A few months ago I thought I'd give the Amsoil CVT a try in my '14 Accord Sport, after experiencing some mild judder, and read a few posts on here that had good results. My initial results were positive, the CVT performance was very smooth, showing improvement over the HCF-2 fluid. I've given it praise on multiple occasions here on the forum. Sadly, I cannot praise it anymore.
Last week my car just didn't feel right. It wasn't as responsive as I've been used to. After studying the tachometer when accelerating, I noticed what appeared to be the tach fluttering slightly when accelerating, mainly when moderately easing into the throttle from a stop. Fearing the worst, I dropped the CVT fluid and was greeted with pitch black fluid with some faint metallic glitter in it!!! I had only about 6k miles on that drain/fill with Amsoil fluid. Prior to that drain fill, I used OEM Honda HCF-2.
A few weeks ago I got a 12qt case of Eneos Model-H CVT fluid for a good price, and after debating about going to the stealership to pick up OE HCF-2, I decided to flush the system out using the Eneos, as it has solid feedback on the CivicX forum (but then again... so does Amsoil CVT
). I figured that if the trans is junk, why throw $17/qt fluid in it when I have fluid that's specific for HCF-2 spec and not a one-size-fits-most fluid. I drained/filled the transmission with the Eneos fluid 3 times total, trying to drive the car 50 to 100 miles between d/f's. The first was Friday night, the second d/f being on Saturday, and third on Sunday. The 2nd drain/fill had way less glitter. I changed the small transmission filter (the small one behind the heat exchanger) before doing the 3rd d/f. The filter housing did have some metallic material in there (view the green rag picture), and the fluid was fairly clean by the 3rd drain/fill. The filter itself was dirty, but nothing crazy. I changed my friends '16 Accord CVT filter a year or so ago, and it was nor cleaner or dirtier than mine.
To my surprise, the Eneos fluid is orange in color versus the HCF-2 & Amsoil being honey-ish color. I confirmed with the online product data sheet that is indeed supposed to be orange, just to be sure. That orange tint actually came in handy in gauging how much Amsoil fluid I'd flushed out of the system, as by the time of the 3rd drain/fill the fluid was coming out pretty orange. Interestingly, after looking at RockAuto, the Beck/Arnley HCF-2 compatible CVT fluid description states that its color is orange too (and its in the same grey plastic bottle as the Eneos....hmmm maybe they're sharing formulas/factories).
After the 3 drain/fills, my car drives like it did before the slips/tach flutter I experienced. Only once have I experienced the slip/tach flutter, but it was brief and only for a second or so. Out of an abundance of caution, I ordered a case of HCF-2 off of Ebay that should arrive before the weekend hopefully. I plan to do at least one drain/fill with OEM fluid this weekend & if it comes out clean I'll roll with it. I've driven to work and back (45 miles roundtrip) both today and yesterday, and the car runs great, like it did before what I experienced above. I've done a few medium-hard accelerations from a stop, trying to re-enact driving prior to see if it will slip, and from what I can tell the problem is resolved. I'm tempted to take to the car to dealership to have them check if there are any stored codes regarding the TCM/CVT.
I am greatly disappointed. I'm hoping I caught this before major damage was done. I'm meticulous with my vehicles, and the fact that this product (probably) damaged my transmission is disheartening, even more so considering I'm at only 40k miles. I will be contacting Amsoil to see what they have to say about it.
Needless to say, I fully recant all positive comments I've made about Amsoil CVT. I don't race this car, I got that out of my system with my G35's. I bought this Accord to have a reliable car that gets good fuel mileage as my commute has tripled what it used to be.
Perhaps we don't want a synthetic fluid in a CVT transmission.
Last week my car just didn't feel right. It wasn't as responsive as I've been used to. After studying the tachometer when accelerating, I noticed what appeared to be the tach fluttering slightly when accelerating, mainly when moderately easing into the throttle from a stop. Fearing the worst, I dropped the CVT fluid and was greeted with pitch black fluid with some faint metallic glitter in it!!! I had only about 6k miles on that drain/fill with Amsoil fluid. Prior to that drain fill, I used OEM Honda HCF-2.
A few weeks ago I got a 12qt case of Eneos Model-H CVT fluid for a good price, and after debating about going to the stealership to pick up OE HCF-2, I decided to flush the system out using the Eneos, as it has solid feedback on the CivicX forum (but then again... so does Amsoil CVT
). I figured that if the trans is junk, why throw $17/qt fluid in it when I have fluid that's specific for HCF-2 spec and not a one-size-fits-most fluid. I drained/filled the transmission with the Eneos fluid 3 times total, trying to drive the car 50 to 100 miles between d/f's. The first was Friday night, the second d/f being on Saturday, and third on Sunday. The 2nd drain/fill had way less glitter. I changed the small transmission filter (the small one behind the heat exchanger) before doing the 3rd d/f. The filter housing did have some metallic material in there (view the green rag picture), and the fluid was fairly clean by the 3rd drain/fill. The filter itself was dirty, but nothing crazy. I changed my friends '16 Accord CVT filter a year or so ago, and it was nor cleaner or dirtier than mine.To my surprise, the Eneos fluid is orange in color versus the HCF-2 & Amsoil being honey-ish color. I confirmed with the online product data sheet that is indeed supposed to be orange, just to be sure. That orange tint actually came in handy in gauging how much Amsoil fluid I'd flushed out of the system, as by the time of the 3rd drain/fill the fluid was coming out pretty orange. Interestingly, after looking at RockAuto, the Beck/Arnley HCF-2 compatible CVT fluid description states that its color is orange too (and its in the same grey plastic bottle as the Eneos....hmmm maybe they're sharing formulas/factories).
After the 3 drain/fills, my car drives like it did before the slips/tach flutter I experienced. Only once have I experienced the slip/tach flutter, but it was brief and only for a second or so. Out of an abundance of caution, I ordered a case of HCF-2 off of Ebay that should arrive before the weekend hopefully. I plan to do at least one drain/fill with OEM fluid this weekend & if it comes out clean I'll roll with it. I've driven to work and back (45 miles roundtrip) both today and yesterday, and the car runs great, like it did before what I experienced above. I've done a few medium-hard accelerations from a stop, trying to re-enact driving prior to see if it will slip, and from what I can tell the problem is resolved. I'm tempted to take to the car to dealership to have them check if there are any stored codes regarding the TCM/CVT.
I am greatly disappointed. I'm hoping I caught this before major damage was done. I'm meticulous with my vehicles, and the fact that this product (probably) damaged my transmission is disheartening, even more so considering I'm at only 40k miles. I will be contacting Amsoil to see what they have to say about it.
Needless to say, I fully recant all positive comments I've made about Amsoil CVT. I don't race this car, I got that out of my system with my G35's. I bought this Accord to have a reliable car that gets good fuel mileage as my commute has tripled what it used to be.
Perhaps we don't want a synthetic fluid in a CVT transmission.
