kramun

Hi there, I have an 2002 accord coupe and I recently rebuilt the engine, radiator, timing belt, water pump, all the hoses.

I am about the change all the mounts on my car because they are saggy and have vibration on my dash and steering wheel when I come to the stop light.

Anyway, my transmission seems to be working okay, It doesn't slip, it doesn't downshift late etc. It has a slight pause before it shift gears but I assume that is normal.

My transmission fluid is red/pink, not brown not black. I've heard stories of transmission having problems right after changing the fluid.

So I just don't want to hurt my wallet as soon as I change the fluid haha.

If the fluid is clean and not dirty with shiny aliminum etc on the pan, is it safe to change the fluid?

Car has over 100k miles. Engine is at 136k miles but was rebuild/swapped.

djkurious

Has the tranny fluid ever been changed?

kramun

I am not sure of that, I got the car a month ago with so many problems from the previous owner. I don't have the history on the tranny fluid but it looks clean and how it suppose to be.

djkurious

For a peace of mine I would drain and refill 3 times just so I would know the fluid is clean and doesn't have any incorrect fluid(s).

MAD_MIKE

100K is not bad.
Change the fluid completely, then every 10-15K miles replace the ~3Qts in the pan.
Biggest problem is fluid is not changed in the transmission.

holmesnmanny

if its me i like to drop the pan and clean the black sludge in the bottom of the pan

DCFIVER

Just do a drain and fill. Use Honda fluid. I would only do it once and then again at 15k for piece of mind. After that every 60k or so should be fine....

kramun

I have 6 QT of Genuine Honda Fluid, I will do it this sunday, as we will be replacing the mounts on the car and egr valve.

@DCFIVER and @MAD MIKE, do the Honda way? Drain&Fill&Drive 200-300 Miles and then Do it again?

I might need to buy 3 more QTs I guess.

djkurious

200-300 miles is totally up to you. You really only have to let the transmission shift in all gears to mix the new/old fluid, so about 10 miles would be enough. I did this yesterday to a 2005 Accord.

MAD_MIKE

To be safe and have enough, yup.

As djkurious stated, you are really just mixing the new into the old, and diluting out the old with the new. If you have a NAPA auto store nearby, pickup a pint of Seafoam TRANSTUNE. And dump it into the trans on the first change, it will aid in removing buildup inside the trans, and break down varnish/sludge. So your second drain may be as dirty or more so than the first.

As long as the majority of the old fluid is removed, you will be removing the junk in the bottom of the trans, as well as reintroducing new fluid with the correct friction modifiers which will imprive the shift feel and allow the trans to last much longer.