I been noticing that it's getting harder to shift in to first gear. It may be because I am in a hurry, but often first gear seems to hit a wall. I have to shift into second first then to first. Takes me less then a second but I think I need to change the fliud. I changed it last year at 95-98k? The car has 110,000 now. I looked on the manual, it stated that transfluid should be changed at 60k intervals and diff fluids at 15k intervals. Opinions?

 

Maybe change the clutch hydraulic fluid, too.

 

The clutch fluid is pretty good I believe. I usually just suck the old stuff out with a syringe and replace it with new fluid ever 6 months or so. It gets black pretty quick.

 

Tranny and diffs shear fluids over time and the fluid loses viscosity the longer it is in use. MTF2 fluid is pretty thin to start out with. I find the OEM MTF2 fluid starts to lose effectiveness after 8,000 miles. I change it once a year regardless of miles, a bit of overkill but my tranny shifts perfectly at all temperature conditions, at 65k miles it feels like it just came from the factory. Tranny fluid changes are cheap maintenance.

 

I just changed it today, cost me 18 bucks. The fluid was pretty dark when it came out (well compared to the new fluid). Thanks for the reply. Feels alot better. The fluid had about 9-12 k on it.

 

The shifting is better?

Consensus here seems to be to change the gearbox oil every other engine oil change. A couple of MTFs seem to work well (some GM has been mentioned) but the Honda-branded oil is easy to find. Messy job for me under the car!

-- Chuck

 

Um, I really don't think I've heard anybody say that they do this? Unless their S's are weekend-only cars and only get 5k mi/yr or something. But otherwise I think the most frequent "common" interval is once per year, and that's typically for a daily driver.

 

I think every other oil change is a bit too much. But the shifting is alot better. Feels great now actually. It has not gotten stuck in two days