I was in a car mood yesterday and after washing my moms MDX, I checked the oil and transmission fluids in the TL and her car. In the TL, the transmission fluid looked normal to me, but when I wiped it off on the paper towel, the fluid was brown almost black. Is there anything wrong? It looked fine on the dipstick and the car doesn't have any bad symptoms.

 

If your trans fluid is brown in color, its time to get it changed. how many miles do you have? My friend has 25000 miles and his fluid is turning brown also. I plan on changing mine every 7500 miles.If you can change it yourself its cheap insurance.

 

its about 33k right now, I guess I'll make an appointment to change it

 

Just changed my transmission fluid at 17K - it was definetly turning brown.

 

thats great, mine was included in the recall, but one would think your '05 wouldn't have this problem

 

Remember, your only changing less than half the fluid,so your going to need to change it more than once to get all the old fluid out. Thats why if you could do it yourself it would save you alot of money!

 

I would think with all the clutches in modern transmissions, the fluid would turn dark from clutch meterial over time.

Cant hurt to change the fluid out with oil changes, or every other oil change if you plan on running the car past 100,000 miles.

On most cars, at 30,000 miles or so, I would drop the pan and clean the magnets/filter, then change the fluid in the pan every so often.
not sure how the TL auto box is, trans coolers are usualy a very good idea.

Brett

 

I know, I should probably learn to change fluids and other things to save $$$, but I don't trust myself enough and am not sure I want to learn on it.
I've already put about 18k on it since february and I'd like to keep it for a long time since honda products seem reliable in most other aspects. I'm just trying to do what's best for it.
I do all the cleaning and detailing of the car and keep it in excellent condition, I just let someone else do the under the hood maintenance.

If I ask the dealer to change the fluid, will they do the process multiple times to make sure it's all out?

 

If you ask them to change it multiple (actually drain and refill 3 times) they will do it, but for a hefty charge. My dealer wants $145 for this job, which includes about $40 worth of transmission fluid, so you could save $105 + tax by doing it yourself.

Changing the transmission fluid is no harder than doing an oil change. The only additional work is removing the splash shield so you can get to the drain bolt, and unscrewing the filler bolt on the top of the tranmission instead of just removing the oil filler cap.

 

There is a machine out there that many of the quicklube shops had in our area that would more or less "flush" the transmission of all its old fluid. Worked much like a radiator machine does...I think it was called a T-Tech Machine or something like that. I had a caddy done I had and they got it all out and swapped in one process. As I recall, the machine hooked into the line loop that goes into or out of the radiator and would do a total swap, more or less. I am sure there is something that stays...but it had to be less than 3% or something....the fluid was almost black when I took it in and was red as could be afterwards. In the old days when we used to do just a pan drop/clean/filter change all we could get was about 1/2 or so (maybe 1/3?) so you wouldnt make a marked difference - but I am wondering if this T-Tech machine can be used on the Acura's. Havent ever looked...but I am sure the ATF fluid travels through the radiator doesnt it - I thought all ATF systems were set up this way? The machine would hook up then wouldnt it? Anybody that is an actual Acura tech can speak up here anytime! Theres gotta be a way to swap most of it if not all at one shot isnt here, with the aid of some technology? Surely it isnt just the old swap it out three or four times over thing still?

 

This is what I am talking about here..

http://www.mytoolstore.com/clore/ttech.html

The T-Tech mahine....

 

hmmm, the machine sounds like a good idea. I unfortunately do not think any of the quick lube shops around me are worth going to and most people have never heard of Acura in my area. I'm not sure I want to pay the dealer 145 either. A trip to the closest dealer is about an hour away. I'll have to think about this one, I just might end up spending some time learning how to do it

 

^^Oh...dont get me wrong....I wasnt recommending checking out ANY quick lube....most of em are of questionable work quality and ethics. I was just saying that if they had these machines....I wonder if the regular dealers have em too? It seems like a good idea.

 

I'd definately agree with you that they sound good on paper. I'm sure it won't hurt for me to ask the dealer. I doubt they'd have it because they don't have a body shop and only four service bays, they're really small.