wifesRDXtech

Got Rear Diff fluid- DPSF and New DW-1 case from these guys:

http://acura.bernardiparts.com/08200-9007A.aspx

Ilovedoughnuts

Thank you! I wondered where other people where getting stuff online.

manman007

I already ordered from dealer acura and they give me 4 bottles , make sure that is enough right? any body help me
thanks

Poveiro

Hi, is it ok to use Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF?

Poveiro

The Acura maitenance book shows a machine to do a flush if needed to do an ATF Cooler Cleaning and its hight pressure? Page 14-271

737 Jock

^^

The procedure you are referring to, very clearly states that it is for cleaning the ATF aux cooler only while it is removed from the car.

It is not a procedure for flushing the trans.

KenB350z

Ok, about to change my transmission fluid and I was wondering how many qts does it take to change it? Also, the rear diff how much does it take to change it as well?

wifesRDXtech

OP outlines it , 12 qts to do 3 x fill and drain. Rear diff takes 2.7 qts . There is a DIY for rear diff in forum . I did both and used the new recommended fluids from Acura.

kingkong222

where do you dump the old diff and ATF fluids? Would autozone and Pepboys take them? I know they take used motor oil but not sure if they would take diff and ATF fluids.

XLR8R

Your county should have a recycling center for anything the parts stores will not accept.

kingkong222

To loosen the transmission drain bolt, do I rotate it counter clockwise as pulling it toward the front of the car? I've always got this mixed up and do not want to strip the bolt. This thing is screwed on tight. For the life of me I can't get it to budge.

wifesRDXtech

righty tighty , lefty loosen. looking at top of bolt turn counterclockwise.

dcmodels

ATF and gear oil (diff oil) can be recycled with engine oil - just dump them all together.

But do not mix brake fluid or radiator coolant with engine oil for recycling - my NAPA store will recycle radiator coolant (separately) from everything else.

dcmodels

...
or as Shakespear says, counterclockwise = widershins [sp]

737 Jock

Just added DW-1 for the first time. Did 2 flushes with 8 quarts of Z-1, then on the last flush, added 4 quarts of DW-1.

So with 4 quarts of DW-1 mixed in with the Z-1, the trans shifts a bit more more smoothly and with less harshness. Perhaps the DW-1 allows a bit more clutch slippage.

Next flush will be 4 quarts of leftover Z-1, and 8 quarts of DW-1. After that it will be all DW-1.

dcmodels

Current Miles? and at each interval you have replaced fluid, did you perform 3-flushes (drain/fill) as this time? or only one drain/fill?

737 Jock

120k miles. I always do 3 flushes each trans service. This time the first 2 flushes were with Z-1. The third flush was with DW-1.

I take it for a short drive after each flush to mix the fluid. So the difference in shift feel was apparent between the second flush (all Z-1) and the third flush which included 4 quarts of DW-1.

Jordalenko

Great post, thanks

Oovan

Thank you for the informative post. I did the 3x change yesterday and I noticed something and am interested if anyone has experienced the same: I have a FWD 2010 RDX. I drained the tranny, and filled with roughly 3 quarts. I had the front end up on jack stands, and after starting her up, shifted into reverse, neutral, then to drive. When I depressed the accelerator, I got the little triangle exclamation (the VSA) which applied the brakes and lowered my engine speed. So, each time I flushed the tranny, I had to take it off jack stands and drive it around to get up to 5th gear with torque converter lockup to cycle all the fluid. Anyway, just wondering if anyone also noticed this. I wonder if I put the vehicle on 4 jack stands and had all wheels off the ground whether it would have let me get it up to speed...

737 Jock

What the VSA "saw" was front wheel rpm with locked up rear wheels. It thought you were in a hair-raising, white-knuckle tailslide.

I have tried running through the gears with all 4 wheels off the ground, for trans fluid changes. Even though the book says it can be done, it didn't work very well. The rpm doesn't like to go high enough to get to 4th and 5th gear and I ended up with spurious VSA and other nuisance codes that I had to delete.

Now I just take it down and drive it between drain/fills.

Mr Marco

Funny, a sponsor that offers a flush through a genuine tranny system that would cost thousands for a shop to buy is much better than adding a case of ATF into your car with the 3X BS that is offered on this thread. Those types of systems are design specifically to filter out contaminants while replacing the manufacture spec'd ATF.

dcmodels

Yes, this is an old thread, but I wonder if the missing picture is still around somewhere, and can be reposted? It has been 3 years and I just don't remember what it looked like, and want to compare that pic against what I saw when I changed my trans oil at 37K miles after a 10K interval.

I have been amazed at just how much sludge there is on my trans drain plug magnet at each drain - it always seems like way too much, so I am looking for some comparison pics. Thanks.

Mr Marco

Meh, have had some small crap on the tranny plug on both cars. Those Acura tranny's take a pounding and although 10K is way short for ATF, I would not worry about the small shards after 30K

737 Jock

Here is the original pic, dcmodels. This was from my 1st or 2nd trans change. On subsequent changes, I have never found more sludge than this. Last time there was hardly any at all. I've been doing about 30k-something intervals.

dcmodels

Thank you. I do not currently have any pics to post as a comparison, but I would rate your drain plug as 3 + 3, meaning each "side" (pole) of the magnet, is rated a 3-out-of-10.

My last change I would rate my drain plug as 4 + 2 (yes, one side was significantly different from the other side). But the thing is, my OCI was only 10K miles, not 30K miles. Plus, I have an inline magnetic filter installed in the cooler line. And there was plenty of swarf on the filter magnet (Magnefine filter).

