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changing transmision fluids

I

IASM

Registered Member
Joined
14 October 2000
Messages
38
Location
seattle
I have had my 92 since aound 96 and it has around 20k miles. Its kept in a enviromenaly controled enviroment. I only drive it a couple of times a year and never in the rain.My question is the fluids. I change the oil every couple of years since there are years the car dosnt get drivin at all. I havnt changed the transmision oil for 11 years. I check it and it still looks clean and clear.Does anyone know the shelf life of oil when it not being subjected to use? Any other things i should look at.The car lookes like it came off the showroom.
Rod
Seattle
 
IASM said:
I have had my 92 since aound 96 and it has around 20k miles. Its kept in a enviromenaly controled enviroment. I only drive it a couple of times a year and never in the rain.My question is the fluids. I change the oil every couple of years since there are years the car dosnt get drivin at all. I havnt changed the transmision oil for 11 years. I check it and it still looks clean and clear.Does anyone know the shelf life of oil when it not being subjected to use? Any other things i should look at.The car lookes like it came off the showroom.
Rod
Seattle
Click to expand...
I have a low mileage 92 also in the same condition and driving conditions and have wondered about Honda's schedule and why. There are some really gifted primers out there and I am sure that we could all benefit from their input. For now I copied the following under the search of "Automotive and industrial Lubricants Product Shelf life". There is a little more info there. Hope this helps.

Product Shelf Life




In general, liquid lubricants(not greases) will remain intact for a number of years. The main factor affecting the life of the oil is the storage condition for the products. Exposure to extreme temperature changes, and moisture will reduce the shelf life of the lubricants.

It is important to note that engine/motor oil, and transmission oil industry performance requirements are changing rapidly. The product may be stored three years and still be intact, but may not meet the latest specifications for your vehicle.

As a general rule, the simpler the oil formulation, the longer the shelf life. The following is a guideline under protected conditions:

Product Shelf Life
Base Oils, Process Oils Three(3) years
Hydraulic Oils, Compressor Oils, General Purpose Lubricating Oils Two(2) years
Engine Oils and Transmission Oils Three(3) years
Industrial and Automotive Gear Oils Two(2) years
Metal Working and Cutting Oils One(1) year
Greases Two(2) years

The following are signs of storage instability in a lubricant:

Settling out of the additives as a gel or sticky liquid
Floc or haze
Precipitates/solid material
Color change or haziness
Water contamination in a lubricant can be detected by a "milky" appearance of the product.

A sign of grease deterioration is the separation of the liquid oil from the solid grease.



__________________
It is better to wear out.....Than to rust out!!
 
IASM said:
I have had my 92 since aound 96 and it has around 20k miles. Its kept in a enviromenaly controled enviroment. I only drive it a couple of times a year and never in the rain.My question is the fluids. I change the oil every couple of years since there are years the car dosnt get drivin at all. I havnt changed the transmision oil for 11 years. I check it and it still looks clean and clear.Does anyone know the shelf life of oil when it not being subjected to use? Any other things i should look at.The car lookes like it came off the showroom.
Rod
Seattle
Click to expand...

Hi Rod,

There likely isn't a perfect answer for the transmission fluid. Personally, I'd change the transmission fluid every 6-8 years and the engine oil annually. Oil is more straightforward because moisture is a real factor. I'm not sure if transmission oil is more or less susceptible to this. In general, engines have PCV valves, crankcase pressure release systems, etc. that interact more with the environment than a simple transmission case. Longer drives (30+ minutes of constant driving; i.e. 30+ miles) mitigate moisture build up in engine oil while infrequent, short drives tend to exacerbate the issue.

Being an in environmentally controlled environment coupled with Seattle's mild climate certainly helps as moisture build up (condensation) is caused by the cooling and heating of the associated parts. Simply driving a car (room temperature to very hot back down to room temperature), however, causes some moisture build up. An easy but imperfect way to check moisture build up in the engine is to examine the bottom of the oil cap - if there is a white substance there is significant moisture build up and you need to increase the frequency of oil changes or, better yet, take the car on longer drives more often.

Some manufacturers (I believe BMW does this on some models but don't quote me on it) completely seal the transmission in order to mitigate contaminants from entering the case so it is a legitmate issue. Hope that helps.
 
transmission fluid should be changed every 2 years, even if you put a half a kilometre on the car. You haven't changed yours for 11years??.. Change it immediately, put new coolant in there (blue stuff). Run it for 3 days, drain it AGAIN, and finally put the new coolant in.
 
nikey22 said:
transmission fluid should be changed every 2 years, even if you put a half a kilometre on the car. You haven't changed yours for 11years??.. Change it immediately, put new coolant in there (blue stuff). Run it for 3 days, drain it AGAIN, and finally put the new coolant in.
Click to expand...

To further muddy the waters have you ever compared maintenance schedules to other cars and manufacturers? A quick survey of my machines revealed that on a 2005 Honda CRV brake fluid is to be replaced every 3 years. On a 2005 Dodge Caravan ..never. On a 1991 Dodge Stealth never...manual trans fluid...never.
Next week I am changing my 92 NSX manual trans fluid and brake fluid as a precaution. I am not however checking my motor oil level at every fill up as the CRV manual recommends. Does anyone. I doubt it. I am just trying to make some sense out of maintenance schedules that seem to be all over the place. If you are tracking your car then that's a whole different ball game.
 
Sorry for being off topic, but I think you just won the "longest running member without a post" award.:eek:
 
do the transmission cocktail

I did this and my tran feels like butter.

1 qt GM Syncromesh
2 qts GM Syncromesh friction modified

trust me you will thanks me.

