'02 Accord 4AT RLI ATF 3480 OCI 96254 miles on car

[benjamming]

Code:
ATF used RLI ATF RLI ATF RLI ATF AMSOIL ATF AMSOIL ATF AMSOIL ATF AMSOIL ATF

Sample Date 22-Sep-2008 16-Aug-2008 12-Jul-2008 5-Mar-2008 17-Jan-2008 29-Nov-2007 Jan-19-2007

Miles on oil 3,480 2,652 3,131 2,990 3,010 2,974 15,003

Miles on car 96,254 92,774 90,122 84,003 81,013 78,003 60,011

Make-up oil None None None None None None None

Lab: Blackstone Blackstone Blackstone Blackstone Blackstone Blackstone Blackstone



Wear Metals:

Iron: 10 12 16 27 40 54 70

Copper: 17 10 5 4 6 8 8

Tin: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Lead: 1 1 1 1 1 2 3

Chromium: 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

Nickel: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Aluminum: 16 18 23 47 66 82 74

Titanium: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Silver: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0



Additive Metals:

Calcium: 265 230 207 126 152 205 323

Magnesium: 4 4 7 18 27 44 136

Zinc: 11 12 15 33 49 82 206

Phosphorus: 328 362 436 470 443 374 176

Barium: 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

Molybdenum: 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Antimony: NT NT NT NT NT NT NT



Contaminant Metals:

Silicon: 5 6 6 9 12 15 14

Sodium: 8 8 8 11 14 11 7

Boron: 113 130 149 191 155 140 209

Potassium: 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Vanadium: NT NT NT NT NT NT NT

Manganese: 0 0 0 0 1 0 1



Physical & Other Tests:

Viscosity 40C: NT NT NT NT NT NT NT

Viscosity 100C: 6.24 6.15 6.54 6.07 6.38 6.13 45.8

TAN: 0.3 0.8 2.3 3.1 2.2 1.7 0.9

Flashpoint: 380 400 400 430 405 410 365

Oxidation: NT NT NT NT NT NT NT

Nitration: NT NT NT NT NT NT NT

Water: 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Fuel: NT NT NT NT NT NT NT

TBN: NT NT NT NT NT NT NT

Insolubles: 0.0 0.0 0.0 TR 0.1 0.1 Trace

Glycol: NT NT NT NT NT NT NT

VI: NT NT NT NT NT NT NT

Sulfate: NT NT NT NT NT NT NT

 

[buster]

Looks good. FP is lower.

 

[posty]

Humm----- some high numbers with Amsoil

 

[Donald]

Are you really changing your ATF every 3500 miles. Isn't that expensive? Is that your long term plan.

 

[benjamming]

I've been doing a drain & refill of 3 qts every 3k miles. Very shortly, I will start a drain & refill every 7500 miles.

posty,

There was an 'incident' of some sorts ~ 60-70k miles. It's been trending down ever since. I changed from Z1 to AMSOIL ATF ~ 45k miles.

buster,

I assume the FP is w/in lab uncertainty.

 

[Tempest]

Cu trending up??

 

[Johnny]

Originally Posted By: benjamming
I've been doing a drain & refill of 3 qts every 3k miles. Very shortly, I will start a drain & refill every 7500 miles.

posty,

There was an 'incident' of some sorts ~ 60-70k miles. It's been trending down ever since. I changed from Z1 to AMSOIL ATF ~ 45k miles.

buster,

I assume the FP is w/in lab uncertainty.


Drain and fill every 3K, WOW! I thought I was excessive doing it every 20K. I wish I were your ATF supplier.

 

[battyice]

Considering the issues Honda has had with that transmission and the small ATF capacity, changing it every 3k isn't terrible. You can only drain ~3.2 quarts of ATF from the transmission at one time, I think the total capacity is just over 7 quarts.

My g/f has an '02 Accord that started shifting weird at 55k or so, I drained/refilled the transmission a few times and it cleared up. A year later it is seems to be shifting strange again, so I'm planning to change it over to AMSOIL ATF this weekend and see how it drives.

 

[The Critic]

If it shifts strange, you should take it to the dealership and have the unit diagnosed and replaced as needed. Honda will probably pay for the repair completely since you're at a relatively low mileage.

But to the OP: Have you noticed any differences in shift quality between the various fluids?

 

[benjamming]

The RLI shifts more abruptly on a cold start. Other than that, everything is normal between them.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: benjamming
The RLI shifts more abruptly on a cold start. Other than that, everything is normal between them.

How about the amount of sludge on the magnetic plug?

 

[battyice]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
If it shifts strange, you should take it to the dealership and have the unit diagnosed and replaced as needed. Honda will probably pay for the repair completely since you're at a relatively low mileage.


I agree, the first thing I did was bring it to the dealer. They drove the car and said there was nothing wrong with it. I insisted that it wasn't driving correctly and they recommended a transmission service; full price of course from their service department.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: battyice
Originally Posted By: The Critic
If it shifts strange, you should take it to the dealership and have the unit diagnosed and replaced as needed. Honda will probably pay for the repair completely since you're at a relatively low mileage.


I agree, the first thing I did was bring it to the dealer. They drove the car and said there was nothing wrong with it. I insisted that it wasn't driving correctly and they recommended a transmission service; full price of course from their service department.

What's do you mean by shifting strangely? All of the Honda automatics that I've driven have very poor shift quality.

 

[battyice]

Sometimes it seems to shift early, other times late. Some shifts are slightly jerky, others not. Perhaps it is just the nature of the beast.

 

[benjamming]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
Originally Posted By: benjamming
The RLI shifts more abruptly on a cold start. Other than that, everything is normal between them.

How about the amount of sludge on the magnetic plug?


Here's a few of the snapshots.

60011 miles Jan-19-2006

75029 miles Sep-11-2007

84003 miles Mar-6-2008

90122 miles Jul-12-2008

 

[bulwnkl]

Originally Posted By: Tempest
Cu trending up??


Perhaps, but may just be leaching copper. RLI's bio-esters seem to leach a bit more than other oils.

 

[bulwnkl]

Wow, I guess I didn't type the rest of my post.

Benjamming, do you have a spec sheet for RLI's ATF that's newer than the one on their website? There's a significant difference between the RLI 100C viscosity you tested (every time) and what they list on their website's spec sheet.

 

[MolaKule]

And did you notice trending in the reduction of zinc?

 

[digitalSniperX1]

Isn't zinc the magic Z-1 additive? Perhaps the Z-1 is the moniker for the top secret additive compound having these mystical zinc atoms in it eh?