Proper Service For Honda Accord?

[lancerplayer]

I plan on purchasing a 2009 Honda Accord EX-L VTEC 3.5L V6 in the near future.

The car has an automatic transmission.

The car has 65K on it and the transmission/differential has never been serviced, besides making sure the fluid is at proper level.

I would like to know what proper service is necessary in order to keep the transmission and differential in good working order?

What do you suggest? I would prefer a dealer/shop do the maintenance rather than myself, since I am not familiar with doing transmission service on my own.

Thanks for your help.

 

[gregk24]

Take it to the Honda dealer and have them do a COMPLETE fluid exchange, not a drain and refill. You need to get all that old fluid out. Hondas maintenance plan for the transmission is not enough IMO. All I can say is the transmission in my Accord 2.4 is a pretty reliable transmission, yet it only had a fluid exhange at 50K miles and it started to flare and have issues at 100K. And yours in the V6 and has had NO fluid exchanges in 65K miles. I drain and refill mine every year/10K miles. Hope you have no issues with yours.

 

[SatinSilver]

Hopefully, the trans has seen a few drain/fills by now. An excellent Honda dealer in the area is Jack Matia Honda in Elyria off of I-90. Or you can hop on the turnpike and take the R-57 exit and head North. The guys there are excellent imo. From the service manager to the service advisors. I don't like their sales dept though. But the service dept is top notch. Very reasonable esp when you do services ala carte.

Pull the dipstick and check the color of the fluid. Hopefully, it's red or pink and not brown or black. Not that color is a tell all though. Besides doing the basics like oil changes, air and cabin filters, changing the atf regularly should be a priority.

 

[OriginHacker21]

You guys recommend changing Honda ATF every 10k?

 

[SatinSilver]

15k drain and fill with a V6 that see's mostly city miles. 30k drain/fill mostly highway on the V6. Somewhere in between for a V6 that's drives 50/50 highway/city.

For the I4 you can go 30k with a single drain fill on a car that drives 50/50 highway/city. Even in a city like Chicago with heavy traffic one of the Honda tech's says a single drain/fill at 30k is fine.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: OriginHacker21
You guys recommend changing Honda ATF every 10k?


I do a drain and fill every 15k miles. Our 2005 Acura MDX had its original Z1 fluid until about 75k miles, and it's operating fine. I do one drain and fill every 15k miles on both of ours.

To the original poster, I'd have the Honda dealer drain and refill the transmission a few times; I would not have them hook it up to a machine and "flush" the transmission. I think you will find that if you can change the engine oil, you can change the transmission fluid on a Honda. There's a simple drain plug to remove and either a fill plug or use a funnel and fill it through the dipstick tube. It's really and truly very easy to do this service.

 

[CHARLIEBRONSON21]

Originally Posted By: OriginHacker21
You guys recommend changing Honda ATF every 10k?


It's cheaper than a new trans.

 

[Brybo86]

if you check the fluid and it still looks red and smells like an armpit , I would drain and fill x1 now then again at 15k, then every 30k from there on out

for sure keep an eye on engine oil consumption, reports of this engine burning a 1qt/1000 miles are relatively common

 

[PhillyJoe]

If you can change your engine oil, you can change your transmission fluid on a Honda. Start to finish, it was 15 minutes to drain and fill my daughter's '03 Civic having never done it before.
Three quarts out, three quarts in.
Dealer told me they do the same 3 qt. D&F when a customer asks for a transmission fluid change.

 

[stockrex]

does the transmission work fine now?
how does the fluid look now? take a white paper and remove the dip stick and wipe the bottom of the transmission dip on the paper and what do you see?
dark black? look online for picture of honda atf.
Most dealerships do not have the means to do a transmission flush.
I would suggest you do a transmission drain and fill a few times over few weeks of ownership.
If you dealership HAS the machine to do a flush, yes then go for it.

I do my honda drain and fill every 20k to 30k miles, 10k if you are sitting in LA traffic everyday with it being 100F outside.
I do mine at the end of summer right around fall with the first freeze here in MI.
Heat is your enemy when it comes to ATF.

 

[supton]

What about changing the filter (strainer?) too?

 

[Phishin]

Originally Posted By: supton
What about changing the filter (strainer?) too?


Yeah, can you drop the pan and change the filter on a Honda transmission? I haven't looked yet on my 2010 Accord (just got it a few months ago).

 

[y_p_w]

Originally Posted By: Phishin
Originally Posted By: supton
What about changing the filter (strainer?) too?


Yeah, can you drop the pan and change the filter on a Honda transmission? I haven't looked yet on my 2010 Accord (just got it a few months ago).