DAY AND NIGHT difference
 
Sportsmind4me said:
Sorry for being off topic, but I think you just won the "longest running member without a post" award.:eek:
Click to expand...

Wow, good observation, out of curiosity anybody clean out their transmission screen filter or even look at it when doing a transmission fluid change?
 
IASM said:
I have had my 92 since aound 96 and it has around 20k miles. Its kept in a enviromenaly controled enviroment. I only drive it a couple of times a year and never in the rain.My question is the fluids. I change the oil every couple of years since there are years the car dosnt get drivin at all. I havnt changed the transmision oil for 11 years. I check it and it still looks clean and clear.Does anyone know the shelf life of oil when it not being subjected to use? Any other things i should look at.The car lookes like it came off the showroom.
Rod
Seattle
Click to expand...

Dude here is a post I just put up...
NSX Prime: Trouble clutch or transmission? Not... (by UnitedNSX)
http://nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1622640
Hey guys,I wanted to share this with you all as it literally saved me thousands of dollars.A few days back I got in my perfectly running Nsx and it would not go into reverse and was very hard to get into first gear. It grinded a bit going into first but not to the point that I thought I would destroy the clutch pushing it into gear. Now reverse was another story, it grinded tremendously if I even tried and to the point I felt if I forced it my clutch and trans would possibly blow!Of course the first thing i thought was "crap I need a new $2,000.00 clutch!".A fellow prime member recommended that I flush the transmission fluid and refill it with synchromesh fluid.I took it in and had pepboys do this. They used 1 quart of the Lucas fluid and two quarts of a high end synchromesh fluid ( I believe it was Quaker), anyhow after driving the car for about 1 hr it ran perfect and slides in and out of gear like butter! Better than before no doubt!I can't believe that something like this would make such a huge difference and I highly recommend you do the same every 30,000 miles.What's $80 to keep your baby running great?? And especially to save you from spending $2,000 because most mechanics will want to sell you a new clutch before a new service that's 1/30th the price tag!If things change and it acts up again proving I do in fact need a new clutch I will update this post but as of today (3 days after the transmission flush) the car is still running excellent with no grinding etc when going into gears.Also beware there is no dip stick in the manual Nsx to check the fluid. You have to literally take the drain Knut out and put your finger into the hole to see if it's low. Even at this how do you know if it's old and needs to be replaced??? Just flush it and refill it to be safe :)

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So how do you change the transmission fluid? My NSX is a 1994, if that matters.
 
That GM Friction modified manual transmission fluid is like magic. After having had it recommended to me and using it in my 6-speed V-6 Accord I will be using it in every manual transmission vehicle I ever own again. No kidding, its that good. The stuff is expensive but its worth every single dime. My Accord had their typical 3rd gear problem, which is to say that the synchronizers were weak coming and going around 3rd and not a whole lot better in other gears either; it was notchy, clunky, difficult to get into gear, and ground metal at times. One change of the fluid and it has done none of those things since. Got that? One fluid change and now here we are 5 months later and not one single problem since. Its the only "mechanic in a can" that I have ever seen work in my life, but it works perfectly.
 
I changed to the Honda white cap stuff and it is like butter. Silky smooth even at the track. I'd say a change every few years is prudent.
 
Honda's recommendation is to change the transmission fluid on the NSX every 30K miles or two years, whichever comes first.

If you decide you want to stretch out the interval on a rarely-driven car, well, it's your car and you can do whatever you want with it. I wouldn't. Driving around on eleven-year-old transmission fluid is just asking for trouble. And you're risking a transmission costing thousands of dollars in order not to pay a very small amount for the fluid change. But do whatever you think is best.

Also, you haven't mentioned any of the other fluids. Brake fluid, for example, absorbs moisture over time, and can create major problems for the effectiveness of the brakes if you don't flush it from time to time. Honda's original recommendation was to flush brake fluid every two years; on their newer models their recommendation is every three years. If you have eleven-year-old brake fluid, that's a much bigger concern than eleven-year-old transmission fluid; if you can't shift gears, your car just breaks down by the side of the road, but if you can't stop, ... :eek:

Coolant is another fluid that needs changing from time to time, for all the same reasons. Eleven-year-old fluid can gunk up the system. And if you have a twenty-year-old timing belt, again, you're just asking for trouble. (This is related to coolant because when you change the timing belt, you normally change the water pump, and when you do that, you normally flush the coolant.) Similarly, if you have twenty-year-old cooling system hoses, there's a significant chance one will fail, stranding you at the side of the road when you don't expect it.

The good news is, the fluids only need changing once every few years, and the timing belt and cooling system hoses only need it every 6-7 years. So do yourself and your car a favor, and get that deferred maintenance taken care of NOW. Then you won't have to worry about anything failing for another few years.
 
shawn110975 said:
do the transmission cocktail

I did this and my tran feels like butter.

1 qt GM Syncromesh
2 qts GM Syncromesh friction modified

trust me you will thanks me.

DAY AND NIGHT difference
Click to expand...

I will thanks you now! My NSX does not have a shift problem but my 91 Dodge stealth(132.000mi) did. Occasionally grinding between 1st and 2nd. I did the cocktail and the difference was huge! No grinding and shifts better than when it was new. I will keep this cocktail on the ready in my bar of automotive refreshments. Thanks again!!
 
shawn110975 said:
do the transmission cocktail

I did this and my tran feels like butter.

1 qt GM Syncromesh
2 qts GM Syncromesh friction modified

trust me you will thanks me.

DAY AND NIGHT difference
Click to expand...

Why no go full Amsoil syncromesh?

No friction modifiers to add and pretty much all of the domestic guys have gone that route since it's an upgrade to them going from GM to Amsoil.

Buy going from Honda MTL to Amsoil directly you've skipped an upgrade level.
 

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