Is it necessary to use the special Honda ATF for a 1993 Accord? Different people tell me differently…I had the transmission flushed every 30,000 miles on my old SE; judging from the appearance of the old fluid (dark purplish brown, instead of bright red), it looked like it needed it, every time!

Oddly, the local Honda dealer says "no"--Dexron III is just fine, but they will use the Honda juice on request, at extra cost. The Haynes manual concurs.

OTOH, the local quickie oil change parlor says "yes": they refused to do a tranny flush with the regular stuff (about $80), claiming they couldn't warranty the work, and demanded nearly $200 to do it with Honda fluid.

do it yourself?

personally, i have always used the honda stuff, with good results....

Go for a quality synthetic since AT's don't get changed very often. Any Dex-III synthetic would do just fine. You can get Mobil 1 ATF @ Wal-Mart if convience is what your after. Or, you can use what's in my auto (see sig).
Oil analysis have shown that the Honda ATF doesn't last all that long (around 15 to 20k).

Good Luck

Elsewhere some very good information was posted about why flushing anything is not a good idea.

However, I have a low impact way to flush the automatic transmission, converter, and lines.

I buy a case of fluid. I loosen one cooler line at the radiator and place a drain pan under it. I then start the engine and let the fluid pump into the drain pan. At the same time I start adding fresh fluid to the transmission at a rate that keeps up with the discharge. When the fluid coming out of the cooler line is red and fresh, turn off the engine and tighten the cooler line. I then check the level and add as necessary.

The key to this is to not let the transmission run out of fluid while the process is happening. You'll know if you aren't adding enough if the rate of flow from the loosened cooling line starts to diminish.

A variation of the technique is to do the filter change before topping up after the flush.

Bottom line: Doing this flushes the transmission, converter, lines, and depending on which cooler line you loosened, the cooler gets flushed too.

There ya go. :thmsup: I'll be doing a "flush" @ 10 or 15k and have it sent off for analysis.

definantly use the honda fluid. just drain and refill every other oil change and you won't have to ''flush'' anymore. it's true with a drain and refill you'll be taking out 3 quarts while 4 remian inside the tranny, but in time the tranny fluid will start coming out a crimson color. later.

Type G?

It's kind of like changing motor oil and not changing the filter inasmuch as there's old motor oil in there. There is a benefit as far as changing oil is concerned, but it's instantly contaminated by old motor oil.

I guess it's better than doing nothing at all.

foreign,

there is no SAFE way to get all of the fluid out all at once.... that's why typeG is suggesting doing it that way..... :yes:

Thanks for the info...I'll be going with the Dex III, and try to find someplace that will do the job. The local Honda place charges $130, while oil change parlors typically charge $80-100 or so.

I'd tend to favor flushing as opposed to drain and refill, for the reason stated before (fluid looks "tired"--icky purplish brown, not bright red).

Perhaps I should explain further. The primary use of this car, as with my previous SE (see below), is pizza delivery: if you've ever done this, you'll know it wears out a car, any car (even a Honda), very quickly. Think lots of stop-and-go, short city driving, frequent starts, etc., etc. I would surmise this is hard on the tranny too. Before it met its demise in the jaws of that Buick, my SE was definitely showing its age; it had already eaten two alternators, two radiators, two pairs of front shocks, all six ball joints and both rod ends, three sets of spark plug wires, an ignition module, a starter and a water pump, and oil consumption had reached a quart every 1000 miles or so and was increasing noticeably (blue smoke was beginning to show on hard acceleration). I was looking at an engine rebuild at around 275-300k miles or thereabouts. Ouch.

Plus, the A/C was shot and the paint and interior looked like a neglected cat box. But the Bose stereo still worked! :D

If you think that's excessive, I've driven three cars (an '87 Toyota FX16 and a '93 Mazda Protege, both bought new; also an '86 Corolla, with 129k miles) to the junkyard doing this.

"Severe" driving, in other words.