I know this may seem a dumb question, but where is the drain bolt on a 2012 TL SH-AWD automatic transmission? I have changed the fluid on a 2008 5 speed auto Honda Accord and the bolt was clearly marked.

I went under the car to do a drain and refill. Could find the engine oil bolt, the front transaxle hypoid gear lube drain and fill bolt (both are clearly labeled), but no ATF labeled bolt. Also, does this transmission have a separate fill bolt or do you just fill through the dip stick tube.

Thanks.

 

Isn't it a little early to be changing the fluid in your 2012? I think anything less than 65,000 is a waste of time.

 

By doing a drain and refill, I am able to look at the amount of metal filings on the magnetic drain plug, remove them, and open up that site to collect more. Can't be too good having the particulate metals floating around.

It may not help, but it couldn't hurt (just my wallet and my time LOL). As far as being a waste of time, I find the time spent working on my car as therapeutic.

 

Just finished replacing the ATF (only one drain and fill). Fluid looked and smelled fine as you might expect from being only 20 K miles. HOWEVER, the magnetic drain plug bolt had a VERY thick coating of metallic particles. Happy to remove all of those and open up that site for collecting more.

Took 3.8 quarts. I will probably do this once again at my next oil change in 4K miles.

 

I think changing your ATF every 20k miles is a good way to go and do that myself with my older TL. The metallic wear will be greatest early on and should hopefully reduce in future ATF changes. The only tip I have is looking into Redline ATF instead of Acura's DW-1 ATF. I don't think I would trust DW-1 for an entire 60k interval so hedging at 20k intervals would seem reasonable. It seems like the ATF should be changed more frequent than the SH-AWD differential and isn't that more frequent than 60k miles?

 

I already replaced the diff fluid at 12K as called for on the maintenenace minder. Another fairly easy job.

 

I also changed mine at 10000kms just because I wanted to use better quality synthetic and after seeing the magnet with all that metallic slop on it I'm glad I did and highly recommend early flush and fill on this particular transmission.