95 Honda Civic first A/T fluid change....

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racin4ds

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I just picked up a little 95 Civic hatch back for a daily commuter from my aunt, this car has been babied its entire life but also poorly maintained...

160k on the clock, I picked it up real cheap because it need a head gasket and she just bought a new CRV so I get it together and get it running and notice the trans shift rather "hard" but firm and positive with no slipping at all. I pull the dipstick and see some pretty dark, almost brown fluid... no burnt smell and nothing bad just old and likely never changed.

My plan tonight is to drain and refill with Maxlife fluid and a bottle of lubeguard red. Sound like a good idea? No filter anywhere that I can see and no pan on this thing so all I did was pull the drain plug. I love lubeguard products and have recently became very fond of Maxlife!
 
Sounds great. But do drain and fills only and AT LEAST 500 miles between them. You want slow and gentle cleaning. Instead of fast and furious cleaning which could clog the many small internal passages. Probably do 3-4 DF's in total. Report back if you can.
thumbsup2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: racin4ds
I just picked up a little 95 Civic hatch back for a daily commuter from my aunt, this car has been babied its entire life but also poorly maintained...

160k on the clock, I picked it up real cheap because it need a head gasket and she just bought a new CRV so I get it together and get it running and notice the trans shift rather "hard" but firm and positive with no slipping at all. I pull the dipstick and see some pretty dark, almost brown fluid... no burnt smell and nothing bad just old and likely never changed.

My plan tonight is to drain and refill with Maxlife fluid and a bottle of lubeguard red. Sound like a good idea? No filter anywhere that I can see and no pan on this thing so all I did was pull the drain plug. I love lubeguard products and have recently became very fond of Maxlife!



Use the Maxlife ATF, and I would skip the Lube-regard. I use Max Life ATF solely in all my Honda's and my neighbors Oddy. Never a problem.I am not a fan of putting additives in my transmission. And do as recomended above and slowly clean it w/ the MaxLife ATF.
 
Originally Posted By: satinsilver
Sounds great. But do drain and fills only and AT LEAST 500 miles between them. You want slow and gentle cleaning. Instead of fast and furious cleaning which could clog the many small internal passages. Probably do 3-4 DF's in total. Report back if you can.
thumbsup2.gif



I have done the same procedure with the civic I bought at 167k with a weird transmission noise & brown ATF, that is all gone now, I did honda recommended 3x D&R with Castrol Multi Vehicle ATF, I drove 5-10 miles between each D&R just to get the fluid to circulate, now the transmission shifts almost perfectly.
 
Check the magnet at the end of the drain valve for metals. I'd also stay away from anything not Honda AT fluid.
 
Originally Posted By: Schmoe
Check the magnet at the end of the drain valve for metals. I'd also stay away from anything not Honda AT fluid.


+1 I only use Honda atf.
 
aaaarrrgggggg we never get a consensus on Honda as to which fluid is the *least* problematic of DW1, MaxLife, CastrolMulti :-( They must be very close because some people claim that one gives harsher shift and other claim it gives them mushy shift i.e. the comparison is all over the place.
 
@Vikas, all three are good. I guess it just comes down to price.

Lubegard is not necessary unless there's a problem with the trans, which there doesn't seem to be.

After you drain it tonight, drain it again next week, and then drain it again the week after that. So 3x total to get the old stuff out of there.

From then on, you only need to drain it once every 30k. You will not need to do the 3x again.
 
Originally Posted By: Vikas
aaaarrrgggggg we never get a consensus on Honda as to which fluid is the *least* problematic of DW1, MaxLife, CastrolMulti :-( They must be very close because some people claim that one gives harsher shift and other claim it gives them mushy shift i.e. the comparison is all over the place.


I have used all 3 of the fluids you mentioned in my Honda's. I personally like the Maxlife ATF the best, followed by DW1. I have heard the Castrol High Mileage version works good also.
 
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For that 1995 Civic I would NOT use the DW-1 fluid, as it is a low viscosity fluid designed for more recent automatic units (since mid 2000) Instead I would either use Castrol Transmax Import Multi Vehicle or something similar.
 
Well, Castrol Transmax Import went in, it lists on the bottle that it meets both DW-1 and the other Honda specs. I wanted maxlife but they were completely sold out! Dumped about 4 quarts of it in plus went ahead with the Lubeguard red, I really like that stuff and figured it can't hurt.

