I've got an EF sedan for my daily. When I drive it in the mornings and the car isn't quite warmed up, you have to take the car to almost redline before it will shift. Once the temp gauge is up to normal it shifts smooth. I was just wondering if anyone had any advice....oh and the tranny fluid level is fine.

 

Where does it shift at normally when warm?

 

at about 2000-2500

 

when is the last time you had your atf changed??

 

change tranny fluid

 

I bought it as a beater w/ about 180,000 miles and I haven't changed the fluid. Is it alright if you dont change the filter w/ the fluid, because I don't want to take the tranny apart. Also, what fluid do you recommend using. Thanks for all the responses.

 

I would go with honda atf, i dont know of any other brands there may be something better

I dont believe your tranny has a filter.

 

Do you know if the previous owner ever had it changed?
Sometimes you run into problems if you change it now-and it has never been done before.

 

Adjust the tranny-to-throttle body cable. This controls your line pressure.

ONLY use Honda ATF or ATF specifically made for 88-00 Honda auto trannies (I think Valvoline makes it).

 

seriously i ruined a 91 lx auto tranny using non-honda atf.
its a lil on the expensive side, but totally works.

 

thanks for all the responses, I've got some honda ATF on the way. Can anyone else verify that changing the fluid in a car this is could cause more harm than good.

 

Honda recommends for those years tranny to use ATF 3 (Dexron 3), just the regular ****.

Your tranny has a filter, but who really cares with 180XXXkms. Just drive it. I never changed mine and it had 255XXXkms and it shifted smooth.

If it busts, do a 5 speed swap, you'll get better mileage.

 

honda doesn't recomend that you use anything else but honda fluid and thats because the lubericants inside the transmission and because there are so many other atf fluids out there that can damage the lubercaints that are coated on the bearings, etc inside the transmission. Honda believes that other fluids out there can remove or strip that lubercation inside the transmission and causing all these transmission problems. Highly recomended to use Honda ATF.

They don't exscatly recomended flushes either unless its a drain and refill three times for this same reason. Although the fliter for the atf cooler is after and not before the fluid enters the transmission doesn't really make sense to me. I haven't answered that yet myself. Because when changning a honda transmission your suppose to use a Honda cooler flush machine to flush out the old contaminates inside the cooler and its suppose to break all that loose. Anyways I thought I would post this up there maybe someone could answer why the filter for the cooler after.