So a Facebook friend just posted a picture of his odometer with 555,555 on it. He's taken a pic of every milestone (111,111; 222,222; etc...) Looking through the comments, he replaced the transmission at 510,000 miles. Since I have the same drivetrain in my CR-V I asked "What oil/what weight? Did you do regular drain and fills of the trans before it needed to be replaced and if so, was it Honda fluid or another brand? I have the same K24 and likely the same trans in my CR-V. Mine will rust away long before 500,000 but inquiring minds would love to know. Thanks."
His reply: " I believe it’s a 5W-30 synthetic blend (like Valvoline’s MaxLife or something along those lines). Hadn’t really done much with the transmission fluids; in retrospect I should have done more."
Wow, just wow. If he's remembering correctly, that's a Honda automatic that lasted 510,000 miles without any (or very few) drain and fills. Further convinces me that I overthink things when it comes to vehicle maintenance. Anyway, just thought I'd share a high-mileage vehicle story.
Honda Element 555,555 miles!
- Thread starter fenixguy
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Nice! Do you know what year his Element is? Automatic transmission?
wemay
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Originally Posted By: fenixguy
So a Facebook friend just posted a picture of his odometer with 555,555 on it. He's taken a pic of every milestone (111,111; 222,222; etc...) Looking through the comments, he replaced the transmission at 510,000 miles. Since I have the same drivetrain in my CR-V I asked "What oil/what weight? Did you do regular drain and fills of the trans before it needed to be replaced and if so, was it Honda fluid or another brand? I have the same K24 and likely the same trans in my CR-V. Mine will rust away long before 500,000 but inquiring minds would love to know. Thanks."
His reply: " I believe it’s a 5W-30 synthetic blend (like Valvoline’s MaxLife or something along those lines). Hadn’t really done much with the transmission fluids; in retrospect I should have done more."
Wow, just wow. If he's remembering correctly, that's a Honda automatic that lasted 510,000 miles without any (or very few) drain and fills. Further convinces me that I overthink things when it comes to vehicle maintenance. Anyway, just thought I'd share a high-mileage vehicle story.
This story is missing lots of info. Driving conditions is THE BIGGEST factor. If the car was cruising the highway in top gear for half a million miles, OF COURSE it would be fine with the factory fill in the transmission.
Now a daily driver doing short trips constantly will wear out the fluid and the transmission long before 200k miles.
I recently bought a 2004 Mazda RX-8 with an automatic @ 126,000 miles. Drained fluid was BLACK as tar. Tranny had a very rough 1-2 shift as well as the rest of the gears, especially during downshifts.
I dropped the pan, cleaned both inner magnets, did a mini cooler line flush to pump the rest of the old fluid out and essentially poured in the 11 quarts the manual said the transmission holds. Shift quality improved 10 fold. Once warm, I now can't even feel the 1-2 shift during certain engine load conditions. It's AMAZING what fresh fluid can do to the shift quality.
Those advocating NOT changing the fluid are STUPID, in my opinion.
I've been servicing cars for a decade and have tons of similar stories where transmissions shift 2x smoother with new juice.
^^Agreed^^ It was from a Facebook post and (judging from his response) not a car guy, so yeah it's missing lots of info. I was hoping he would indulge more but I suppose he doesn't know a whole lot more. Obviously mostly highway miles (he makes his living as a musician).
I do 30,000 mile drain and fills with all my autos. When I bought the CR-V, it had ~80,000 on it. The ATF was black and smelled burnt but shifting fine. I did a 3x D&F and it's been doing fine ever since. I live in the mountains so I consider my trannys to have a severe-service life. I don't think anyone here is advocating not changing the fluid.
On a humorous note, one commenter asked "are you running Amsoil?" To which the OP replied, "not sure what you mean." It was at this point I assumed he wasn't going to break out any UOAs or anything further.
Any idea what kind of mileage he's getting? I kind of like our CRV and wouldn't mind running it out to crazy mileage but the low 20's hwy mileage is getting old...
Impressive. 
Originally Posted By: fenixguy
I don't know about his Element, but our CR-V is getting ~28mph on the highway with Snow tires. Does better than that with the CS4s on. In town, about 25. Shoot, I've gotten as high as 22 in the Frontier. Maybe we drive like old people...
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I would guess the Element has FWD as opposed to AWD to have lasted that long.
A guy on here has an 07 Accord 4cyl with 583k miles but he bought it used from the Honda dealer I believe. Most of those miles were already on it. Car was in mint condition. Previous owner did a lot of preventative maintenance on it.
Very impressive.
I would agree most here are probably very anal about maintenance but this story seems to prove that you don't have to be a "car person" to get a long life out vehicles. A little goes a long way as long as you don't abuse the thing.
Originally Posted By: miden851
Originally Posted By: Leo99
Replaced the tranny at 510k miles? That's crazy.
And my wife thinks she's getting a new 2020 Rav4. Ha! She'll have to wait.
Originally Posted By: Artem
Those advocating NOT changing the fluid are STUPID, in my opinion.
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