prr

I will be doing a 3 quart drain & fill with my 98 Civic automatic. I have read online, people having great results with Valvoline Maxlife ATF, and it is available a lot cheaper than the $8/qt Genuine Honda DW-1.

Is there any benefit to using the Honda fluid? If there is a reason to use the Honda fluids, I can buy the more expensive stuff for a drain & fill every 30K...

ezone

Have you done this on this car before? What fluid was used then?


IMO no matter what fluid you use, 30k (or less) service intervals are still a good thing

prr

Never done it on this car before, but my mechanic did it about 30K ago--a flush, which used 12 quarts. I checked the fluid earlier today, and it was definitely pink, although a kind of dirty pink.

I think I'll just do a simple drain & fill every 30K, which removes almost half of the fluid IIRC (I just found a chart in my manual that gives the precise amounts for drains as well as complete flushes, but of course I can't locate that page now). That should be good, instead of doing a complete flush every 90K. Or would you recommend 3x drain & fills every 30K?

Right now I'm really leaning towards Maxlife. It is also doing well in Toyotas, so I can save money by not having to buy two different OEM fluids.

ezone

At the shop we recommend drain and fill (single) every 30k as the usual routine service.
At the shop we typically try to do the 9-12 quart flush when one has been neglected, has unknown or contaminated fluid, has a problem (such as tcc shudder), instructed as per service information, and maybe a couple more specific reasons

My personal/family Hondas get ATF more often than that lol

prr

Yeah, I remember you saying something about every other oil change....

Hey since I got your ear, I have a Sienna that has NEVER had an ATF drain & fill, in 160K. I took it to my mechanic, who warned me that since the fluid was black, that there might be a chance of problems developing if he were to do a fil or flush (since he did a flush on my Civic, this was probably what he had in mind).

I would like to do a simple drain & fill with my Sienna as well (again--160K without one). In order to not disturb any gunk that might be residing in the AFT paths, should I do 3x drain & fill, but do them a week or so apart from each other? would this be the gentlest way to change out most of my old cruddy fluid, without harming the transmission itself? Or is there any other way you'd recommend doing this?

ezone

Simple fluid service with correct fluid is the best thing you can do for it IMPO.
No additives, no chemicals,
Do it as many times as you feel comfortable

Fresh clean correct manufacturer specified fluid or equivalent should not hurt a transmission regardless of mileage IMO

Some people don't think about trans service (or anything car related) until they notice something wrong,
So they get it serviced and it doesn't solve anything, because it was already broken before the service.
Then they blame the fluid service and the shop that did it (sue because they believe they deserve a new transmission of course),........
This is why many JizzyLubes make you sign a waiver if your trans or car has lots of miles without service

IMO this is where the wives' tale "don't change the fluid" comes from

prr

Thanks a lot!

OK when I'm done with the Civic, I'll get on the Sienna. I wasn't going to use any additional additives.

Thanks again!

rogerscivic

totally agree with You ezone!

chuffsy

You might have done the drain and fill already on your Sienna and the approach you mentioned is the same that I would do if mine were at that mileage without any prior changes. I am at 175 k miles now on my 06 Sienna Le and I did a flush once at 60 k , after that its been drain and fill three times each event.
For my 2010 Civic I do a drain and fill event every 25-30k miles. I use only genuine toyota nd honda fluids

digger

You haven't mentioned changing the transmission filter? Better do some research on that. LOL

Colin42

Can only change the filter by removing the trans and splitting the case.... Better do some research