Just looking at my spreadsheet which I keep track of on maintenance. Back in June 17 2010 (146615 km), my car had a tranny fluid change (it was just a drain and refill i believed). I have it noted down that the next tranny fluid change would be 194615 kms or on June 17 2012.

What's the concensus regarding the cheaper drain and refill versus a full flush?

 

You should never force material through your transmission. It can only cause more problems then currently present.

You should never "flush" a transmission. It should always be drain and re-fill.

 

You should be fine with a drain and fill once a year or every 20,000-30,000 miles. Honda recommends replacing all the fluid at 120,000 but, I would be very hesitant to do that as these 7th gen auto transmissions tend to not like that very much.

 

I did a flush at 65K (3 times replaced) you can definitely see the difference in the fluid. I recommend it..

 

i also had my 04 machine flushed when i first bought it at 80,000 miles because 2nd to third had a rough shift. after the flush the rough shifting stopped completely. now i only do a single drain and fill not 3 every 10,000 miles.

it is well know that the auto transmissions are faulty. main reason being the internal mesh filter is to fine of a mesh leading to it becoming clogged and cutting off oil pressure damaging clutch packs. thats why i had mine flushed disregarding hondas recommendation. my car is still running strong with no trans problems going on 150,000 miles.

 

I change my MTF all the time.

 

change the fluid...my tranny just went out...good thing i had a backup ready to install.

 

Is it possible to drop the pan and clean this filter?

 

What pan? We're talking about transmissions and transmission fluid, not oil.




If you're referring to removing / cleaning the ATF strainer, it's a bit more involved than that.

 

Yes, I am referring to the transmission strainer. After looking at a few diagrams online it does not appear that it is as easy as in most domestic cars.