Transmission Additives?

[billt460]

I would say that today's modern automatic multi speed transmissions are far more sensitive to the type of fluid used, than transmissions 40 or 50 years ago were. Back then you had "Type F", and most everything else.

Coolant was much the same. Yellow Prestone went in everything. Today there are as many or more types of coolant, as there are transmission fluids.... And all of them except the right one will cause issues.

 

[CleanSump]

I would say that today's modern automatic multi speed transmissions are far more sensitive to the type of fluid used, than transmissions 40 or 50 years ago were. Back then you had "Type F", and most everything else.

Coolant was much the same. Yellow Prestone went in everything. Today there are as many or more types of coolant, as there are transmission fluids.... And all of them except the right one will cause issues.

Type A came out in the late 1940s before F and the OG Prestone was green. Most everything took green until maybe the late 80s/early 90s. Yeah not German cars. The Prestone yellow "mix with everything" fluid didn't come out until 2012 or 2014.

 

[bkang]

I might question if they really used the fluid they said they used. Dealer or Indy shop?

This was done at a dealer

 

[Tempest1]

My uncle had a 2001 (?) Odyssey and Lubegard Red helped it's transmission considerably. I would remove 10oz. of existing fluid and put in a 10oz. bottle.

 

[billt460]

I would be very leery to add any type of additive to a late model, multi speed transmission. Chances it will do more harm than good. Not to mention the issues it could cause with any type of warranty work.

 

[Donald]

This was done at a dealer

I would assume a dealer used the correct ATF but mistakes can happen.

What does the dealer say when you describe what is happening?

 

[bkang]

I would assume a dealer used the correct ATF but mistakes can happen.

What does the dealer say when you describe what is happening?

The dealer changed the fluid two years ago so I didn’t contact the dealer about this since the fluid was changed a while back. Late 2025 and going into the start of this year was when I started noticing the fuel economy decrease and some subtle shifting abnormalities, like not shifting as smoothly as the vehicle did before the fluid change. Another thing I noticed is at 50 mph when the torque converter locks up, when I let off the throttle and then reapply throttle, the rpms rise slightly then goes back down slightly, much like the torque converter locking up again. I don’t recall the vehicle doing that before the fluid change which caused me to get concerned and suspect something was up with the transmission. The car has a 4-speed transmission and the torque converter locks up in 4th gear at about 50mph.

I had a local shop (not a dealer) look into this and they ran their scan tools to check for codes and view other metrics for the car and didn’t see anything abnormal. They test drove the car and did not observe or feel anything abnormal. I will say that I drove this car for years and would notice something that’s slightly off. However, to someone else driving the vehicle, they may not feel anything’s wrong and would say the car is shifting normally. The mechanic I talked to said if there’s something is going wrong with the transmission, it may take some time for noticeable symptoms to present themselves like an obvious rough shift or transmission slip or codes to appear. They looked at the spark plugs and the air filter and they looked fine.

 

[CleanSump]

The fluid was changed 2 years ago and the symptoms started 6 months ago. It's not the fluid. It's your transmission getting old.

 

[billt460]

......The Prestone yellow "mix with everything" fluid didn't come out until 2012 or 2014.

The "yellow Prestone" I'm talking about came out in 1927... And has been manufactured, and in use ever since.

https://www.google.com/search?q=when+did+yellow+prestone+come+out?&oq=when+did+yellow+prestone+come+out?&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160j33i299.9108j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

I was a Honda technician when these were relatively new. By now they all have gotten either a new transmission under warranty with an ATF 'jet kit' installed. If the gear that was failing due to overheating was inspected and deemed good, just the jet kit installed. The purpose of the jet kit was to direct ATF directly over 2nd gear for better cooling.

Not entirely true. The ‘05 Ody I bought many years back spent its first 60k with the best service you could buy at Honda. The 75k just preceding my ownership… not so much. My friend was the original owner; I did 4 D&F plus the top-off just over 136k along with a VCMuzzler, then a gallon of new fluid every 20k after until handed off to my stepson. By the time he finally got his financial act together, the Ody was over 260k and still on the original, unmodified trans… the van finally died at the county fair demo derby; an untimely death considering it still drove perfectly. I hadn’t even heard of the “jet kit” til your post.

