each week for the past 3 weeks ive done a drain and fill with amsoil atf replacing the z1 fluid. ive done 9 quarts so far. about a month ago i put a new exhaust system on my 04.

ive been paying close attention to the way the car shifts and the shifts feel a bit snapier. ive started to notice something that i dont think ive really seen before. it seems like the car is in SS mode when its really in auto mode. let me explain.

when driving in auto mode at 40mph on a flat road, the car is in 4th gear at 2k rpms. if i let off the gas, the car stays in 4th gear and will continue to slow down to about 33 or so mph. if i press the gas (depending how hard) it will either accelerate in 4th or downshift smooth and fast to whatever gear it needs. same thing happens in 5th gear at higher speeds.

i seem to remember that if u let off the gas while driving, the tranny would drop the rpms to 1200-1300 and just coast until u hit the gas again. i only started to notice this bc i can still hear the rumble from the exhaust when letting off the gas.

is this normal? does this happen to you guys with auto trannys?

im aware of the cars use of gradelogic and engine braking when going down a hill but this is not what im seeing. this happens on completely flat roads.

 

hate to burst your bubble but you are not changing/acura style flushing the oil over to amz
In order to remove all of the old fluid you do the 3qt drain and refill 3 times for a total of 12 qts
The trans holds 7.3 so technically you should use twice that or more
people using 9 qts are getting most but not all the old stuff out

to get it out do a warming drive, then you drain 3 and add 3 new-thats all it will give up at once-
drive 5 minutes slowly using each gear up and down a few times- use PRND everything-manually shifting- that forces new fluid into the selenoids and torque convertor and pushing old fluid out towards the drain outlet

More than 5 minutes drive gets to hot to get under again and work, plus may mix the oil
drain the 3 it will give up again- with 6 in you are about 80% the way thru removing that 7.3--does that make sense?

driving it a week certainly will mix both fluids- not a great plan with their differances- who knows what slippery combination and effect may result

 

mixing will occur anyway you do it in a honda transmission

 

i hear what your saying but thats pretty much what im doing. i drained the first 3 quarts and added 3qts of amsoil. i drove the car for a week then repeated the procedure. ive done that 3 times so far. i plan on doing 3 more drain/fills over the next 3 weeks. thats 18 quarts of amsoil. that should give me about 95 percent amsoil in there.

whats the difference between a 3x3 in one day right after a short drive between each drain/fill vs draining and filling 3 quarts once a week for 6 weeks? the new fluid is still mixing with the old fluid and the old fluid (along with new fluid) is still draining.

im doing it this way bc fellow azine member said i should introduce the new type of fluid slowly and monitor the way it shifts since i have 100k plus miles on my car.

in regards to my other question about the trann holding the gear, is that normal?

 

the trans holding the gear is perfectly fine, what is happening is that you car has become used to you coasting and now has learned to stay in a higher gear so you can coast easily and engine braking won't slow you down. It's really cool and as well saves gas!

 

thats interesting. i know the car adapts to your driving style but i found it strange that it was holding the gear like that.

the car has never adapted to this style of driving before and ive been driving the same way for years. i reset the ecu about a month ago but this just started happening maybe few days ago

 

it's normal going up or down hill, or on a flat road, the ecm will decide what gear to keep the car in based upon engine load, temp, and throttle position. It's called grade logic and yes the car will adapt to your driving habits somewhat

 

it all makes sense. i never noticed the car holding the gear when letting off the gas in the 5 years ive owned the car.

 

it has been my experience that the car will try to hold each gear as long as it can when slowing down to maximise fuel economy. Also it will cut fuel on decelleration and upshift as soon as it can without lugging the engine. Before I had my ECM changed my car would be in 5th gear by 35 under light accelleration......after the change it wants to keep 4th until at least 40 now....and seems a little slower to fully engage the TQ converter....

 

appreciate the info

 

is this the first time you change your tranny oil ??

 

i did 1 drain and fill at 50k miles. i did a 3x3 drain/fill at 85k miles with z1 and now at 106k miles im trying to replace as much z1 as possible with amsoil. so far ive put 9 quarts of amsoil in there