What cars to line flush or drain and fill?

[unixguru]

scott37300,

I think you have a good plan outlined. One thing I would do as well on Honda would be to do a drain-refill again after 3k-5k miles after the first one. Then you should be good for another 20-30k miles. It's still a lot more than most honda's on the road get anyway.

 

[scott37300]

I thought about doing a couple drain and fills on the honda but at 8 dollars a qt that would add up pretty quick! I will see how the fluid looks when I do the first one and go from there.

 

[Jim Allen]

I wouldn't let anyone hook a "flush" machine to my Honda but do both drain & fills and cooler line fluid exchanges myself. It ain't brain surgery and there's no hacking of lines involved.

Anything is better than nothing. If the idea of a fluid exchange makes your palms sweaty, do a drain & fill every other oil change and install a Magnefine on the cooler return line.

I alternate between drain & fills every other OC, which is a approximately a 15K interval, and a cooler line exchange at approximately 60K intervals. I added a Maganefine filter at 70K miles

Overkill? probably. I'm not prone to overkill generally, but given the proclivity of the Honda transmissions in my car's era to fail, it's "justified overkill" IMO. The car just celebrated it's 10th birthday and the transmission operates as well as it did from day one.

 

[lairdwd]

When I first started researching this, I realized that I needed a complete fluid turnover on my 2000 accord with 51K (Florida) miles, and that 3x drain and fill was a waste of time and money. My honda dealerhsip wanted $260 for 3x D&F!

I did the transmission line exchange myself. What a piece of cake. Refer to that youtube video I linked in my thread about this. Also use the lubegard red.

Transmission is MUCH smoother now and getting better MPG too.

 

[scott37300]

I'm not scared to do a line fluid exchange. I started researching this a couple weeks ago and there is so much conflicting OPINIONS online that I was trying to sort out what the best way to do different transmissions were. After much reading I found out I was way over thinking things!

What I call a line flush, coolant line fluid exchange using the transmission's pump to exchange the fluid can't hurt anything. You are simply using the transmission the way you do everyday, no higher pressure than just driving. So as long as you don't allow the fluid to run dry you are fine.

I will not do multiple drain and fills, just a waste of fluid and ATF is pretty expensive to just throw away new fluid after mixing it with old.

I learned a lot from reading and asking questions. All the recomendations from honda and others and my mistaking use of terms like "flush" confused things but I think I have it straightened out now thanks to all of you. Thanks for all your help and advice everyone.

 

[doitmyself]

Things I have learned:

1. Whichever hose you disconnect to shoot fluid out of, plug the other end. Sometimes fluid gurgles out of that other end. I use foam ear plugs in my case.

2. Transmission fluid seems to stain concrete worse than oil. Have lots of cardboard, newspapers, whatever to catch drips.

3. Have one or two extra quarts of fluid on hand in case of a mistake. It saves a late night/weekend trip to the store. Save the receipt so you can return unused stuff.

In spite of my loving transmission care, my Chrysler still pooped out on me early (103K). Such is life. This was a good discussion, guys.