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Why is that? It would seem to make sense to flush all the old transimission fluid before adding new.
Honda doesn't make great automatic transmissions. They never have.
Build-up of all sorts is common to all transmissions, but Honda's takes the cake. A drain and fill lets gravity do the work. Fresh ATF under significant pressure often dislodges chunks of gunk in all the wrong places, causing problems and then ultimately, a BIG problem. There's all kinds of random shavings that have found a comfortable and unobtrusive spot on their own that, under high pressure, wind up in all the wrong places.
Honda trannies are delicate little flowers, you see. heh.
It's a design flaw that Honda has never fixed because not enough people have complained. They likely never will.
I recommend draining and filling your Honda tranny fluid 3 times using gravity. The fluid is exceptionally cheap.
I brought my honda crv to the dealer service mechanic for oil change. They recommend transmission flush coz my car is more than 30k miles. They charged $80 for changing 3 quarts of fluid only. I think he said transmission has 10 quarts. So it's just partial flush.
For the full 10 quarts and removing all those junk it's $185. I decided to do it, did I get ripped off?
If it was at a Honda dealer and they were using OEM fluid, those prices are very reasonable. Honda fluid is around $10 qt.
$185 is the going rate for flushes, but as has been mentioned, you don't do it on a Honda. It's a questionable service on any vehicle, really. It's good to keep the fluid clean, but I prefer more frequent regular services to flushes. Flushes are an easy sell to people with 150k on their cars that haven't ever been serviced because the shop can say "look at how dirty your fluid is, it's supposed to be bright red like this...."
Having that many miles without problems or ever having been serviced, some trans shops have a theory that it's best to leave it alone. Others will gladly take your money trying to convince you that you extended the life of the trans another 50k.
If I had a Honda, I'd just drain and fill it about once a year. Both my vehicles, a Subaru and a Suzuki-built thingy, have drain plugs and that's the treatment they get and the fluid stays bright red. The filters are just metal screens in both of those vehicles so there's not much reason to drop the pan in my opinion since they don't seem to need the replacing that felt filters do. Hondas do not have a serviceable filter nor a pan on most of their vehicles, so if anyone tries to sell you that song and dance, run. Which brings me to a reason I never liked shops charging as much for a Honda service as a more conventional tranny. There's just not nearly as much involved. No pans, no band adjustments... it's as easy as an engine oil change. The vast majority of shops will charge the same though.
Brom, you didn't get ripped off. The Honda transmissions are not the best in the world. They'll show large amounts of aluminum flashed in spectroscopy. Most labs will tell you the torque converter and pump are in need of replacement- that's not always so on these. The aluminum can be considered a wear agent and cause damage. You also have a small sump as compared to other brands of cars and the TAN can get high on these quick. TAN= Total Acid Number. Anything above 3.0 on your report would be considered doing damage. You can either go to a small change at every 10000 miles or bite the bullet and do it every 30,000 miles and do a complete flush/change. You also have an issue with the enclosed system on the Honda doesn't allow for much in the way of condensation to be relieved from the it. That creates varnish and light sludge. A change is imperative to keep this from causing even shorter transmission life. Use ONLY Honda fluids or expect shorter transmission life. It's just cheap insurance against premature failure. Transmissions that receive scheduled maintenance have been well documented at lasting 3X longer than those that don't. You're already starting with one that has a poor life historically.
I have never even had a tranny flush (i have owned 12 american made cars) & the only time i change my tranny fluid is when the fluid is dark red or smells burnt.
Sigh I'm such an idiot. I should have chosen the $80, partial flush. I should have googled before making impulsive decision.
I disagree. On a strictly per-quart basis, the flush is a much better value. Per quart, the flush is $18.50. The drain and fill is $26.66.
IIRC, the dealer's retail price for the fluid is something like eight bucks a quart, if this is a newer CR-V. So, that's $80 plus tax for a full flush. Then add on whatever fees (environmental fee, etc) and the labor is probably about 45 minutes. There could be parts required also (probably only a few dollars' worth).
If you pay $26.66 per quart to flush only a third of the fluid--if that--you are still running on 2/3 old fluid with whatever debris is suspended in it. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me to do that unless you are short of cash on that day.
Today's transmissions are a lot more complex than those of years gone by, but... the fluids are a lot better today also. Although 30k may have been aggressive on the maintenance schedule (one of my cars lists 50k as "severe" service interval), you still received a better value in terms of the total replacement vs. partial replacement.
Last edited by 43north87west; 06-22-2012 at 08:22 PM..
Location: The Circle City. Sometimes NE of Bagdad.
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Your so right. I like it.
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