I have a question, My shop foreman's 01 MDX just **** a transmission. We work for a Honda dealer, here in Charleston, SC, meaning our employee discount is only valid with Honda Reman units, and the MDX trans is mega expensive. In efforts to save some hard earned money, he is curious if the 03-04 Pilot transmission will work on this MDX. 99% of the part numbers are identical, so I know it will physically bolt up, yes. Has anyone done this? Or have a good alternative? Thank you in advance!!

 

Contact your local wrecking yard, they have info available for what parts will fit on what cars. In Japan they like to change things up at the half way point of a generation of a model, so a three year model may have different parts for the first half of that time frame and different parts for the second half of that time frame. Its called Zenke and Koke, not sure of the correct spelling but its pretty popular for them to do this.

If the connectors are the same and the number of wires, then you have a good chance but dont trust this at face value.

 

I appreciate that tid bit! Anyone else?

 

IMHO I wouldnt trust salvage yards. Many have no idea about most Honda/Acura cars and parts swapping between the 2 brands. Just because their computer says its works, you may end up being the guinea pig. Here are some Honda trans specifics:

01-02 MDX 5 spd auto older style 3 mainshaft internal design trans (much more problematic)
03-current 5 spd auto newer style 4 mainshaft internal design (less problematic)
*externally these transmission are totally different and would require lots of wiring changes and mounts etc to make work.
03-05 Pilots are the older style 3 mainshaft design. These arent nearly as problematic as the 01-02 MDX trans. I would be more interested in the 03-05 Pilot trans if you had to swap any model into your MDX.

Even used these transmissions are expensive because the majority are JUNK( 4 shaft design being the exception).

There is a company called H&A transmissions in Cali that reman's Honda transmissions both manual and auto models. I've personally installed 2 H&A trans and both were nicer than the 100+ Honda reman's I've done. HTH