Well, this should stir up some "hate mail" and death threats!!.... and probably some positive comments too!
After a LOT of digging around, research, reading lots of posts on here, talking to major oil company tech support dept's. and several professional mechanics, I decided to
( GASP! ) put NON-Honda ATF in our '05 Accord. I could not find any hard or finite, DOCUMENTED evidence that not using Honda ATF-Z1 (assuming it meets Dexron III, which is "tentatively approved" in the Accord Owner's Manual) has factually damaged any transmissions in Honda's or Accura's. LOTS of "opinions" but NO documentation.
Local Honda dealers want $9.30 a quart for ATF-Z1, which is ludicrous. Further, I have concluded that Honda ATF-Z1 is
not anything special quality wise and probably gets a C- as an ATF. I did not want to go to a synthetic as there can be risk of issues there, so I went to a local commercial oil dealer and bought a case of Shell "Multi-vehicle" ATF and did three changes for a complete fluid exchange.
SO FAR, after a week of normal driving, I can tell absolutely no difference of any kind, in the way the transmission shifts, speed of shifts, etc. So, I do know at this point that there is initially no problem. My gut feeling is that the main "product benefit" of Honda ATF-Z1 is to the local Honda dealer's profit. I also noted in the Accord owner's manual that they esentially say the same thing about ANY fluid: > (Bet the marketing dept. wrote all those blurbs in the manual!)
OK....I can take it!......let the flamming begin!!
Best Regards....
After a LOT of digging around, research, reading lots of posts on here, talking to major oil company tech support dept's. and several professional mechanics, I decided to
( GASP! ) put NON-Honda ATF in our '05 Accord. I could not find any hard or finite, DOCUMENTED evidence that not using Honda ATF-Z1 (assuming it meets Dexron III, which is "tentatively approved" in the Accord Owner's Manual) has factually damaged any transmissions in Honda's or Accura's. LOTS of "opinions" but NO documentation.
Local Honda dealers want $9.30 a quart for ATF-Z1, which is ludicrous. Further, I have concluded that Honda ATF-Z1 is
not anything special quality wise and probably gets a C- as an ATF. I did not want to go to a synthetic as there can be risk of issues there, so I went to a local commercial oil dealer and bought a case of Shell "Multi-vehicle" ATF and did three changes for a complete fluid exchange.
SO FAR, after a week of normal driving, I can tell absolutely no difference of any kind, in the way the transmission shifts, speed of shifts, etc. So, I do know at this point that there is initially no problem. My gut feeling is that the main "product benefit" of Honda ATF-Z1 is to the local Honda dealer's profit. I also noted in the Accord owner's manual that they esentially say the same thing about ANY fluid: > (Bet the marketing dept. wrote all those blurbs in the manual!)
OK....I can take it!......let the flamming begin!!
Best Regards....