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I have heard that it is bad to change the automatic tranny fluid on a vehicle with high mileage, if the fluid has not been changed on a regular basis (every 30K-40K).

I have a 98 Civic EX, with 130K miles.

We do not know what the history of the car is.

I changed the ATF in my CR-V this morning. It has 111K miles, but the tranny was shifting hard. The Civic is not giving any problems at this time.

 
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it is not a good idea to do maintainance only when a car acts up.. the best bet is to take your car to a professional to get the fluid changed and tell them it's been done on a reg. basis.. they ahve a machine they hook it up to, and if the fluid doesn't pump at a good pressure, they will not change the fluid..that's my suggestion... at the same time, i had a ford fairmont w/ a/t and i changed the fluid and it was so nasty it looked like the origional fluid from '82... i had problems 'cause i put the wrong fluid(stupid moron at auto zone toldme wrong kind..) and i changed that back to the reg. fluid and added some lucas tranny additive and it was great as long as i owned the car..

 
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Thanks for the suggestion. I have never heard of the pressure test you mentioned. As far as we know, the vehicle HAS NOT had regular service.

If I change it, I will go to the Honda dealer and get Honda ATF.

When I changed the fluid on the CR-V, it was almost solid black (can you say sludge). It also smelled terrible. I drove it today for a couple hours, on some mountain roads. So far, no sign of problem (I just changed it yesterday).

I hope it is as easy to do on the Civic as it was on the V.

 
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I have been told many times that after you pass 100,000 miles, don't change the tranny fluid as at this point as it will do more harm than good and maybe remove some build up that is helping your tranny shift smooth.