HELP! 7th gen Civic auto trans

[disappointed]

Auto transmission service should be done every 12 months or 20,000km

Where the hell did you get your info from? My service booklet says the first tranny service is at 120,000 km, there after every 80,000km....

[buddah51au]

Where the hell did you get your info from? My service booklet says the first tranny service is at 120,000 km, there after every 80,000km....

Make inquiries at any auto trans specialist and they will say what i posted. On the other hand if you don't want longevity from your auto transmission, go ahead and service it every 100,000km, bearing in mind that when you change the oil you can only change about 33% of the oil in the transmission, unless of course you repeatably change the oil until it is clean and that can be an expensive proposition. If you spend some time in a transmission workshop you will be amazed at the number of transmission failures due to lack of servicing. Heat is the biggest killer of transmission fluid, so if you ever tow anything it is recommended you fit an additional oil cooler as well. For those of you with the current model civic it is a very easy job.....1 drain plug, top up with 2.5 liters of oil, no oil pan or filter to worry about......very cheap insurance.

[disappointed]

Make inquiries at any auto trans specialist and they will say what i posted. On the other hand if you don't want longevity from your auto transmission, go ahead and service it every 100,000km, bearing in mind that when you change the oil you can only change about 33% of the oil in the transmission, unless of course you repeatably change the oil until it is clean and that can be an expensive proposition. If you spend some time in a transmission workshop you will be amazed at the number of transmission failures due to lack of servicing. Heat is the biggest killer of transmission fluid, so if you ever tow anything it is recommended you fit an additional oil cooler as well. For those of you with the current model civic it is a very easy job.....1 drain plug, top up with 2.5 liters of oil, no oil pan or filter to worry about......very cheap insurance.

No No No No,,,, Those were the bad old days, it's not like that anymore. Tranny shops would tell you that because thats their bread and butter. These days transmissions are run by electronics, use synthetic fluids, people don't tow great loads with their civics. Heat is the big killer, as you said. Some car manufacturers have completely sealed for life transmissions. what would you do in that case buddah51au

[buddah51au]

It seems that you know a lot more than someone who has spent years working in a transmission workshop, so u believe what you wish. we overhaul more than 10 electronic auto transmissions every week, so i will send them to you for advice......lol

[7th Gen]

whoa guys - didn't think it was so controversial :P

i repeat my reply - i have serviced my car since i bought it new at the dealer and then when the warranty ran out, at Dr Honda (who is a factory trained Honda technician i might add)

he has seen 5 other auto transmissions fail as well (same model, same car)

buddah51au has a point though, the more you service, (presumably) the longer life you get out of it
perhaps Honda Aus should look at their recommended servicing intervals then?

[disappointed]

They majority of those would be commodore and falcon, and the overdrive shits itself. Falcons with coolant migration.

[disappointed]

It seems that you know a lot more than someone who has spent years working in a transmission workshop, so u believe what you wish. we overhaul more than 10 electronic auto transmissions every week, so i will send them to you for advice......lol

I too have spent years working in a transmission repair shop.

[godiva]

buddah, i was advised the same thing after having a gearbox failure on my 91 civic. At first i thought it was a sales pitch so i checked with several transmission specialists and they all said exactly what you recommend. So if all transmission specialists recommend the same service interval i will go that way. it was pointed out to me that in theory you can only drain about 1/3 of the oil in the gearbox, so every 3 services you change the oil capacity of the gearbox, butt the problem is old and new oil mixes together, so in reality you never get completely new oil. It was also mentioned that the other way to achieve this is to disconnect 1 of the transmission cooler lines and to keep filling up the oil and running the engine till the oil runs clean, but this could take 20 liters or more of transmission oil, thats more expensive than changing the oil as recommended. So for me i am now doing the transmission service yearly and hopefully my gearbox will last more than 140,000km.

[panda[cRx]]

Where the hell did you get your info from? My service booklet says the first tranny service is at 120,000 km, there after every 80,000km....

i wouldnt recommend anyone drive a honda auto/cvt to 120k without a fluid change, i dont care what the book says.

current model honda gearboxes are far from bulletproof, if you had any experience with them you would agree

[buddah51au]

Hi Godiva, great to hear someone else agrees with my advice, i think after 30 years in the motor trade i know a little bit, but advice is just that, some people listen and some don't. Not that i am complaining as the more gearbox problems there is, the happier my bank manager is. lol. I have 1 customer with a 1989 accord exi with over 400,000km and is still running on the original gearbox, but very few people keep their cars that long. all i can compare that with is the several accord gearbox failures i have seen with less than 1/2 that milage.

[disappointed]

It would be interesting to take a poll of auto transmissions in civics and accords, to see how many have had problems and how they are serviced, at 20k, 30k, 40k or dealer service recommendations.

[Limbo]

I change my MTF every 20k(harder driven). and all the Autos i got at about 30k