Here are pictures of my Honda CVT fluid library for comparison.

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Aug 22, 2009
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Pittsburgh,PA U.S.A.
Hi all. I have a 2016 Honda CR-V EX that I acquired in February of 2020 with 19,877 miles on it then.

Since it spent those miles in the hills of Pittsburgh PA with plenty of stop and go traffic I consider that sever service and therefore did 3 drain and fills of the CVT fluid starting around 25 K miles and driving it about 1 K miles to mix the new with the old before doing each additional drain and fill, because each drain and fill only gets out 1/2 of the fluid that was in it.

Here are some pictures of the CVT fluid I removed each time, and also a withdraw from the top sample of the CVT fluid at 28K miles to see what the CVT fluid looks like after the 3rd drain and fill has mixed with the old, and a virgin sample of the Honda HCF-2 fluid.

The jars are 10oz Polar Peach Slices jars left over from what I bough at Wal-Mart. The flashlight is a StreamLight ProTac 2L-X and it is set to 500 Lumens.

I bought 14 quarts of the Honda HCF-2 fluid from OEMPartSource.com and also a crush washer for the drain bolt and one for the over-flow bolt, and reused the originals twice. I could of got by with only 13 quarts. The amount I had to add to get fluid to come out the over-flow each time was very little. And after 3 drain and fills I still had enough in the remaining open quart to provide the virgin sample. I still have one quart I never opened. And I did have the vehicle perfectly level each time, and ran it in each gear for 10 seconds or more down and up 3 times to get the air out, and also let it sit to get any foam to settle out before doing the additional add until some came out the over-flow.

As you can see, with each drain and fill the CVT fluid becomes less dirty and light can shine further into it.

In the future, I can withdraw a sample and compare it to the existing library of samples to get an idea of the condition of the CVT fluid and how many drain and fill it could use.

There was nothing wrong with the way the CVT was working even just before the first drain and fill, but after 3 drain and fills it does run butter smooth which is a slight improvement and barely a noticeable improvement, because again it was working fine before the first drain and fill. There were some post on the "Honda CR-V Owners Club Forum" where CVTs with 30K or more were having some problems and the owners had to change the fluid several times to get them to work good again. So my 3X drain and fills starting at 25K miles are decent preventive maintance.
 

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The 3rd to last ( 8th one ) is a sample I removed very recently from the fill port just to see what the fluid that that is in it now looks like. This is the fluid after 3rd drain and fill, and driving it from 27,356 to 28,071 miles so that the old that was still in it has had plenty of enough time to mix with the new.
 
our CRV has 85k by now; every 30K I drain and fill it; CVT works like a brand new to this day;

however, that fluid stinks like nothing else, I hate it; I spill some of it on my skin and I had a reaction to it shortly after I remember
 
What is the last foggy pic?
Which one? If you mean the very last one, that is of the virgin Honda HCF-2 CVT fluid with the light shining on the bottom of the jar. It looks like the large amount of light that hit the lip of the jar just below the threads from inside of the jar from all the light that passed through the oil caused so much light that the camera adjusted the light level down for the entire picture. I did not notice that large amount of light from that lip because I was looking at the oil. The bottom of the lid inside of the jar is white, so that does not help either. 500 Lumens is a lot of light.
 
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Which one? If you mean the very last one, that is of the virgin Honda HCF-2 CVT fluid with the light shining on the bottom of the jar. It looks like the large amount of light that hit the lip of the jar just below the threads from inside of the jar from all the light that passed through the oil caused so much light that the camera adjusted the light level down for the entire picture. I did not notice that large amount of light from that lip because I was looking at the oil. The bottom of the lid inside of the jar is white, so that does not help either. 500 Lumens is a lot of light.
Gotcha, looked foggy at first, like separation. I now see it is the light affecting the pic.
 
Would you happen to have the crush washer part#? I’ll be performing the same service on the same year/m/m starting my next oci.
 
Honda HCF-2 CVT fluid ( one quart ) part no. is 08200-HCF2 ( You will need 5 quarts to do the job )

CVT drain crush washer part no. is 90471-PX4-000

CVT check bolt over flow crush washer part no. is 90471-59C-000

Rear end differential drain crush washer is the same as transmission drain, part no. is 90471-PX4-000

Rear end fill ( and also the overflow ) crush washer part no. is 94109-20000

Honda Genuine Duel Pump II rear end differential fluid ( one quart ) ( note you will need 1 and a half to do job, I think from what I have seen on YouTube, but one YouTube video shows only using one quart ) part no. is 08200-9007

Honda engine air intake filter part no. is 17220-5LA-A00

Cabin air filter part no. is 80292-T0G-A01 ( note the 0 in-between the T and G, and also in-between the A and 1 is a zero not an O )

The long front windshield rubber blade replacement part no. is 76622-STK-A02

The short front windshield rubber blade replacement part no. is 76632-STK-A02

The rear window rubber blade replacement part no. is 76732-T0A-003

Honda Type II premixed 50/50 blue antifreeze part no. is 0L999-9011 ( it is a good idea to have a gallon of this in reserve incase you find your overflow bottle a little low some day ).

OEMPartSource.com is a good place to buy original Honda parts and fluids at a much lower price than a dealer, and if you make a large purchase the shipping cost has less effect on the price per item.

If you can not find a part no. look for that part on e-bay. If you can not find it there look on bernardi.com , and if you can't find it there go to your dealer and ask the parts department person.
 
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Watch several YouTube videos on how to do any service job on your Honda. Usually watching just one is not enough because some show a thing or two better than others, and if you watch several you can really get an idea of how to do each part of the service the best way.

You will require a 3/8 drive torque wrench for tightening the drain and over-flow/check bolt. Tekton makes a good quality one at a good price and you can find them on Amazon. A slightly lower quality one would be an Ever-Craft that you can buy from NAPA for about the same price. Always store torque wrenches set to the lowest setting or even below that so there is no force on the spring in it that could change its calibration if stored for a long time at a high setting.

You will also need a piece of pipe to extend the ratchet or breaker bar to break loose the drain and over-flow bolts. The over flow is 12mm hex bolt.
 
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You need 4 quarts to do a front wheel only drive, and 5 to do an AWD.

Mine is AWD, so I drain, clean magnet on drain bolt, replace crush washer, put drain back on and torque it to 36 Lb ft. And put 4 quarts in. Start engine, put in every selection on shifter for 10 seconds or more, down, and up the shifter all selections, repeat 2 more times for a total of 3 times to get all the air out of the hydraulic system that uses the CVT fluid to select the ratio and forward or reverse. With the vehicle on flat level ground shut off the vehicle. Go have a meal or do something for a half hour or more to let any foam on top of the CVT fluid go away, open 12mm hex head overflow bolt with the vehicle still on level ground and engine still not running. Add a small amount of CVT fluid until some comes out overflow bolt hole. Put overflow bolt back with new crush washer. Torque overflow to 15 Lb ft.

Put fill plug back.

_____________

PS: Never use a torque wrench to loosen anything with. You might subject it to too much and ruin its calibration.
 
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Btw, I did add new Honda CVT fluid from the opened quart that was measured in another 10 oz jar to make up the withdraw at 28K miles, and after that still had enough in that opened quart to provide the virgin sample. It took very little to get CVT oil to come out the overflow each fill.
 
You also could have just refilled and driven it for a hundred miles and then replaced it. It's possible but not certain that you could have used less fluid and got the same results. Now you're going to have to keep up on it or you'll be back in the same boat.
 
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