Hi, I bought a used car (2001 honda accord 4 cyl) last year. I was going through the service records today and noticed that the last ATF fluid that was put in was Dextron (doesn't specify Dextron II or III), and this was in Jan 2009. It has been running for two and a half years on this and not ATF - z1. Prior to 2009 - it had ATF - z1.

The manual says that Dextron can be used as a temporary ATF. The ATF fluid looks clean. Do you think I need to change back to ATF z1/dw1 as soon as possible. Do you think using Dextron for that long might have caused a significant irreversible damage ?? (because I feel the shifting is not very smooth while accelerating at low speeds).

Looking forward to your thoughts on this. Thank you in advance for your inputs.

 

You cant tell if its clean unless you drain it...dipstick doesnt let you know its clean......i would just pick up oem stuff and do the 3 qt x 3 drain and refills drive like a 100 miles each drain and refill....and the new formula is dw-1 its pretty good stuff,stopped my tranny from slipping hasent slipped in 6000 miles since i put it in,my tranny is on its way out anyway,ive used the dw-1 and its been good to my tranny and it will shift a little rough when its cold but its supposed to do that with dw-1. and its thinner and has less friction modifier i hear.....Id say if you arent sure just get the oem stuff and make sure you clean the drain plug its a magnet and it will probabaly have a bunch of gunk on it i think its normal......Im using valvoline maxlife now just messing around with fluids and seeing what valvoline maxlife will do to my tranny... since im doing a 5 speed swap in my 6thgen 99 anyway in like 2 or 3 weeks....but id stick with oem dw-1 fluid on the 6th gen tranny good luck

 

dont use anything but honda auto transmission fluid z1.


how much are you willing to spend?
the best way to fix this is to go get some honda atf z1 from the dealership and get it pumped through your transmission to flush out/replace the old dexron crap. many lube shops can perform the service for you cheaper then the dealership will or..

you can also do several transmission fluid drains/refills driving in between each drain/refill to work the old tranny fluid out. i would do atleast 3-4 drain/refill/drive to make sure

i learned this the hard way on my old 96 accord auto. just do your self a favor now and spend the money to get the correct fluid and hope that no damage was caused

 

Dont flush it is what most people will tell you just do the drain and refill 3 times and z1 is hard to find its dw-1 now

 

ah cool. my lack of auto transmission cars these days had made me miss this upgrade lol. if its honda and it says auto transmission fluid and you get it from the dealership

 

Your gonna wanna pull the trans plug. Let 3 quarts or so out of the trans. Put new honda ATF in there. Drive a few hundred miles, then do that process again. Do this 3 times. It worked for me I have 98' CL 3.0 B7ZA Honda Tranny with 175,000 mi. on it. Shifts good when it gets warmed up. It will bang comming down into low gear sometimes when I'm pulling up to a light or stop sign when I'm slowing down. If its doing it alot I'll drive in D3 an then it doesn't do it. Anyway...heres a link for Honda Trans fluid that I use, order it from this site.....

http://www.bernardiparts.com/Honda-T...RANSFLUID.aspx

 

Yea im starting my 5 speed swap cant wait to be done with my crapomatic tranny and shift my own gears lol

 

honda 90-02 auto trannys=

plus sticks are just too fun. once you learn you will never want an auto again

 

^^^^^Yep...i am suprised my tranny has made it 6000 miles since i got it and still going,a guy sold it to me for 200 bucks because it was slipping hard core and he got fed up....i poured honda juice in it like 5 drain and refills and its been doing real good hasent slipped and i drive it a lot. and the cooler weather seems to make it shift even better but i want a 5 speed lol

 

I don't know what you're talking about the 90-93 is a good trans. Plus Accords are slow as **** even with a 5-speed.

 

manual always>auto and the auto trannies really are not that great. and if we cared about a slow car you think we would be buying accords and sitting in the 90-02 accord forum.

 

Yea f23a1 with boost and h22 tranny sounds fun though

 

Dear all,

I did not even notice that there were so many replies - thank you !! for some reason I did not get the email alerts for this post. Yes I have decided to change the ATF to thw new dw 1 and will try doing it myself. I was wondering - at the of the 3 times draining procedure about 30% of the old ATF will still be left behind - but I am guessing that would be ok - since I have seen this procedure being recommended on many sites as well as this thread.

Thank you for all your inputs !!! I will do this sometime this week and let you know if I see an improvement

 

correction: I read that with every draining procedure half of the transmission lfuid comes out. So that would mean after three such procedures only 12.5% of the old transmission fluid is left behind (made a mistake in the previous post where I said 30% is left behind as I assumed that only 1/3rd gets drained every time).

 

I would not bother doing it 3 times if you are not having any problems with it after 2 1/2 years? If there was a problem, it would have certainly manifested itself within 2 1/2 years. I would drain the 3 qts out and refill with the Honda Z1 as your preventative maint schedule calls for. The last time I did mine (5th Gen 95) I used Valvoline Maxlife and it's been perfect, exactly the same as it was before. You don't have the worst offender (6th gen) anyways.