Took a quick test drive, the shifts definitely seem to be getting less harsh. My wife is getting it titled today so I'll be able to put a few more miles on it and get a good feel for any changes.
 
Isn't getting hard shift better? Or am I confusing hard shifts with quick shifts? What I want is quick shifts i.e. minimize the time between the two gears. Which would be best for that purpose?
 
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Originally Posted By: Vikas
Isn't getting hard shift better? Or am I confusing hard shifts with quick shifts? What I want is quick shifts i.e. minimize the time between the two gears. Which would be best for that purpose?


my GT shifts so quickly and smoothly i almost never realize it's changed gears other then when i am actually watching out for it. it's got Castrol multi-vehicle ATF. I think Maxlife and Castrol import ATF work just fine in Hondas from my experience. Honda fluid is too expensive, i rather buy amsoil atf if i wanna pay that much for ATF. Amsoil is Full Synthetic where DW-1 is not.
 
Originally Posted By: racin4ds
Well, Castrol Transmax Import went in, it lists on the bottle that it meets both DW-1 and the other Honda specs. I wanted maxlife but they were completely sold out! Dumped about 4 quarts of it in plus went ahead with the Lubeguard red, I really like that stuff and figured it can't hurt.

Took a quick test drive, the shifts definitely seem to be getting less harsh. My wife is getting it titled today so I'll be able to put a few more miles on it and get a good feel for any changes.


you don't wanna overfill AT, as when i did that on my honda civic, it started to spill out of where the old worn AT dipstick plugged in. With ATF at operating temperature, park and turn off car on level ground and make sure it on the upper level mark.
http://www.justanswer.com/uploads/hdgene/2006-09-20_210218_dip1.gif

The reason i point this out is because you put in 4 quart of ATF, honda civic AT don't take that much on a D & R.

96-00 Civic AT D & R is 2.7 quartz
06-11 Civic AT D & R is 2.5 quartz
 
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01_Celica- I used a 4 qt drain pain, pulled the plug out of the trans and let it sit overnight, when I went back to refill the pan was almost completely full. I really didn't expect that much to come out either but it did. I've also checked and rechecked the fluid level, its right on the money.

This is a 95 Civic Hatch to BTW, you show 96-up fluid reqs.
 
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Originally Posted By: racin4ds
01_Celica- I used a 4 qt drain pain, pulled the plug out of the trans and let it sit overnight, when I went back to refill the pan was almost completely full. I really didn't expect that much to come out either but it did. I've also checked and rechecked the fluid level, its right on the money.

This is a 95 Civic Hatch to BTW, you show 96-up fluid reqs.


Oh wow I had no idea the 92-95 civic AT drained that much fluid on a drain...well thanks for the reply, I was trying to make sure you didn't have a leak or ruined your transmission.
 
[/quote]
Oh wow I had no idea the 92-95 civic AT drained that much fluid on a drain...well thanks for the reply, I was trying to make sure you didn't have a leak or ruined your transmission. [/quote]

No problem! Thanks for the advice! But I was just reading something from a Helms Honda manual that threw me... it says to check the transmission fluid with the engine warmed up but off, not idling in park like 99% of the other A/T cars out there! So I'm going to recheck it tonight with the engine OFF after I get home from my 45 mile ride home.
 
Originally Posted By: racin4ds

Oh wow I had no idea the 92-95 civic AT drained that much fluid on a drain...well thanks for the reply, I was trying to make sure you didn't have a leak or ruined your transmission. [/quote]

No problem! Thanks for the advice! But I was just reading something from a Helms Honda manual that threw me... it says to check the transmission fluid with the engine warmed up but off, not idling in park like 99% of the other A/T cars out there! So I'm going to recheck it tonight with the engine OFF after I get home from my 45 mile ride home. [/quote]

Correct Honda ATF is checked with a long enough drive to get the fluid at operating temperature, then with the car off on a level ground ATF should read at the upper level mark.

Generally best time to check is after a long highway drive, I think atleast 5+ miles on highway.
 
Drove 14 miles on the way home yesterday, stopped for gas on a nice level parking lot and checked the A/T fluid, it was perfect. Right at the top of the cross hatch mark on the stick. Total fluid added after draining was 3.75 quarts plus 10oz of lubeguard
 
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