Hello all, new to the forums here. Just purchased a '94 Accord EX, 2.2L A/T with 168,000 miles and I'm experiencing some slipping/rough shifting from 1st/2nd, and 2nd/3rd, and will be looking into a flush/throttle cable adjustment in the near future.

In the past I've owned domestic cars with automatic transmissions where if the fluid was old, discolored, burnt, or simple hadn't been changed in a long time, a fluid change would often deliver the tranny's deathblow. Something I'd heard (if memory serves)about the old fluid & it's accompanying muck leaving a film of some sort on everything, and the new fluid would flush everything out and the trans would cease to function correctly. (If this sounds crazy, please bear with.)

My question is, is the same kind of thing true for Honda AT's? if the fluid is somewhat overdue and you drain/flush/refill, is this gonna wreak some kind of havok? The fluid is a bit discolored, still some red in there, not completely brown or anything. The smell is slightly burnt but I've seen far worse. Any opinions?

Thanks in advance! -K

 

I am of the opinion to drain and refill to see if that helps out the transmission. There are examples on here where this has helped with shifting problems. I have read about more problems after hooking up the transmission to a machine that will flush the fluid.

Drain and refill the transmission using Honda ATF. It will take about three quarts. Just make sure to check the level when adding the last quart, so you don't overfill.

 

X2....if it matters . If the first "drain & fill" seems to make things a bit better, do a second or third after putting a few miles on it between the changes. The drain/fill only gets 1/3 of the fluid out, so the second/third change is to get as much of the old fluid out as possible. And IMHO, never use anything but Honda ATF (z1 being replaced by DW1) in this gen, I have seen issues (as you described) by those that have used "other" trans fluids.......might not even need to mess with the throttle control cable.

 

I used to have a '97 Saturn SL2 a while back. When I got the car, its AT fluid was already pretty bad. But I went and had it "exchanged" with new fluid at a Jiffyou lube. It ran better afterwards. So... yeah I don't think drain/refill is going to harm your car.

 

I just did a 1x DW-1 ATF drain/fill on my 97 Accord with 148K miles whose AT has not received much attention over the years ... so far no problems. I intend to do ATF D/F on a more regular basis now that I know how simple it is to do.

 

I think it would be unlikely that one drain/refill would pose a problem your leaving a good % still in there. If you don't notice any adverse impact in a couple hundred miles do it again.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm going to try the fluid swap/flush sometime in the coming week. One more question though; in the popular "10 Min Automatic Transmission Fluid Flush" video on youtube, the guy uses Dextron III to flush and uses Honda ATF for the final fill. Anyone performed it this way? Results? Honda ATF is pretty pricey and if I can get away w/ it I'd like to try flushing using regular stuff and filling with Honda stuff. If not, I'll stick with the gospel!!

 

You can try this method. I would suggest that you have an assistant to turn on and off the engine. Before you start the engine, have the ATF bottles ready to go, so you do not pump out all of the fluid in the transmission.

Take a look in your owner's manual. Your car will say Honda ATF or Dextron II (or equivalent).

After you do this, you can do a drain/refill with the Honda ATF. It is really up to you on how you want to proceed.