Originally Posted By: stower17
I think you should post about the automatic transmission since you stated it's never been rebuilt and is original.
I think a lot of us would love to hear about that since those are rather problematic trannys.
The car was purchased used in 2003-4 and driven by the father of the family as his DD until around 2010. He was very good about changing the fluids on time. Next, the car was handed down to the daughter who used the car to run a paper route for about a year.
LOTS of shifting involved in that paper route. She neglected the car maintenance wise and appearance wise. Next the car was handed down to the son. He doesn't know much of anything about cars, and neither did the daughter. Since about a year ago, I've been working on the car and taking care of neglected maintenance and repairing issues as I go. The trans shifted horribly when I first met the son and drove it for the first time. The 1-2 shift had an awful hang to it, more of a slide bump where you could feel first gear disengage and then half heartadly engage 2nd for a second until it finally grabbed and fell into gear. That made me very uncomfortable. All the other shifts were hard as well, and there was a very noticeable delay and clunk if you were slowing to an almost stop and then had to accelerate again. That 2-1 downshift wasn't good.
The fluid looked like a faded, maroon red color and I could tell it was old and slightly over heated. I don't know when the last trans service was. It was over filled by about a 1/4" on the stick (probably due to someone checking the fluid level with the engine running. You need to check these transmissions with the engine OFF like if you were checking engine oil).
I chose Valvoline Maxlife to replace what was in the trans. I first did a drain and fill of only 1 quart to see how the trans would respond. I didn't want to ruin the trans and cause slippage because it would be hard to find another car for transportation to and from work. The trans reacted favorably to the single quart, so I did a complete drain and fill of 3 quarts. There was a lot of swarf on the magnetic drain plug. I did 2 more drain and fills over the next 2 weeks. The fluid is now a nice red color, and smells like Maxlife but isn't burnt.
I chose Maxlife for 3 reasons.
1. This trans was designed for Z1 and it's NLA. I don't like using new fluids in old transmissions due to the trans possibly not agreeing with the friction modification of the new fluid.
2. Honda ATF obviously didn't do a good job of protecting these transmissions. They failed left and right even with 30k Z1 changes. Considering this, I wanted something different that had a great reputation in all other applications. Maxlife was the obvious choice.
3. It's full synthetic, unlike Z1 or DW1. These transmissions produce a lot of heat and the Honda ATF doesn't deal with it as well as a full synthetic would. I wanted the extra layer of durability in the fluid since the car is operated in Tucson.
So far, the trans is MUCH better. The 1-2 issue is still there. It doesn't do the slide bump as much anymore, but it is pretty much gone if you force the trans to shift at 3000 rpm. The increased shift pressure engages 2nd very positively with no slippage. The other issue is that the trans will shift very hard into reverse when it is first started in the very cold morning. If you start the engine and allow it to run and come down off its initial cold high idle, the hard shift is reduced.
The trans is totally original with 202k miles currently. I suppose this was a "good one" that was made with all the right parts on the right day in the right factory.
I'm probably going to try Lubeguard Red or Black to see if I can eliminate the remaining 1-2 issue and reduce the morning reverse shift slam. I'm leaning toward Red since everyone with Honda transmissions either had good luck or no result. What say you?
This thread was created by the request of Stower17. Feel free to ask questions or make suggestions.
I think you should post about the automatic transmission since you stated it's never been rebuilt and is original.
I think a lot of us would love to hear about that since those are rather problematic trannys.
The car was purchased used in 2003-4 and driven by the father of the family as his DD until around 2010. He was very good about changing the fluids on time. Next, the car was handed down to the daughter who used the car to run a paper route for about a year.
The fluid looked like a faded, maroon red color and I could tell it was old and slightly over heated. I don't know when the last trans service was. It was over filled by about a 1/4" on the stick (probably due to someone checking the fluid level with the engine running. You need to check these transmissions with the engine OFF like if you were checking engine oil).
I chose Valvoline Maxlife to replace what was in the trans. I first did a drain and fill of only 1 quart to see how the trans would respond. I didn't want to ruin the trans and cause slippage because it would be hard to find another car for transportation to and from work. The trans reacted favorably to the single quart, so I did a complete drain and fill of 3 quarts. There was a lot of swarf on the magnetic drain plug. I did 2 more drain and fills over the next 2 weeks. The fluid is now a nice red color, and smells like Maxlife but isn't burnt.
I chose Maxlife for 3 reasons.
1. This trans was designed for Z1 and it's NLA. I don't like using new fluids in old transmissions due to the trans possibly not agreeing with the friction modification of the new fluid.
2. Honda ATF obviously didn't do a good job of protecting these transmissions. They failed left and right even with 30k Z1 changes. Considering this, I wanted something different that had a great reputation in all other applications. Maxlife was the obvious choice.
3. It's full synthetic, unlike Z1 or DW1. These transmissions produce a lot of heat and the Honda ATF doesn't deal with it as well as a full synthetic would. I wanted the extra layer of durability in the fluid since the car is operated in Tucson.
So far, the trans is MUCH better. The 1-2 issue is still there. It doesn't do the slide bump as much anymore, but it is pretty much gone if you force the trans to shift at 3000 rpm. The increased shift pressure engages 2nd very positively with no slippage. The other issue is that the trans will shift very hard into reverse when it is first started in the very cold morning. If you start the engine and allow it to run and come down off its initial cold high idle, the hard shift is reduced.
The trans is totally original with 202k miles currently. I suppose this was a "good one" that was made with all the right parts on the right day in the right factory.
I'm probably going to try Lubeguard Red or Black to see if I can eliminate the remaining 1-2 issue and reduce the morning reverse shift slam. I'm leaning toward Red since everyone with Honda transmissions either had good luck or no result. What say you?
This thread was created by the request of Stower17. Feel free to ask questions or make suggestions.
