91 honda civic Si 1.6L 5 speed tranny

[Gito]

I own a 91 Honda Civic Si 1.6L with 450,021 miles. Purchased the car new back in Oct 1990. I have changed the oil every 3,500 miles. For the first 100,000 miles I used Fram filters and then quickly switched to AC delco filters, Full and Supertech filters for the next 350,000 miles. I have used the following oils throughout the 20+ years that I have owned the car: Except for a few oil changes where I used 10w-30 I have mostly used 5w-30 Shell, Chevron, Valvoline, and Castrol. I used 5w30 supertech for my last oil change with a supertech oil filter. I have averaged 35-39mpg and at times have reached a max of 42mpg and a minimum of 32mpg(AC). The car has the original engine but I did have the 5 speed manual tran replaced at 350,000. The manual indicates that 10w30 or 10w-40 can be used to fill the transaxle. My original tran lasted 350,000 miles and I was so disappointed to see it fail. Shop owner said it failed because of the oil that I used (10w-30) was not a good choice. I informed him that the manual called for that specific oil weight. He recommended gear oil. So my questions are the following, what kind of oil is best for my 5 speed tranny? I have put approximately 100,000 miles on the used tranny that I purchased. How can I extend the life of this used tranny. What type of oil is recommended? How often should I change the transaxle oil?

thanks for any input

 

[CATERHAM]

Yes I know Honda says 10W-30 motor oil can be used in the transaxle but a gear oil is better.
Honda's own gear oil is very good, I've used the Honaa MTF my self,; their current version is lighter than it used to be, probabily a 70W-80.
Honda should have a recommended specific gear oil grade, try and find what it is.
A 75W-90 GF-5 gearlube may be heavier than necessary.

 

[Hounds]

Gosh, I love the 90-'91 Si's! Owned three of them. Great cars. Andy Hollis is still winning autocross championships with them.

But to answer your question, you don't want to use "gear oil" in any Honda manual transmission. It's much too heavy.

A bit of background, if you're interested:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...rue#Post2006434

If you want to avoid any guess work, you can simply go with Honda's "Genuine Honda Manual Transmission Fluid," part #08798-9031. Or if you want a premium MTF, I recommend Amsoil's "Synthetic Manual Synchromesh Transmission Fluid," (not "gear" oil), catalog #097012266012. Or, my oil, 50/50 mix of Honda MTF and M1 5W-30. It works great.

 

[Brons2]

I always used 10w30 in my Honda manuals with no issues.

That being said a 70w80 would not be much heavier, gear oils use a different viscosity scale than motor oils.

 

[fdcg27]

Back in the day, Honda recommended motor oil for its transaxles, and I used 10W-40 in our one '76 and two '76 Civics.
Later, Honda recommended HG for the transaxle, and I've used that in our two Accords. HG seems to provide good shifting even in very cold conditions and seems to last a long while before becoming notchy in feel.
At ~ $7.00/qt, it's pretty reasonable.
350K on your original transaxle is not bad, considering that it was probably 50% beyond the design life of the assembly.
Your engine is probably twice design life now, so I'd say that Honda built some pretty good reserves into the mechanical components of the '91 Civic.
Anyway, be careful of any gear lube.
Make sure that it's compatible with the parts of your transaxle.
Not all will be.
I doubt that any lube would have extended the life of your original transaxle.
What happened that you had to replace it?

 

[Gito]

Started to hear gear noise when idling...I knew that wasn't good. Then 1 day I couldn't shift into Reverse let alone reverse....I got a good deal on a used one so I went ahead and just got it replaced....Looking back, I hope it wasn't a quick fix.

 

[JZiggy]

Hey Gito, it's really cool for me to hear about your high-mileage civic... My 95 is only halfway to 450k!

Just curious, does your engine burn/use much oil with so many miles? Also, how often do you do valve adjustments and timing belt changes?

