Honda Manual Trans Fluid

N

Nayov

Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Messages
1,008
Location
ME
The owner's manual says to use Honda's MT fluid, but in a pinch 0W-20 can be used "temporarily" or words to that effect.
Are there additives in motor oil that kinda-sorta-mighta be harmful to the transmission or is it just good ole fashioned bs to buy oil from the dealer?

The change capacity is only 1.5 quarts, so I'm going with the Honda brand, but I was just wondering. Also, what does this cost per quart at a dealer? I just want to know to see if I want to bother ordering it online or not.

Lastly, they don't sell counterfeit Honda MTF oil on eBay or Amazon.... do they?
 
B1974 said:
We used Pennzoil synchromesh in a 2007 civic gearbox and it works well.
Click to expand...

The bottle suggests it's use for some Honda transmissions. It was designed as a replacement fluid for transmissions that originally specified motor oil--GM apparently issued a TSB recommending it's use in place of 5W30 motor oil sometime in 1988. Despite finding the TSB number on a Pontiac Fiero site, I have not found the actual TSB.

I recently used it in my 1984 Cavalier, which has a manual transmission which specs 5W30, and it seems to be working better than the (probably) factory fill 5W30.

Good thing, too, because this stuff can be hard to find. Autozone had no stock, had to go to NAPA.
 
The older Honda's actually recommended their MTF but did say you could use 10w30 if MTF wasn't available and I believe that was pre 96. I have 97&99 Civic's but use either their MTF or Pennzoil Synchromesh. Supposedly their new stuff is a lot better, I wasn't a fan of the old and had notchy shifting so I switched to the Pennzoil and haven't looked back.
 
The oil additives didn't interfere on the 4-speed manual transmission of my 1984 Isuzu pick-up. It requires 10W-30 conventional.
Several years ago, I changed the 5-speed MT fluid of my 2008 Ford Escape to 75W-90 Red Line synthetic when it reached 60K miles.
 
@Nayov, I prefer a dedicated GL-4 manual transmission fluid (rather than motor oil) - it will have additives to make it "grabby" to help get the synchronizers up to speed.

I've been happy with Redline's 75W-90 MTF and Pennzoil's 75W-90 Syngear in our Mazda5. I haven't tried Amsoil's MTF but have heard good things about it.
 
Cdn17Sport6MT said:
Pay heed to the spex called for. If they say 75W-80 GL-4, strictly as an example, then don't go heavier, don't go lighter, and DON'T go GL-5 or even GL-4/GL-5!
Click to expand...
The well-meaning fellow at NAPA tried to sell me GL-5 gear oil instead of GL-4 MTF.

If the number's higher, it must be better, right?

I informed him otherwise.
 
Nayov said:
The owner's manual says to use Honda's MT fluid, but in a pinch 0W-20 can be used "temporarily" or words to that effect.
Are there additives in motor oil that kinda-sorta-mighta be harmful to the transmission or is it just good ole fashioned bs to buy oil from the dealer?

The change capacity is only 1.5 quarts, so I'm going with the Honda brand, but I was just wondering. Also, what does this cost per quart at a dealer? I just want to know to see if I want to bother ordering it online or not.

Lastly, they don't sell counterfeit Honda MTF oil on eBay or Amazon.... do they?
Click to expand...
NO! Do not put motor oil into a transmission!
 
Nothing harmful in the motor oil.... just friction modifiers for mpg means you might have to shift a little slower than normal.

I've purchased counterfeit oil and filters on amazon/ebay and just don't buy fluids filters plugs from either anymore.

Visit the Hondacura dealership for their MT fluids. If too far away or too expensive, then some autopart stores still have the Valvoline fluid.

Synchromesh Manual Transmission Fluid - Valvoline

Valvoline™ Synchromesh Manual Transmission Fluid is a high performance manual transmission lubricant designed to meet the extreme demands of passenger car manual transmission gearbox applications in certain General Motors and Chrysler vehicles with synchronizers. Valvoline Synchromesh Manual...
www.valvoline.com

Valvoline is full synthetic, synchromesh fluid, 8.8cst(20 grade) , GL4 claimed, and a pretty good fluid. I don't care for the non-synthetic non-GL4 Pennzoil/GM synchrostuff unless in an emergency.

Amsoil, Red Line, MPT, Driven, also have fancy fluids. Might want to research the LV fluids versus the normal MTF/MTL which may be a little bit thick. Honda has thinned their MT fluid over the years. I'd probably use a full quart of Red Line MT-LV and then top it off with MTL.

Note that threadstarter is in ME and my experience with ME winters would want either the OE or full synthetic thinnest possible fluid.
 
I recently changed the MTF in my 2005 CR-V with the Honda fluid - I don't recall the price but it seemed, if not cheap, totally reasonable....I wouldn't consider trying to save money by using motor oil....
 
Honda specifies 10W-30 or 10W40 motor oil for the transmission in the Legend. I have switched over to Red Line MTL. The transmission really need to have the sychros replaced.
 
I have 2 quarts from Amazon of the Honda fluid. They were $15 per quart. Now I just need to find the inclination, both literally and figuratively speaking, to do the job.
 
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