No Honda automatic transmission I know of does that. They typically just have a drain bolt and no pan per se. I remember doing an ATF and filter change on a GM Hydra-Matic transmission, and it was a royal PITA since the only way to drain the fluid was to remove the pan. And it had to be done by loosening all the pan bolts and then removing from all but one side with the remaining bolts serving somewhat as a hinge. I couldn't find a catch pan that wide, and it simply spilled over the cardboard I'd set up to soak up spills. The filter kit usually includes a replacement pan gasket (as well as a new gasket for the ATF hole), and I've seen both rubber or rubber/cork materials.

Honda automatics typically just drain through a horizontally-mounted bolt (with a fitting that takes about a 3/8" square head) on the bottom of the transmission. It pours out through this and you then top it off. There's typically no filter, but maybe a permanent screen inside that's impossible to reach. I've heard that some models have an inline filter somewhere that's supposed to last the life of the car. It's easier than an oil change (especially Honda oil changes) because there's no filter. Honda has put the oil filter in some ridiculous locations, and I could imagine if they decided to put on a spin-on transmission filter it would also be in a crazy place. Most Honda drain bolts are located such that you don't even need to lift the car to reach it. I'm not sure about the fill location though, although I believe most have a fairly wide hole where the dipstick seals off the fill hole.

While I understand that a lot of people want to do a change to supposedly get out contaminants, the system is designed to operate properly with metal shavings suspended in the fluid and doesn't really have to be "clean" to function properly. At most I recall the drain bolts have magnets. Maybe if it's been neglected, you might want to remove a lot of the stuff, but I've heard the thing that a partial change really does is replenish the depleted additives - especially the friction modifiers.

 

[eagle23]

Some Honda trans have filters. My 07 Accord V6 does, and I've changed it. However on some later ones it is internal to the unit.

My point is they do have a filter, just not one that's easily (or usually) serviceable.

Re fluid changes every 10k, not by 2009. It was the much earlier ones that had issues and the lousy Z-1 fluid did nothing to help them not fail. Since they were redesigned several years ago, reliability is much better.

Do a drain/fill 3 times; it will take about 3.3 qts each time. Once done, every 30k is conservative if using a good fluid like DW-1, MaxLife, etc.

 

[Jim Allen]

From the mid-2000 back, they had no filter, just an internal screen that require trans disassembly to clean.

10K changes is way overkill.... even with Z1. 30K D&F is more than enough for most, even with Z1. With better oil and a filter, more than 30K is probably adequate for most but should be verified with some ATF used oil analysis.

Fluid exchanges are easy via the cooler lines.

 

[Brybo86]

my 2008 accord has an inline atf filter located just under the mailbox, above the transmission on the right side of the engine compartment

 

[gregk24]

Originally Posted By: Brybo86
my 2008 accord has an inline atf filter located just under the mailbox, above the transmission on the right side of the engine compartment


Same here with my 2006 Accord.

 

[David1]

Originally Posted By: lancerplayer
I plan on purchasing a 2009 Honda Accord EX-L VTEC 3.5L V6 in the near future.

The car has an automatic transmission.

The car has 65K on it and the transmission/differential has never been serviced, besides making sure the fluid is at proper level.

I would like to know what proper service is necessary in order to keep the transmission and differential in good working order?

What do you suggest? I would prefer a dealer/shop do the maintenance rather than myself, since I am not familiar with doing transmission service on my own.

Thanks for your help.



Also remember at about 90K to 105K you must have you timing belt and water pump and all the timing pullies and tensior replaced.. If you take that chance between 90K and 105K and that timing belt brakes or jumps timing you could bend all the valves..

I dunno why they used a belt in the V6

The 4 banger has a CHAIN....

Im on my 4th belt....

The dealer has a deal in my area... 300$ to replace the belt and 80$ more for the Water Pump.. However they always tell me to replace the tensonor, however I do not have the grenade tensionor .. I have the best one that can basically last forever....

However Im not sure what weather you are in but the COLD weather is harder on belts.

 

[David1]

Originally Posted By: gregk24
Take it to the Honda dealer and have them do a COMPLETE fluid exchange, not a drain and refill. You need to get all that old fluid out. Hondas maintenance plan for the transmission is not enough IMO. All I can say is the transmission in my Accord 2.4 is a pretty reliable transmission, yet it only had a fluid exhange at 50K miles and it started to flare and have issues at 100K. And yours in the V6 and has had NO fluid exchanges in 65K miles. I drain and refill mine every year/10K miles. Hope you have no issues with yours.


Honda says never to FLUSH a HONDA transmission... They say to do a Drain and FILL..

Or you can take the cooler line going out OFF and turn the car on and while the car is pushing out old dirty fluid you can pour in nice clean fluid and this way you are only useing the trannings ATF pump....

Honda says do not use them flush machines that force the fluid.