The clutch in my 98 prelude sh went out for the 1st time in its life of approximately 115k miles. I couldn't afford taking it to any shop for repairs. About $1,500 just to get into a shop for them to look at it. Then almost 2x that for them to fix it. I let it sit for about 6 months before I decided it was time to get my hands dirty. I had no idea where to really start though. I met a mechanic at work. (I'm in the oilfield) he said he knows his way around a Honda. He used to run a chop shop in Florida before being banned from that state for his occupation. Should've been the deal breaking red flag, I know. But I wasn't comfortable just winging it on my own. All goes well until the last trans mounting bolt stops screwing in without being tight against the tranny. Mixed up bolts. Short somewhere in the bottom and way to long at the topside. Several large washers solved that problem. Fingers crossed. But then he goes and gets tranny fluid. Some offbrand ATF. I questioned it before using the atf in my manual Honda transmission. He said it would be fine. Now about 10k miles later, having trouble getting into reverse every once in a while. And noticing side to side play with shifter while in 1st gear. Am I destroying my transmission? And what transmission fluid do I need to use when I change it? Assuming it's not already to late to save.

 

I think the obvious first step here is to drain the trans fluid and add Honda MTF. Also i would fix that mount situation asap. Don't tell me you have an inch+ worth of washers making up for using a bolt that's too long.

 

Is it just Honda mtf? And getting to the mounting bolts Is not easy. I'm sure you know that. Lol

 

Yeah, Honda mtf (manual transmission fluid). As for the trans bolts.... You don't have a proper seal on the mount with a super long bolt smashing a bunch of washers of unknown quality. Put a jack under the trans if you don't have a cherry picker and raise and lower it as needed to finagle the mount out of there and get the right bolts in there.

Also your mechanic wanted 3 grand to do a clutch????? Where the hell do you live where that's a normal price? Its a 5 hour job at most with a lift.

 

The SH can be a pain, so maybe the mechanic quoted high to avoid doing the job....

I second draining the fluid and adding MTF, and if you can swap the studs to the right spots would be preferable.