RC99TL

I got 105 thou from my first trans and while it still shifted fine it would bang into reverse when backing out of the garage. This would only happen in the winter when the temp was below say 40º. If I warmed the car up till good and warm it would be fine. The dealer could not replicate it and even suggested I try to break it and he could give me the warranty replacement. A season or two of this and I finally got a replacement. 7+ years and 105 thou and Acura replaced it. Acura really did (does!) good by me. They were very surprised that it lasted so long. I never babied it either -lots of ss and I have bounced it of the rev limiter too many times. I do replace the 3 quarts of Acura/Honda ATF you get out of it with every oil change every 3 thousand miles and inspect the drain plug washer intensely. I see a lot of posts about trans failures after following normal maintenance schedules and wonder if my experience is due to the 4 speed, the maniacal fluid changes or both? I drive the new trans like driving Miss Daisy now (ok -I have my moments!) and other than the occasional ugly 3-2 downshift that happens when you nail it at the wrong time (feels like the motor is about to spin around in the mounts)-Yikes!- all seems ok. Guys, can I have piece of mind?

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

Wow, if you change your ATF with every oil change, you'll never have to worry about the fluid being the culprit of your tranny problems.

However, I would say that you'll be just fine changing out the ATF every other oil change.

ANC297

iTrader: (2)

x2

FirePR2002

or even every other other

soria

A 3qt drain + fill every 15k miles is reasonable

This is the schedule I've been keeping with my replacement tranny. That and keeping my fingers crossed...

01tl4tl

4 speeds are way better than the 5 on longevity
The only thing to watch is hard downshifts into 3rd and 2nd- that heats the weak parts.
Change oil every 3000- wow you must drive that thing like a taxi!

RC99TL

I used to commute stop and go into NYC every day for 9 years - my friend owns a shop and recommended frequent changes but I got into the habit of doing it every oil change.
I can change the oil, filter and trans fluid in under 20 minutes usually without spilling any on the floor. If you want to go insane consider I change out Mobil-1 every 3 thousand as well.
The fluids are expensive but I consider it cheap insurance. With 151 thou on the TL my wife is now driving 85 miles a day all highway and in the last month I have replaced the starter, power steering pump, timing belt adjusters and pulleys-changed once at 90 thou, cleaned the egr and all new belts. I need another year out of the ol' girl. I am hoping Honda imports the Accord AeroDeck as an Acura TSX Sport Wagon in the next year as replacement or Acura un-fuglies the TL!

russianDude

yeah, change tranny fluid every 1,000 miles. this is ridiculous. Anything more than 30K (15K tops) is a joke.

fsttyms1

Unless you are on the recommended 7500k or extended 15k oil change interval every 3k is blowing money out the window.

That said i changed my trans fluid every oil change and that trans lasted the least amount of miles.

MOBB

What would you recommend as a fair amount of miles to replace the tranny fluid in a canadian climate? I replaced my tranny 10 000km ago and plan to change the fluid every 20 to 25 thousand kilometers. Is this reasonable or shoud I be doing more frequent tranny fluid changes? I'm on my 4th tranny within 2 years and want to keep this one as long as possible because I'm out of warranty on this unit! Tranny was replaced at an Acura dealership.

gold2003tl (90)

i got about 3.5k miles on my replacement tranny and its starting to shift weird here and there. when its cold first gear is harsh, and 2 and 3 shift slower now. im not happy. after its warmed up its better, but it still has this slush box feeling to it. i barely have any miles on this new tranny, and iv been very careful drivin , it shouldnt be anything short of spectacular. come on. it cant be time to change the fluid already.

MOBB

I have 6k miles on mine, I remember us talking on another thread it seems as we had our tranny replaced at the same time. I'm experiencing the same ish as you too, 1st gear harsh shift to 3rd wqhen cold, when warmed up all good, and the occasional weird hesitation I sometime get.

fsttyms1

I personally think any thing sooner than 10k miles is just wasting money.

gold2003tl (90)

yeah, well the fact that seems to be some similarity is a good thing. all the replacement trannys must be build the same. i am not really worried about it shifting a little slower, my original tranny did for 60k miles. but my original never shifted harsh coming out of 1st gear when cold, that worries me now. as of right now i am not getting any slippage so thats good. i dont think a fluid change will do anything at this point, like kris said, ill just wait until 15k to do that.

MOBB

I replaced mine on 29/09/09 I guess we either got the latest batch of the post 05 tranny's, or the leftover's, god knows how long they have been sitting at the honda reman plant I'm pretty sure they've stopped building them and just using the surplus. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this tranny. I have a 2 friends that purchased their TL brand new in late 2003. Both their trannies failed at 105k and 115k, VIN outta warranty, 4K out the pocket, I thank god mine is an early build 03 that was good-willed way past warranty.

adamlee05

I dont change my tranny fluid.

russianDude

I also got about 6K miles on the replacement transmission. Its been working fine, it does seem to be programmed different than the original one. The shifts are harsher when cold, but that is by design. I did notice slightly harsher shift from 1-2, but its within acceptable. The original tranny was way too smooth, this one feels more like a real transmission -- that actually shifts like it should. I am planing to change my tranny fluid at 15K miles first time (3qt), after that will probably do it every 30K miles.

What people don't get is that tranny fluid is not the cause of our problems. Its easy to jump to conclusions that frequent fluid changes will help, but there is really no correlation to claims that changing it more often than 30K miles will help. I was bugging my service advisor, and also spoke with a tech. All of them said change it every 30K even on re-mans. Don't think they would want to turn down the business if it would not be official from Honda, and they claimed that this is what Honda recommends on re-mnufactured units.

My personal opinion is that Honda found no correlation in more frequent fluid changes and longevity of their faulty transmission 3rd gear clutch pack. Had there been any correlation, they would definitely recommend it, for one thing it would be much cheaper for them to deal with the problem.

MOBB

smart man

KamoteQ

iTrader: (1)

What is the best ATF to use? Honda or Amsoil Synthetic Fluid? I'm planning on changing mine (3x3 or even 4 times if I need to). The price are pretty much the same but I just wanted to make sure that I getter the better of the two.

Thanks.

princelybug

iTrader: (16)