 

[Gito]

Burns maybe 1/2 quart between oil changes sometimes more when going over the 3,000 interval change. I have never adjusted the valves on the car but I was going to do it a few years back. Just never got around it. I will tell you something interesting and odd. The car shakes when starting on low oil. There have been many many times when I forgotten to check the oil level and each time it has fallen below the 1 to 1.5 quarts the car has this weird start. All you honda owners probably have put 2 and 2 together. It shakes tremendously in the morning if low on oil. That means that I was probably running low days before but not sensitive enough to trigger the shaking. This starting happening at around 150,000 miles, well thats when I noticed it. The first time it happen I freaked out and ran out of the car to check the oil...I don't know why that was my first instinct. Recently I had trouble starting the car in 90 degree weather. I looked at few forums and everything pointed towards the Main Relay...Super easy to replace, 40$ part. There are you tube videos that demonstrate how to repair it using simple solder. I also recently replaced my Autozone cheap lifetime distributor with a heavy duty one...Brand new, not rebuilt....

I do the timing belt, water pump and all the belts approximately every 80,000..
My car has been overheating for many years. the car just won't quit. Last year I ruptured a hose and ran hot for 20 miles or so...lol...survived

 

[Lead Shoes]

Use Pennzoil synchromesh in the transmission, it is spoken of highly of on dseries.org and Hondatech.com

I have tried amsoil, rp, redline, honda MTF, and even regular 10w30, none of them made the shifting as good as Pennzoil synchromesh.

There is a uoa of the new Honda MTF in a s2000 transmission and the 212F cst was 5.99... WAYYYYY thinner than the old fluid, I haven't had luck with the newer fluid, the older thicker stuff worked great however.

As for the over heating, check your coolant temp sensors first, if they are good, I would just flush the system and replace the thermostat, and the d16a6 will keep on rolling.

 

[Spinall4]

I did some research when I had my 92 civic hatch with turbo d16z6. My bottom end had almost 300,000 mi on it and it took being turbocharged without any fuss, talk about Honda overbuilding these cars.

Honda used to spec 10w30 as fill in the trans. Then at some point the recommendation changed to the Honda mtf. Lots of speculation, little know for sure. It could have to o with the ever tighter controls on oil for better emissions.

I believe I may have an extra bottle of Honda mtf laying around. If I do you can have it for the price of shipping on a flat rate box. My wife's civic is an auto, so no use for me any more.

To add, it's not like the trans burns oil like the motor so putting Honda mtf in it at 7$ a quart is not bad since it will be in the trans for a while.

 

[max45]

max45


Registered: 06/16/11
Posts: 46
Loc: los angeles
hi gito. i was having the same problem,breaking my head what kind of mtf oil i will use in my honda civic lx 00' 5speed with 266k. i purchased used from dealer with 120k 7 years ago. i didn't have any mechanical problems. to make long story short, i was changing mtf oil with honda mtf. then after some time i was having problems with manual honda tranny. the parts inside starts wearing out. why? i tell you why. i was always changing on time every 25k with honda mtf fluid. that oil is fine for low mileage cars. after some time you have to switch to more thick oil because of mileage. what i did, currently i'am living in san diego. i went to local mechanical shops to see how much they charge to fix manual honda tranny. they wanna charge from 800-1100$ to fix with warranty. well that's too much money for my budget. i went to junk yard here in san diego county. otay junk yards close to mexican border. i call all junk yards to see for the price, everyone want's 400$ for used tranny what is ok. then on one junk yard found for 250$ used and went and purchased with 30-day guarantee. went to tijuana -mexico to install there to mechanic shop.( i have friend mech there)it's cheap labor. they charge me 120$ for instalation,and it was done in 4 hours. all my mechanical work i'am doing there. cheaper. what i found out is for me the best oil for honda civic manual tranny is 'MOTUL MOTYL GEAR 10W-40. it's specialised oil for manual trannys.it's french oil really good and realible. i jack up car open with wrench take the old oil oil out, add 2 liters inside and that's it! job done. don't use gear oil or something else, try MOTUL MOTYL GEAR 10W-40 you will see results. liter it's about 10-12$ but it's worth it. you will need 2 liters and change every 40k good luck...

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[Solo2driver]

Honda Genuine MTL instead of engine oil in this application...shifts much better. I've owned a CRX or 3 in my day