EmanP

My 95 LX has 286K+ on it w/ original auto transmission. I was going to be changing out all the ATF in it and I know that generally it's well known to use genuine Honda ATF. But since they've changed from Z1 to DW1 which they say is fully synthetic, am I looking at potential problems? At this point, is useing the Valvoline 7500 migh mileage really that bad? The DW1 is nearly $11 a bottle and needing 9, that's $100.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i faced the same problem and decided to use valvoline maxlife dex/merc (NO stop leak additives, just the regular version). my car only has 100k miles but i've been using the maxlife for the past two months with no issues. cold slipping was greatly reduced, and the maxlife shifts better than the oem honda z1. the maxlife is also a semi-syn like z1, and it says right on the bottle you can use it for hondas requiring z1 (except cvt trans). i am really glad i switched and wish i did it sooner. the z1 is actually a pretty bad fluid ive been finding out. i did 4 drain and fills with maxlife to get most of the old fluid out. you may not want to do this if you have not changed your fluid for a long time. start with one drain and fill, then maybe a second one a month later. replacing all the old fluid could be a shock to an older trans. esp if the old fluid is very dirty and gritty. changing it could cause slipping when you remove all the friction from the old fluid. some places do not recommend changing it at all if you waited more than 30k miles.

EmanP

I'm glad to hear that one person was successful in using something other than DW1/Z1 in thiers. I'm only concerned because of how many miles it has on it. It seems that not many people run thier civics that long or at least keep up with them once they go that long and don't want to stress it anymore than I need to.

Truthfully, I've never even touched the ATF and was expecting to find it down who knows how much fuid and it to be completely black and think. To my suprise found it red and pretty clean. Don't want to go screwing up a good thing.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

if it looks okay you are prolly fine to switch. there are many happy maxlife users on other forums using it in all sorts of hondas that have a record for trans problems. crv's odyssey acuras civics etc.