Hey all, I just added a '91 Accord LX coupe to my stable. It has 136k on it, and looks to be in great shape. Other than the Jiffy Lube decal in the window, I have no records of maintenance for it. Usually in this instance I do a top to bottom fluid change, so I have a base line to go by. My question is about the ATF. I know the 6th gen Accords had problems w/ automatic trannies and I have stuck to using the factory Z-1 fluid in my '02. The owners manual for this calls for Dex II. What do most of you run in your 4th gen Accords? Can I use something like Valvoline MaxLife??

 

Honda atf only!

 

Honda didn't have "their own" ATF back in 91. But now they do and the stuff IS good for the older Hondas that called for Dexron.

 

I have yet to find anything that will work right with a honda auto...when I swap my tranny we used dexron and it wouldnt shift right it had all kindas of prob.s But we drain and fill with Honda ATF about 10 times and it runs fine. This happened with 2 of my auto trannys...I really hate auto trannys

 

On a 91 I would use one of the quality brands that are made for Asian cars only or the Honda stuff but just stick with one brand(if you have to add later) if you do change all the fluid. I flushed my 95 with Dex II years ago and had to add a quart with radiator change and with just one can of the Asian only stuff it totally changed the shifts which are much harder now. At first I didn’t like the change but it grew on me.

 

Yeah, I was hoping that I could get away from the Z-1. It's anybody's guess what's in there now. I guess the consensus is that I should stick with Z-1 in both the '02 and the '91? Man, how come you never see the dealerships run specials n fluids??

 

I used dexII cause the manual said to. plus I can get a case for cheap rather than go to the local stealership. Buying online and having it shipped was a problem for me cause it's a hazardous liquid.
When I changed it the first time I only changed half so trans could get used to it (poor baby) after a few weeks with no problems I figured it could survive a full change (this was about 100K miles ago)