I recently purchased the Honda Best Motoring "VTEC CLUB" Special edition DVD. And to my surprise... in one of the interviews with the spoon representative (I cant remember his exact position title... but I remember them claiming he was like the main man) and The Drift King (this was all japanese and subtitled by the way.

Anyways It was him and the two drivers answering viewers/fans questions in this segment of the DVD. A guy mailed in that he goes to the track basically like twice a year on average... and his ride is a daily driver. I dont recall him saying he owned a Type R... but the spoon guy replied in reference to him as if he did own one.. so maybe i missed when he said that too (the subtitles flash too fast on this dvd sometimes). Firstly he said he recommends factory honda oils. He was speaking of motor oil at that time. Obviously one of the racers claims "Valvoline" and the other claims their brand... but both were joking about just plugging for their sponsors.

ANYWAYS.... Spoon guy then says.... its really not your motor oil you have to worry about. Its your TRANNY oil. That since motor oils are lucky to have such efficient cooling parameters for the engine oil... people slack on their transmission oil. As the transmission oil basically sits in the tranny the whole time.... as we rev 8000+rpms and has nothing at all working to keep temps down.

So then as the racers joke around... and even they were surprised at his response.. They ask... how often do u recommends then?.. One says "every 2 or 3 oil changes?"..... and his reply??? EVERY OIL CHANGE... change your tranny oil like how u change ur engine oil.

I was amazed. He also said that engine flushes SUCK!... That it **** up valve clearances and other clearance issues in the engine.

So yeah... change your R's transmission fluid every change...and he was pretty firm in recommending this.

His quote "As the Type Rs are the equivalent to fully raced tuned toyota/nissan equivalents ... one must be very aware of its working state... the R withstands alot of ragging equal to that of a race car."

I just thought it was interesting

 

ah crap.. that means i gotta change the oil and trany fluid this weekend.. im 40 miles b4 3k miles on the 97R ... laundry, then fluid maintenanace in the R .. what a way to spend the weekend..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JinDIESEL &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ah crap.. that means i gotta change the oil and trany fluid this weekend</TD></TR></TABLE>

So just because Spoon says so, you must do it?

Way to investigate and/or do your own research.

 

Most of us change it every 15k or so...it does break down...

I'm doing my oil about every 7500mi ...

 

I change my tranny oil every 3 oil changes, and it still does not help me from blowing it up

But I'll be soon changing over to Motul, Just like RJ

 

I dont drive an R, sorry!, but i saw that dvd too and unless you push your car like they do, i would think it is totally unnecessary

 

screw the spoon engineer on this one.. roughly every 3rd track day is working fine for me for now.. and that's just my paranoia about the LSD chewing up the OEM fluid..

oil is changed as seems necessary, which is more on the every 3-4 months order..

 

I decided to change my oil after 2 yrs and 7k miles (500 miles or so were from track day/auto-x's) and it was very dark. I plan on changing it once a year from now on.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Chris N &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Way to investigate and/or do your own research.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, no chit.

When I was using Honda MTF I was changing it more often than the engine oil

 

Every other oil change for me. But I'm probably extending my oil change interval from 3000 miles to 6000 miles (swapping the filter at 3000 miles) since I'm moving on to Amsoil for engine and either Redline or Motul for transmission + differential oil.

But I wonder, what's their [Japanese] average oil change interval in mileage?

And I forgot who said this before but it never hurts to change your oil more often than not. The only impact I can see is the wallet taking a beating.

 

I've changed the trans fluid once a year. Its always come out looking clean. 25k miles on the clock so far.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thk &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Every other oil change for me. </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by The Kernal &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've changed the trans fluid once a year. Its always come out looking clean. 25k miles on the clock so far. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Do you track your car on a regular basis? From my experience, even after 6K miles, Honda MTF "looked" a little on the thin side when I flushed it out (compared to when it was new). Wasn't a huge deal for me since 1) I don't track my car as often as some and 2) I'm nowhere ***** out on track as some others.

 

I change my honda MTF every 500 miles or less just because it is so cheap and easy to change that it is worth the prevention of headaches later down the road.

I am also changing my oil every 1000-1500.

This is under harsh driving/race conditions.

For the everyday person, you don't really need to change it that often.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thk &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Do you track your car on a regular basis? From my experience, even after 6K miles, Honda MTF "looked" a little on the thin side when I flushed it out (compared to when it was new). Wasn't a huge deal for me since 1) I don't track my car as often as some and 2) I'm nowhere ***** out on track as some others.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The only track its seen has been expo 2,3 and 4 plus a little autox. It looked pretty clear to me. Not sure about viscosity. It seemed alright though. I put magnetic drain plug in after the 1st change. Never seems to accumulate anything significant.

 

I change oil every 3k. When I track the car, i change it more often. Usually after a weekend or 2 of racing.

Tranny fluid...change it every yr along with every other fluid in the car. I only do this cause I track the car, otherwise I'd stick to every 15k or 30k

 

I would say to this that parts are more expensive that lubricants, so why jeapordize the parts?

 

Does the factory R tranny require a friction modifier along with the usual Honda MTF?
Or just the honda MTF.....?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by v-attack &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Does the factory R tranny require a friction modifier along with the usual Honda MTF?
Or just the honda MTF.....?</TD></TR></TABLE>Just regular Honda MTF.

 

I have heard that most people in Japan do not change their oil very often because they know they won't be keeping their cars past 30 or 40 thousand miles. I hope that is not true about enthusiast drivers with Type-Rs.

 

i do it every oil change too, just because its easy and its not that much. 3bottles of redline mt90 costs me $15

ohh and since the cars sits most of the time, or driven hard on the track, i avarage 1000kilometers per oil/tranny fluid change.

imo if you regulary change fluids there is no need for a flush.

 

I could write a book out of the BS that has come from spoon / spoon representatives.

 

lol, Kramer writing a book on spoon BS......priceless

 

I'd really like to see a book based on the BS accumulated by Spoon.

I dunno how many of us have their extensive racing experience to back up their particular BS, but I'd venture to say next to none.

I agree, that just because it was said by Spoon, doesn't mean it's the end all and the BEST for YOUR particular car and application.

Maybe something was lost in translation..... even the original poster, mentioned that he wasn't sure if the guy writing in, even drove a Type-R.

With that said, if the car has a CLUTCH PACK LSD, then it is advised to change the fluid when you change your engine oil as well. A lot of fine particles come out of the clutch pack and contaminates the tranny fluid.

FWIW, I change mine every 2nd engine oil change, because it's cheap maintenance and I've been known in my area to go thru transmissions like the amt of oil my motor burns.....

 

what does spoon use their cars for again? i forgot?...

unless your car gets a lot of track time you dont need to keep changing out ur transmission oil every oil change