And my first drain at 8K miles, the drain plug was a 10 (+10), meaning it was covered all around the magnet, no clean space on the sides.

When I have time I will post some pics, but I am wondering why the difference, from my RDX to yours? perhaps it is because my RDX is driven 90+% city only, so that I once calculated that the wife's daily commute probably involved 50-100 shifts in 10 miles. And that was one way.

737 Jock

Our driving is about 60 rural, 30 highway and 10 city.

I'll be interested to see how the DW-1 does now.

wifesRDXtech

I have a question, I did the 3x tranny fluid change thanks to this thread. What if instead of doing 3 x tranny fluid change every 30k miles, we did a 1 x fluid change every 8 to 10 thousand miles, wouldn't the same amount of fluid be changed out using this method over 30 k miles? Just a thought.

Mr Marco

^It takes multiple fluid changes to improve the viscosity and get the fluid left in the TqCnv mixed out.

wifesRDXtech

^ I see, I opened up fill plug , next time will try OP method fill via dipstick.

dcmodels

Yes, and this is how some companies perform maintenance on Hondas used for taxis and service vehicles (in England). You can Google.

This method keeps the fluid and its detergent additives, fresher over the 30K interval. It also keeps the MAXIMUM level of wear materials lower than 3 drains at 30K.

The companies mentioned above, use a shorter interval of 5K miles, because of the servere service, all city driving. 5K miles is the interval that I use.

Keep in mind that city versus hightway driving, can mean a 100 to 1 difference in the number of transmission shifts (and associated wear), per mile. Simply consider 100 miles of city driving, with stop lights every 1-mile, versus 100 miles of highway driving - and the associated number of gear shifts over those 100 miles.

wifesRDXtech

Good to know your doing 1x every 5 k .

737 Jock

Many dealers only do a 1x drain/fill, in order to keep the price more attractive. The problem is that this occurs at the regular schedule of 30k to 40k miles. They will do a 3x if asked, and charge more for it.

Honda owners often DIY a 1x drain/fill every other oil change, or about 10k miles. This should work as well as the 3x every 30k; provided that a full 3x flush is done prior to starting the 1x every 10k schedule, if the trans has more than 20k on it.

Incorporating a 1x trans drain/fill every other oil change can be less effort than a 3x flush done less often.

wifesRDXtech

^. Thanks for input . Did 1 x drain fill yesterday, largest amount of time was getting air box out to access fill plug. I got 4 qts out exactly with the drain.

Will get 9 mm OD tubing next time and fill through dipstick next time.

chaz21

I was wondering, for the rear differential gear refill it sure would be easier to use a garden sprayer ( new never used ) to put gear oil back in. Be way easier than the liter bottle pumps.....

Also, could you not use gallon plastic garden sprayer shove the thin tube down the tranny tube. measure the quantity of oil to refill, pour it in the garden sprayer tank, pump it and let it go, should be faster than gravity drip.

Would a pella oil extractor be able to make it to the bottom of the tranny pan from the dipstick hole ? so you could suck the transmission oil out as well and not have to remove a bolt at all ?

Could be the cleanest tranny change ever, not sure if the dipstick tube allows clear access to the bottom of the pan, if so this would make things easier and cleaner.....

chaz21

Forgot to add, the sprayer nozzle part of the garden sprayer would need to be removed, so you just have a few feet of the thin tube.

737 Jock

A garden sprayer is functionally identical to a Motive pressure brake bleeder.

As you pointed out, oil, and particularly gear oil, is very thick and will probably clog the mist nozzles on a garden sprayer. You would need one like this Gardena 864 with a built-in control valve and attach an open ended, delivery hose to it.



A Motive pressure bleeder would work if you screwed a control valve and delivery hose to the brass nozzle.

dcmodels

It is possible to remove the fill plug and fill the trans, w/o removing the air box, if you have average size hands and are fairly dextrous. Although it took me over an hour the first time, it now takes only about 5-minutes to remove the fill plug - and I like that I can just dump a quart into the trans with a funnel. I use a 2-foot long funnel with a long thin tube at the bottom, and a small funnel bowl on the top.

Use the following link and scroll down to REMOVING THE TRANS FILL PLUG:
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=801122

wifesRDXtech

Funny you mention that I tried that initially got the plug off but when I tried it get funnel ( using same funnel as OP ) in fill hole I was having hard time keeping it in hole to fill it up and I was scrapping my hands trying to get it to fit properly so I don't spill anything. I also have the long hard plastic funnel but need thin tubing to attach to it . Then I was concerned on how am I going to get the washer and plug back on so said heck I'll take out air box.

I used to work the line for Aeromexico and Continental Airlines fixing Jets ,so I am use to tight spots.

pomba

I pretty much followed the to the T. Thanks for the post it was very helpful. My manual 2008 MDX (75k) calls for ATF-Z1 which as been replaced with the ATF - DW1.
In order to access the drain plug I had to remove the protective cover. I used a nylon tube connected regular funnel to fill through the dip stick hole. Dropped the ATF 3 times and replaced the washer on the drain plug on last one. I was just over a quart low.

The only issue I had with this was it took FOREVER to fill the three quarts via the dip stick hole. Between draining, filling, driving I was out in the garage for about 4 hours.
Great directions - thanks!

valdito

Just wanna say thanks for the detailed post. It was very helpful and now the transmission shifts very smoothly.