 

[martinq]

The dealer changed the fluid two years ago so I didn’t contact the dealer about this since the fluid was changed a while back. Late 2025 and going into the start of this year was when I started noticing the fuel economy decrease and some subtle shifting abnormalities, like not shifting as smoothly as the vehicle did before the fluid change. Another thing I noticed is at 50 mph when the torque converter locks up, when I let off the throttle and then reapply throttle, the rpms rise slightly then goes back down slightly, much like the torque converter locking up again. I don’t recall the vehicle doing that before the fluid change which caused me to get concerned and suspect something was up with the transmission. The car has a 4-speed transmission and the torque converter locks up in 4th gear at about 50mph.

I had a local shop (not a dealer) look into this and they ran their scan tools to check for codes and view other metrics for the car and didn’t see anything abnormal. They test drove the car and did not observe or feel anything abnormal. I will say that I drove this car for years and would notice something that’s slightly off. However, to someone else driving the vehicle, they may not feel anything’s wrong and would say the car is shifting normally. The mechanic I talked to said if there’s something is going wrong with the transmission, it may take some time for noticeable symptoms to present themselves like an obvious rough shift or transmission slip or codes to appear. They looked at the spark plugs and the air filter and they looked fine.

This should have been in the first post. It sounds like the transmission hasn't been properly serviced.

So it was "changed" in 2024 at 120k miles, today is 4k miles and 2 years later. Correct?

Can you find the receipt for the service in 2024 and see what fluid is listed and how much was used? I had a similar situation on a Subaru where the dealer "changed" the fluid but looking at the receipt it was clear they just did one drain and fill (4 liters out of 12).

 

[bkang]

This should have been in the first post. It sounds like the transmission hasn't been properly serviced.

So it was "changed" in 2024 at 120k miles, today is 4k miles and 2 years later. Correct?

Can you find the receipt for the service in 2024 and see what fluid is listed and how much was used? I had a similar situation on a Subaru where the dealer "changed" the fluid but looking at the receipt it was clear they just did one drain and fill (4 liters out of 12).

Correct, the transmission fluid was replaced two years ago (May 2024) at 120k miles and the car has been driven 4k miles since the service.

I found the receipt from the service and it didn't specify the amount of transmission fluid used. All it says was a quantity of four 08200-9008 ATF fluid was used. 08200-9008 is Honda ATF DW-1 Transmission Fluid. Each bottle contains 1qt of fluid.

 

[martinq]

This should have been in the first post. It sounds like the transmission hasn't been properly serviced.

Correct, the transmission fluid was replaced two years ago (May 2024) at 120k miles and the car has been driven 4k miles since the service.

I found the receipt from the service and it didn't specify the amount of transmission fluid used. All it says was a quantity of four 08200-9008 ATF fluid was used. 08200-9008 is Honda ATF DW-1 Transmission Fluid. Each bottle contains 1qt of fluid.

Right, so they did one drain & fill and you should get it done at least 2-3x more.

Your transmission looks like it has an aluminum pan that might be a bit of work to remove & replace. Do you know if it has an inline filter like this?

 

[bkang]

Right, so they did one drain & fill and you should get it done at least 2-3x more.

Your transmission looks like it has an aluminum pan that might be a bit of work to remove & replace. Do you know if it has an inline filter like this?

View attachment 338437

Mine didn’t come with an inline filter. It only has the internal filter, unfortunately.

 

[4wd]

I had one of the popular plastic filters start leaking at the seam - ended up replacing with a mount for a spin on and at the same time added a TruCool LPD

 

[Spring Break '92]

Not entirely true. The ‘05 Ody I bought many years back spent its first 60k with the best service you could buy at Honda. The 75k just preceding my ownership… not so much. My friend was the original owner; I did 4 D&F plus the top-off just over 136k along with a VCMuzzler, then a gallon of new fluid every 20k after until handed off to my stepson. By the time he finally got his financial act together, the Ody was over 260k and still on the original, unmodified transmission… the van finally died at the county fair demo derby; an untimely death considering it still drove perfectly. I hadn’t even heard of the “jet kit” til your post.

I'm not saying it's impossible that some of those vans never got the TSB performed. Honda sent out digital cameras with these jigs to hold them perfectly over the open transmissionmission fill hole - which just happens to be directly over 2nd gear. Which also just happens to be the gear that would overheat and break. We would take a picture of the gear and send it back to Honda, and they gave us a series of pictures to compare each van's 2nd gear coloration to. Light gold to darker gold and they got the jet kit, anything beyond that going from blue to black and they got a new transmission. The jet kits would direct ATF onto the gear to cool it, as they were getting overheated from lack of contact with fluid somehow during operation. That is what I remember, anyway.