Hi guys, I have a 99 accord lx coupe MT. I was inspired by a few threads on this forum to change my tranny fluid to fix some shifting problems I was having. So I drained out the fluid and measured it to be about 2.1 litres. I started adding new honda MTF back in there and got the first 1 litre bottle in there no problem, but I was only able to get in half of the second bottle for a total of 1.5 litres. If I added anymore it would just spill right out. I'm pretty confused why it stopped at only 1.5 litres and is this going to be a big problem? Also is it normal that when I was putting in the tip of the flexable funnel into the fill hole it should only go in about an inch or so then hit something solid blocking its path?

Thanks in advance for any help guys

 

Was the car level? might sound dumb but if you have the front on jack stands it will not be the correct amount of fluid. My 5 spd took 1.9 quarts.

 

make sure the car is level, and also, slowly pour in the fluid. Sometimes if you squeeze the bottle, you make the fluid 'burp' and it spills back out.

 

I really need to change my MT fluid also ('99 LX, 90,000 miles). The need to keep the car level was one of my questions which is now answered, the second question was whether I should go through the gears while changing it.

Also, if I remember right the red cap was the good MT fluid and the white cap was the old stuff (or the other way around). In any event, my local Honda dealer only had the old stuff, I'm guessing that there really isn't anything wrong with the old stuff per se, it's just that the new stuff is better?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Heat &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the second question was whether I should go through the gears while changing it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

You shouldnt need to go through the gears. You could if you wanted to. I dont know if any air bubles would get stuck in there which you could wiggle out by shfting through the gears. Does hurt anything, but doesnt help anything as far as I know of. Its just like filling up a container with MTF. Just fill it up and drive.

 

i was told to fill it up until it spits some out. no?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by oem_certified_accord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i was told to fill it up until it spits some out. no?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, thats true. The car should be level though. If it is not level, you will not get an accurate fill by it spitting out.

 

Thanks for the responses. Ok well I drove it around because I had to use my car and it was shifting very notchy as I had expected. But when I got home I decided to give it another shot and I was able to get in about another 300 mL before it started spilling out, this time the car was PERFECTLY level with extreme precision. Still not as much has gone in as I took out but it shifts great now. Can anyone answer if it is doing any harm being a little low on fluid? Its shifting good now so I'm assuming the gears are lubricated well but I don't know much about transmissions and how the lubrication works... anyways I just wanna make sure I'm not killin my tranny. Thanks.

 

you should be fine now.

 

Maybe it was overfilled before?

A manual tranny lubricates itself by simply carrying the oil up over the gears. There's no pump or circulation system (normal trannys anyway). There's a fairly large tolerance in oil level and high is better than low.