Question on AT flush

[weatherwatcher]

I have an 06 Honda Accord EX V-6 with 59,000 miles. I am getting ready to do a drain and fill on the automatic transmission. My question is, when I do the drain and fill, should I just do the procedure once or should I do it three times to try and remove as much of the old fluid as possible. I saw the DIY thread on this, and it appears it was only done once, but I believe that his car had less miles than mine.

Great website, I just found it and I have found loads of useful information.

[bukxanger]

do it once then drive about 10 or 15 miles. then repeat two more times... which equals 3 total

[05lx]

it's a waste of time. Too many people are paranoid about things like this. I even read about people changing the at fluid every 10k. That would be equivalent to showering 4 times a day. The service manual says to do it once. If you take it to a Honda Dealer they will do it once and that's because that's what they feel is best. Anything more than that is a waste of time and money. Your transmission will not suffer by only doing it once compared to 3 times. What does play a big factor is how you drive your car change it once and be good to your tranny and you will be a happy camper.

[SatinSilver]

I think it depends more on if the miles are mostly highway, city or 50/50. If the 59k are mostly city miles and the color of the atf is brown/black then you may need to do 3 drain/fills.

If the miles are mostly hwy and your fluid is still red/dark red you may only need one or two d/f's.

[superballz00]

Originally Posted by 05lx

it's a waste of time. Too many people are paranoid about things like this. I even read about people changing the at fluid every 10k. That would be equivalent to showering 4 times a day. The service manual says to do it once. If you take it to a Honda Dealer they will do it once and that's because that's what they feel is best. Anything more than that is a waste of time and money. Your transmission will not suffer by only doing it once compared to 3 times. What does play a big factor is how you drive your car change it once and be good to your tranny and you will be a happy camper.

I remember my 97 and 01 manual saying to change it 3 times. Good luck with changing it once every 60k.

[weatherwatcher]

I remember calling Honda to verify what the recommended. If I recall correctly they said 60k, then every 30k after that. I checked the fluid and it did not appear to be too dirty on the tranny dipstick. Nevertheless, I think I am going to flush it 3 times to try and get as much fresh fluid as I can into the transmission.

My question now would be, at 90K, should I do a full flush 2 -3 times again, or would I just be better off to do it once, based on the color of the fluid?

Thank you again for all of the advice, keep it coming.

[CRZ1]

You can do simple maths to find out. For example, method 1, drain and fill ATF 3 times at 60K miles, method 2, drain and fill ATF one time at 20K, 40K and 60K miles.

It is easy to find out the most amount of dirt in transmission during the 60K miles. Method 1 will has the higher value. For the same cost, method 2 will provide better environment for tranny.

[superballz00]

Originally Posted by weatherwatcher

I remember calling Honda to verify what the recommended. If I recall correctly they said 60k, then every 30k after that. I checked the fluid and it did not appear to be too dirty on the tranny dipstick. Nevertheless, I think I am going to flush it 3 times to try and get as much fresh fluid as I can into the transmission.

My question now would be, at 90K, should I do a full flush 2 -3 times again, or would I just be better off to do it once, based on the color of the fluid?

Thank you again for all of the advice, keep it coming.

Don't flush. Just drain and refill. If the fluid is still red then one drain and refill is fine.

[cajun]

Originally Posted by 05lx

it's a waste of time. Too many people are paranoid about things like this. I even read about people changing the at fluid every 10k. That would be equivalent to showering 4 times a day. The service manual says to do it once. If you take it to a Honda Dealer they will do it once and that's because that's what they feel is best. Anything more than that is a waste of time and money. Your transmission will not suffer by only doing it once compared to 3 times. What does play a big factor is how you drive your car change it once and be good to your tranny and you will be a happy camper.

If there was an award for the most incorrect info per lines in a post you would get my vote. Please go read your manual. It doesn't say do it once and it doesn't say to base your trans fluid maintenance interval on your shower rate.

[12153]

Cajun and All:

AMEN to your pointing out such brutal IGNORANCE some have about fluids!

Fluid is the "life blood" of most ANY hydraulic device/system. Bad fluid = bad results. And changing ATF is a Helluva lot easier and cheaper than changing a transmission.