Good morning to you all in Honda Accord Forum. i want thank you all for all your replies to my threads. I am using accord 1998 model, 4cyl, 2.3lx, automatic transmission, mileage 230,000. I usually change the automatic transmission fluid yearly around the months of December or January to preserve the life span of the tranny. But up till now i have not replaced the AT fluids. i will be doing that next months around the Easter period. I hope no damage will occur as a result of delay in the change of the transmission fluids. Also, how do we know if the timing belt is due for replacement apart from using the miles or kilometer the vehicles has travelled.. Another issue is the Led light in the recirculation button initially it started dimming but presently is no longer ON, the bulb inside it can it be easily replaced?.
The car is good and economical in fuel consumption. Hope to hear from you all in HAF soon. THANKS

DR. RIDLEY ORHE

 

I think since you've been keeping up with transmission fluid changes, you'll be fine. If you want, you can drain the fluid into a clean pan, then look at it carefully to see whether it contains any sludge or it's particularly dirty. If anything like that, you can change it again after a couple weeks.

If someone is long overdue for an ATF change, I usually recommend changing it 3 times with some driving in between. It's only possible to change about 1/3 of the total fluid, so you are always playing the game of diluting the dirt with clean fluid.

 

Like Jim said, since you've been replacing it, it shouldn't hurt if you wait a little. If you're really worried, drain it, fill it, run it 200 miles, then drain and fill again. Do this 3 times at 200 mile intervals. This would get you very close to having the fluid very clean.

As for changing the bulb, it's not hard, as the switch should come out with a little prying from the bottom (flip it up and out). The bulb you'l need is Honda part number 35850-SZ3-911 . It'll have a green cover on it.
I hope this helps.

P.S. If you're looking to get some more mileage out of your AT, the best thing you can do is add a trans cooler. That'll drop the fluid temperature about 30*F. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it'll help. Needless to say I've been doing some investigation work on these AT's. Doing regular fluid changes at 30,000 miles will increase their life span. Using Honda only ATF will allow them to last even longer. I've seen someone report getting 414,000 miles out of their original AT (they bought the car with 27 miles on it) and 2.3L engine (they're a member on 6th gen Accord). That's the kind of thing I'd like to do myself.

 

Thank you all for your replies. i really appreciates it all. Here in Nigeria, i don't really know how soon and easy to get a Trans cooler as Toecutter suggested to bring down the temperature of the auto transmission fluids. Draining the fluids up to 3 times will cost much money here in Nigeria for me. What i will be doing is that after next month of changing the fluids, i will be changing the fluids every 6 months interval so as to preserve the auto transmission. i will be starting the car this Saturday because for the past 2 months now i have not used it. please one more question, how can i preserve the life span of my battery if i don't use it regularly let assume i am using it with the car once in a week (sundays only). Hope to hear from you guys on this one. THANKS

 

Change the transmission fluid just once but look at the fluid that drains out. Can you drain it into a pretty clean pan so you can see down into the fluid?
- Does the drain plug (magnet) have anything stuck to it?
- Does the fluid look clean?
Seems to me that changing the fluid every year would have kept it pretty clean. Even the delay this year which amounts to about 15 months? Still better than most people do. How many miles do you drive in a year? I think a single drain/fill every 30,000 miles would be pretty good.

For your own particular driving habits and conditions, you want to find an interval that keeps the fluid clean, without excessively throwing away clean fluid.

For the battery, driving it once a week should be fine, but how long do you drive it on Sundays? What hurts a battery is driving only very short distances (it never fully charges back up).

If you were going to park the car for 2 or 3 months (too late for this time); disconnect the negative battery cable. If the battery is already dead, charging it quickly is worse than charging it slowly. Do you have a battery charger? Can you set it for lower amps?

 

Good day to you all in the forum, thanks for all your replies. I just got some battery to start my car and putting the key in the ignition the car started immediately, for the past 2 months now i have not started or driven my honda accord but i am happy that it started without any issues. Now i just notice that the transmission fluids looking at the dipstick seems to be low than normal. I have presently 1 litre of Holts ATF which i have been using since 2012 as my transmission fluids. Please i want to find out how much can i add to it to make it sufficient for the transmission, is it half or one quarter of 1 litre of the Holts ATF. I am taking caution not to hurt the transmission. I will appreciate your response before going ahead with the top-up of the fluids. THANKS

 

As a guide, the minimum and maximum markings on the dipstick should be about 1 liter apart from each other.