My baby is out for the season! I installed Mingster's X-brace and changed the oil and tranny fluids. I am a novice mechanic but thought I would include my hints and tips in case it might help someone else.


Parts required:

Differential drain and fill washers
Transmission drain and fill washers.
The Helm manual says to replace these and you can order them from your local Honda dealer or the site sponsor H & A Accessories.com.

Transmission fluid - Buy two 1-quart bottles. A drain and fill takes 1.5 quarts. Some people recommend Redline brand, but there is nothing wrong with Honda Genuine Manual Transmission Fluid (MTF) ~ $5 each.

Differential fluid - Buy a 1 quart bottle. A drain and fill takes 0.75 quarts. The Honda parts manager said that Honda did not distribute this stuff for individual sale. He said that Mobil makes a lot of Honda fluids and that buying Mobil-1 synthetic would be perfect. I bought Mobil-1 75W-90 (GL-5) synthetic differential fluid ~ $6 for a quart. It comes in a shaped container with spout and cap but this seems useless for the S-2000 (more on this later).

The work:

Tranny Fluid - It took me a while to think of this (I think Xviper hinted doing this for the differential) but gravity drain is the way to go. It also takes 2 people, but the filling process takes less than 10 minutes.
The tranny drain plug is special, but a 3/8" drive head fits perfect and will do the job. I think the tranny fill plug is 11/16" or 18mm. I bought a small funnel and 7 feet of clear tubing. Make sure the tubing is small enough to fit inside the fill plug (3/8" tubing is perfect). Heat the tubing under hot water and it should slide over the funnel and cool for a tight fit. I stayed underneath the car holding the tubing inside the fill hole, while my friend dumped ~1.5 bottles of Honda MTF into the funnel. Let gravity do the pumping for you. When overflow occurs, you are all done.

Differential Fluid - Unfortunately, I didn't do my homework and did not have the required tools. The differential drain and fill plugs are huge! Drain was 15/16" (I had that one) but the fill plug is over 20mm. I narrowed it down to between 7/8" and 15/16" (someone told me it was 24mm). Plus, you cannot use a socket (not enough room) so you need a wrench. The limited access also prevents you from using the Mobil-1 bottle that is shaped for pouring. I am sure gravity fill will work perfectly here as well.


I hope this helps. I am glad to have it done and done right.... learned a lot in the process too.

 

Thanks Tim. Nice post.

 

Tim,
The differential fill plug is 23mm....wrench costs about $16 at Sears.

 

In case anyone is interested - Getting a torque wrench on the diff fill bolt is impossible. You'll need to use "mechanics" feel on this one. Also, one of the washers that you're supposed to replace is a backordered item so I simply clean it real well, ensured it stayed in the orientation it started with and re-installed. It's been over 6 months, no problem. I do this with the oil plug too. Just make sure you don't flip the washer over. Yeah, I know, it's only a few cents but I don't get to the Honda store too often. You don't really need such a long tube. Just long enough so that when you're under the car, one end is in the fill hole and the bottle can be held up against the underside of the car and angled down about 45 degrees. You can squeeze what you need into the casings.
ps. Doesn't that diff fluid stink to high heaven and it lingers around for days and weeks.

 

Thanks for the tip Hopkinton,

buying individual wrenches sucks.

 

Great write up Tim! A lot of great information! And yes... a torque wrench will not fit on the fill bolt of the Diff. So it does need a good "feel" on how tight it should be

 

Isn't it important to make sure that the car is level when refilling the tranny, so that you don't overfill it by having the tranny tilted back?

 

Yes....pretty much all of your car's fluids should be checked when the car is level.

 

A neat trick: Assuming you don't use 4 jack stands to keep the car level, you can jack up the car as best you can making sure the fill hole is on the high side. You know from the manual how much oil it takes so put in just a bit more than this. Lower the car with an oil pan under the fill hole and let it drain till it stops. Now you've got the right amount in the tranny (or the diff). Jack the car back up and replace the plug (and clean up after yourself ).

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by g-s2k
[B]Great write up Tim!