Car: 97 Civic CX

I had to rotate the tires, anyway, so I decided to change the tranny fluid. It does help to remove the right (passenger side) tire if you don't need to rotate them, since it makes getting to the plugs a bit easier.

MT fluid: Because I heard and saw too many conflicting bits of advice as to what to use, I played it safe and bought some Honda MT fluid at the dealership for $3.75/quart. The tranny needs 2 quarts, only.

Getting the plugs out: Unless you are as strong as the incredible Hulk, you will probably need a pipe or large box-end wrench to go over the handle of your breaker bar or ratchet wrench.The drain plug is a 3/8-inch recessed square, so no socket is required. ALWAYS make sure you can loosen the fill plug before draining the fluid.

Plug washers: Each plug uses an aluminum washer; the fill plug's is much larger than the drain plug's. The parts guy gave me a fill plug washer, indicating that the drain plug washer rarely needs to be replaced. However, I found that the drain plug washer had a raised lip, both on the outside periphery and on the inside (near the I.D.). I therefore sanded the raised lips off using a beltsander and wet&dry paper on a flat surface. Do NOT simply reassemble an aluminum washer that is not flat and parallel. You could end up with a leaky plug.

Pumping in the fluid: It REALLY helps to get ahold of a fluid pump. I have one that I bought from Amsoil and it comes with a few different length extension tubes that allow it to pump fluid from the bottom of almost any length container. It does help to have a helper hold the tube in the fill hole while you pump in the MT fluid, but is not absolutely necessary. I guess you can always gravity-feed the stuff in from the top of the engine bay, but the pump really comes in handy if you HAD to do it, yourself.

Torque: I have a 1/2-inch drive torque wrench and couldn't quite get it to fit over the hex filler plug head, so I tightened that one by feel. The service manual calls for 36 lbs-ft (I believe) and I was able to use the torque wrench on the drain plug, using a 1/2-to-3/8 drive adapter.

By the way, torque for the wheels is 80 lbs-ft and having a big torque wrench helps alot.

Dave

 

I wanted to do the same to my 95 turbo'd dx. A macanic told me to stick with what i had, the high mileage tranny might not like the new fluid. Did you have any trouble afterwards?