Is there a consensus on using non OEM Honda HCF-2?

[Revving2Redline]

Hey BITOG family, I hope y'all are doing well. I've spent about a week or so doing some research on the matter but I can't seem to find a consensus on the matter. I'm about to hit 150k on my 2013 Accord Sport and I am getting ready to drain and fill the CVT... I know HCF-2 is what Honda is recommending but I refuse to believe that other alternatives out there aren't as good if not better.

The oil is gonna cost me like $70 from the stealership + the commute but I'm thinking of just getting the Castrol CVT oil off Amazon for like $25.

Share your wisdom with me.

I've used both Castrol transmax CVT Fluid and Redline with no issue. Redline is part of Phillips 66 who I think makes the factory CVT fluid for Honda. I have a 2017 Accord Sport and have almost 300,000 miles using Castrol till around 200,000k with BG CVT 303 additive as I had the tinniest of seeps I had thought but it never came to fruition. I found a better additive in the Hotshots Shift Restore and with the Redline CVT Fluid since then. We don't usually use the factory spec oil in our cars and I don't think this is any different. If it meets the requirements and it's from a viable brand then I am sure it's fine. I would be more worried about some of the viscosity ranges in the 40° and 100°C ratings. I liked the Castrol during the AZ promotion but then the price kept going up, bottles were leaking, etc and I kinda just figured at the price they were asking I could get a PAO based CVT Fluid for about the same money but I have a more shear resistant,longer interval product.

 

[PandaBear]

Stepped tranny design has been well understood for a long time and things have been pretty straight forward with few problems now. CVT seems to be still a bit of problems in the mod scene and I have seen Civic CVT slip if someone chipped their engine and floor it in street racing (stupid I know, but it is indeed a stress test). I haven't seen people slip their stepped automatic tranny street racing a modded engine so far on the road. This means there is not as much safety margin on CVT for fluid spec to make mistake on.

It really boils down to do you trust the aftermarket brand testing everything to like OEM, and whether you are going to drive it with corner cases (extreme temperature, extreme torque, extreme deceleration, forgetting to change the fluid once, etc).