Fuel, Oil, Cleaners & Other Maintenance Extending the life of your Civic requires the proper fuel, oil, and cleaners, along with other regularly scheduled maintenance.

Best Tranny fluid (automatic)?

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Old Aug 1, 2005
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Best Tranny fluid (automatic)?

I got an auto with 58,000 miles

I got the tranny fluid changed at like 20 and again recently...

ive been noticing that the tranny feels weird? sometimes feels as if it slips or just tugs or something (always when it gets into 3rd)

anyways...

I remember when i changed the tranny fluid it kinda stopped/didnt do it as much

but now, its doing it as much as it did before

I would hate to have to change the tranny fluid every time i change the oil on my car (ever 2k miles)

I use the OEM tranny fluid/red? liquid

Maybe its my tranny? How would I go about getting it fixed? how much am I looking at?
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Old Aug 1, 2005
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moved to the Fuel, Oils, Cleaners and Other Maintenance forum
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Old Aug 1, 2005
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Didnt even know of this section :O
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Old Aug 2, 2005
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If it feels like it slips then most likely it's the tranny damage. Is there any some kind of noise from the transmission?
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Old Aug 2, 2005
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nope no noise...

i brought it to my mechanic and we checked it out and it looks fine?

Im guessing we have to open it up and check it out? how much would something like that cost?
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Old Aug 2, 2005
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when we had to fix our camry's tranny it costed us about $1100-1500
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Old Aug 4, 2005
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first don't change the fluid every 2k. it needs to break down before changing. my tranny is slipping but thats because i'm boosting too much.
the fluid to use in my opinion is hondas because they have a weird ATF and in our tranny it's not good to run anything else. i think armsoil makes a good tranny fluid with the same ATF but i'm not sure.
i ran a synthetic blend in my tranny for about 4 thousand miles and after looking at the two the chemical comp was totally different so i said never again unless it's the same ATF-Z1 is what honda uses.
what does wonders though is lube guard. the stuff does wonders on auto trannys but it can't be found in a store only online. i'll try and find a link to it later today.
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Old Aug 4, 2005
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honda is the best for fluids..oem that is
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Old Aug 4, 2005
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theres a big difference between slipping and what you called tugging.. My auto tranny sometimes bumps if u slow down and speed up without letting it shift completely. thats not slipping though.
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Old Aug 4, 2005
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RedLine is good stuff, best IMO. Not sure if they make it for civic's though, it's worth checking out.

You may want to consider a complete tranny flush.
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Old Aug 7, 2005
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how much would a tranny flush cost? and what exactly is that?
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Old Aug 8, 2005
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Originally Posted by ImPulse
how much would a tranny flush cost? and what exactly is that?
Not sure of the cost, it's generally under $100 though. The differance is, when you drain the tranny fluid, you are actually only getting about half the fluid out (if that) so half the fluid in the system is the old stuff. A tranny flush is where they take the inlet and put new stuff in and the car pumps the old stuff out. A good garage will continue to put new stuff in untill the stuff coming out looks like the new stuff, so then ALL the fluid in your tranny is new. If they have a good machine, it can filter out the fluid coming out of your tranny to check for metal.
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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OEM OEM OEM HONDA ATF FLUID. nOTHING ELSE! DO NOT FLUSH THE TRANNY ONLY DRAIN AND REFILL. When you flush out all the fluid and fill it with new, there will be parts moving WITHOUT ANY OIL when you start the car up.
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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Originally Posted by gearbox
OEM OEM OEM HONDA ATF FLUID. nOTHING ELSE! DO NOT FLUSH THE TRANNY ONLY DRAIN AND REFILL. When you flush out all the fluid and fill it with new, there will be parts moving WITHOUT ANY OIL when you start the car up.
No, that's not how a flush works. A good garage should have the car running while they are flushing it out, the car remains in neutral and pumps the fluid out, and at the same time the extrenal machine pumps the fluid in so there is a contant amount in the tranny, think of a blodd transfusion. It's not like the doctor's are going to leave you without blood.

