scolecite

SO, WILL MY TRANSMISSION FAIL?

I know there is something special about the Z1 fluid. I'm not here to debate that, and I don't know what I'm talking about anyways. I have scoured the internet and people swear by it. Honda made it just for their transmissions, so basically its the best.

But I'm a gambling man and a skeptic (especially of anecdotal data, AND Honda won't release their formula), so I liked the Castrol because has a far superior Flash Point. The viscosity is improved but that could be one of the things that the Honda transmission was not designed for, so I can't say that's an improvement.

Here are the factors for which you will place your bets.
Car: Used Honda 2000 Civic LX - 140,000 miles, AUTOMATIC.

I just bought the car used last month and owners were good to the car overall but did not maintain well mechanically. I have NO IDEA how the car was treated previous. Ive done a 3x drain and fill w/ the Castrol, but I am a novice. I did drive it around and was able to get a good reading finally on the final level of oil while the engine was running. The previous oil was very dark, but did not smell. I have no idea what oil was used. There was alot of gunk on the magnet. I originally changed the fluid because I have a whine comming from my differential. I took it to a top notch transmission shop and the owner took it for a ride with me and he said that's what it was. Otherwise the car shifts great. Even he said to make sure to use Honda Z1

SPECS:
Castrol Import ATF Meets or exceeds JASO-A1.
Viscosity at 40°C 36.6
Viscosity at 100°C 8
Flash Point, 208 (406F)

Honda ATF Z1
Viscosity at 40°C 29.49
The Flash Point, 170 (338F)

So place your bets and talk about ATF!!!

I will be updating this thread if I have ANY transmission issues.

So I guess Ill start, my prediction is that my transmission will work fine for the life of the car.

MindBomber

My bet is that could start gettting a quiet whine coming from the transmission within three months, major slipping issues within 6 months and complete failure a year.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

shouldve gone with maxlife instead, but you have a 2000 so i doubt you will have problems no matter which brand. i bet for no fail. honda fluid isnt great as far as lifespan goes, but if you change it yearly it has some good additives to keep the trans shifting smoothly. this is really only a problem for 01-05 civics when honda cheaped out on the parts. and even then, honda fluid still causes fail, just not as fast as other fluids.

BlueEM2

iTrader: (1)

I say no fail...

MelJ

I'm not a gambling man, but I wanna say no fail as well.

MindBomber

You guys are to optimistic, you realize that severe transmission problems aren't limited to 01-05 Civics right?

scolecite

So far things are looking good for my Civic. The more people that say its gonna last, the longer it will last OF COURSE.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

oh yes, hondas and acuras in general do have their fair share of trans problems, but the 01-05 is by far the worst. i remember back in the day when this place was really busy we would get hundreds of members having their trans fail under 50k miles. so if his does fail, it wouldnt be from the fluid but rather a mechanical defect. most trans failures ive seen happen with the oem fluid.

kbook

I can't miss this thread. I am using Maxlife ATF. I should have done the Used Oil Analysis for each drain to see if the oil really help decrease wear on the clutch plates or not.

To tell the truth last time when I wiped the magnetic drain plug. I see lots of metal on the plug but I do not have anything to measure it systematically. Today, my odo read 87k already. Let's see what happen. Fail or no fail, I can't tell right now.

we just have to keep tracking..

Maxlife ATF's Data from Valvoline PDF
2004 Civic VP

lollygagger

When I bout my car used, there were no records of service and the car had 87k on it. Drained the tranny three times and what came out was horrendous. The brownest of the brown. Replaced it with Castrol's Import Multi-Vehicle and haven't had issues yet.

mac25

i'm pretty sure back in the day when i bought the car and wasn't on the forum i swapped all the fluids...including the atf fluid. =(. i've had her for about 2 years and went from 66k km to know 104k km on the car. so far it performs great but i have noticed a slight slip in first off the go.

here's to hoping she's around for a long time! but if i did indead swap atf fluid it is possible to run the car on other fluids.

kbook

00-03 owners VS 04-05 owners
Today I thought about some factors that may cause trans to fail

1 geography - lots up hills which probably put more stress to the trans
2 climate - super hot, super cold or moderate
3 driving style - aggressive or slow
4 maintenance - fluid change interval

MindBomber

It's possible, but I would just stick with them OEM stuff.

If you want to go turbo you'll definitely need to manual swap at some point if its started to slip a bit already.

Silver02EX

iTrader: (3)

I highly doubt anything will happen to it. Our 06 Pathfinder is suppose to only use Nissan ATF. We had it flushed out with Maxlife ATF 10,000 miles ago and so far, the car doesn't notice the difference.

Too Tall

Was the Castrol recommended for Honda tranny's?

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/1...-interval.html

I did a lot of searching on this and other forums about Honda's automatic transmissions. I came to the conclusion a good percentage of auto tranny problems were related to improper oil change procedures, incompatible oil brands, or plain abuse.

Z1 oil is not likely to last beyond 30,000 miles. Run from anyone who says to do only one drain and refill at 30,000 miles, even dealers say that. Either do one drain and refill every 10,000 miles, or at least 3 at 30,000 miles.

Another important idea is getting the wheels of the ground and running through the gears after drain and refill to prevent air from getting to and burning out the clutches.

My 95 Civic was totaled at 95,000 miles, most of miles with Amsoil Universal ATF in the tranny. It still ran like new. I am in the process of converting my 2007 to Amsoil and have not had any problems. See the link above for more details.

mac25

write me the check and i'd do it tomorrow! lol

MindBomber

I'm out of checks, but would cash do?

If you do it yourself its not too expensive, but its definitely not inexpensive either.

StormBringer

castrol multi vehicle import ATF...It actually makes me laugh when I read the comments about how you absolutely HAVE to use Honda ATF in a Honda Transmission. Does anyone actually think that Castrol does not have Chemist/Engineers that are able to reverse engineer and analyze exactly what constituents are in the Honda ATF fluid and duplicate it? Also, do you think that Castrol would advertise an oil for a specific use that would result in a massive number of lawsuits? I have been using Castrol Oil since I first started working on engines at about 12 years old. I am now 39. How long do you think they would have stayed in business producing a product that would ruin transmissions?

senicalj4579

This!

I just traded in my 2002 civic. The trans was replaced at 107k before I bought it. No idea what trans fluid was used. I bought with 117k on it.
I did drain and fill with Castrol import 3xs at 145k. Drain and fill with Castrol 1xs at 155k. Drain and fill with Castrol 1xs at 168k. Drain and fill with Castrol 1xs with 197k.
Traded it in at 198k.
The only issue with the trans came on right before I traded it in. Very rarely from a stop, the trans would delay/slip but shifted fine everywhere else. I do not blame the Castrol.

I have a 2012 now with the 5spd auto with 30k. I had the dealership do a drain and fill before I bought it with 24k on it. I don't trust they did it so I will do it now with Castrol. Should I start my own thread "Place your bets on my trans"???