will degrade over time. I feel that the Z1 is capable of causing excessive wear on any clutch plate due to the excessive slippage that occurs. I would dump that Z1 and put in some Redline Racing (Type F) very soon. You want to preserve that thing as much as possible.

As far as pressure switches other than the 3rd and 4th, if they are they same type of switch, I don't see why they couldn't go bad as well. Someone here may have more knowledge on the other switches.