As for fluid, you can't go wrong with OEM, I personally like Red Line, but I never had a Honda auto that I changed the fluid in. So gearbox knows more than me on that
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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The auto tranny is very sensitive and only the honda atf has the molecular makeup that can lubricate the small parts. Almost everyone that poured in mobil or redline had the tranny blow in 10-20k miles after.
As for the fluid flush, I guess I asked around the wrong shops. They all told me (even honda), that the flush is done with the car off.
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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Originally Posted by gearbox
The auto tranny is very sensitive and only the honda atf has the molecular makeup that can lubricate the small parts. Almost everyone that poured in mobil or redline had the tranny blow in 10-20k miles after.
As for the fluid flush, I guess I asked around the wrong shops. They all told me (even honda), that the flush is done with the car off.
Hummm.... the only car I had it done on was my Intrepid, and they kept it running in neutral. I wouldn't go to a shop if they where going to turn it off because then it's just basically a drain and fill.
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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Amsoil meets Hoda spec for these cars. If you want to use a Synthetic, make sure it meets the Honda specs.

I've been using it for 30k miles now, no problems. Drained and filled twice.
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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I gotta say with myself running 12 psi of boost on a re-built TCI auto tranny that RED LINE is the best fluid to put in there
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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i remember when i changed my fluid i looked around on here and found a thread somewhere telling us about how it was bad for our trannys to get a flush cuz the flush is pressurized and the seals and such shouldn't take the pressure whereas a auto tranny for a v8 is built for more power and has stronger seals
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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Originally Posted by booba5185
i remember when i changed my fluid i looked around on here and found a thread somewhere telling us about how it was bad for our trannys to get a flush cuz the flush is pressurized and the seals and such shouldn't take the pressure whereas a auto tranny for a v8 is built for more power and has stronger seals
Hummm... that's interesting. The interpid's are known for bad trannies, and I heard nothing of that. It was my impression that the system didn't put any pressure on the tranny, the tranny pumped out the fluid at it's own pressure and the system just refilled it at the same rate it was coming out.

Given all the things people have said on here, I would think twice before flushing the tranny out now and certianly ask the people doing it if how the system worked. Maybe the better choice is just to do a drain and fill a couple of times until the stuff coming out looks new and drive the car between each so it can get fixed up . Then you will be able to dillute the old stuff to the point where it won't matter much.
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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Originally Posted by Jrfish007
Maybe the better choice is just to do a drain and fill a couple of times until the stuff coming out looks new and drive the car between each so it can get fixed up . Then you will be able to dillute the old stuff to the point where it won't matter much.
thats what honda recommends
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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Originally Posted by Jrfish007
Hummm... that's interesting. The interpid's are known for bad trannies, and I heard nothing of that. It was my impression that the system didn't put any pressure on the tranny, the tranny pumped out the fluid at it's own pressure and the system just refilled it at the same rate it was coming out.

Given all the things people have said on here, I would think twice before flushing the tranny out now and certianly ask the people doing it if how the system worked. Maybe the better choice is just to do a drain and fill a couple of times until the stuff coming out looks new and drive the car between each so it can get fixed up . Then you will be able to dillute the old stuff to the point where it won't matter much.
exactly what i was going to say 2 or 3 times is best, 5 at most, and make sure that you clean off the end of the drain bolt, thats honda's attempt at a filter, a magnet on a bolt
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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Originally Posted by gearbox
thats what honda recommends

Well, like I always say, Honda won't steer you wrong, they spent millions devolping the civic, knowbody knows the car better than them. If they say to do that, it's probably best to go with a multi flush.
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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u want it run a little between each drain so it mixxes with the old
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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yea. i just get it done once but i do it more often every 10k. Around that time, the shift quality starts to go down anyway.
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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that makes me wonder if u change it as often as you do if u would still need to drain and refill that many times cuz your changing it in a 1/3 the manual recomends? i guess i'll have to do it and every 10k i'll lok at the fluid when i change it and record it on here?
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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I waited til 18k which was a big mistake. the fluid was black instead of red with tons of metal on the bolt. Been doing it every 10k since and the fluid stays red. I think when it breaks in, the tranny wears faster at first.
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Old Aug 9, 2005
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yea, i'm gonna do mine on friday, it's been about 20k
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