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Never flush a transmission especially a Honda's! It's best practice to only drain and refill the fluid every 30-40K miles! If possible (not on a Honda), you could drop the pan, clean it and change the filter and then refill it but Hondas' transmissions don't have a filter, they have a built in "lifetime" screen.. NEVER flush them!! If you're picky, you can always drain, refill, drive for a few hundred miles and repeat .... But flushing does nothing but create issues.
Honda has known issues with the service life of their automatic transmissions, and fluid breakdown is a factor in how rapidly these transmissions fail.
There is little comparison to another make, or various other transmissions in the marketplace as the basis to assert that Honda's don't need this service.
Honda has a unique spec for the factory fluid which is highly recommended to preserve the original shifting characteristics rather than the general spec fluids which are suitable for many brands/makes of transmissions.
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.
That's how as a young lad I changed water into rum.........
IE: one brings a qt bottle 3/4er's full of water and buys rum to fill it. Then drinks some and repeats this over 3 times for a full bottle of rum
Unless ATF is burnt or is nearing getting burnt, and so long as there are no bad leaks, and etc there is no real good reason to change it.
Plowing snow will burn ATF, but I doubt this Honda ever did plow any snow.
A problem with newer cars is there is no drains, and no dip sticks either for that matter. This will be a problem in cash for most folks at some point. So called 'sealed for life fluids is a just plain bad idea.
Location: Butler County Ohio and Winters in Florida
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Follow the owner's manual for fluid services. If you plan on keeping the vehicle for 100K or so.
If you plan on long term ownership servicing all fluids every 30K is a smart idea. My car is on a Life Time Program for all of its fluids, backed by a strong warranty. The Chemical Company is called BG, look at their website.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,550 posts, read 81,117,303 times
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My mechanic, a transmission shop, charges $90. We have had several done for that and they are much bigger (more quarts) than a Honda. The jeep dealer also tries to sell a change at 30k but the manual says 60. They can deny warranty coverage if you refuse, because they say it needs changing due to the condition they observe as opposed to the mileage. It doesn't matter who does the change though, so you can thank them and go get it done somewhere more reasonable.
I just bought a 2002 crv with 128,000 miles on it, its never had a transmission flush- is it time?
Drain and refill only.....do not flush the Honda transmission. You are welcome in advance.
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