Acura TL rear diff questions

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Got a B16 code on the maintenance minder at 11300 miles. This means oil change and rear diff fluid change.

A bit of a pain due to location, but quite an easy job.

11300 miles seems a bit early for changing the rear diff fluid. For people that own Acuras with SH AWD is this the usual interval? The used fluid looked clear and the magnetic drain plug had only a very small amount of fine particles attached.

By the way, I used Acura DPSF fluid per the manual. I can't seem to locate a synthetic alternative.
 
How does the SH-AWD system perform the torque-vectoring? Is it a series of clutches?

BTW I have never seen an alternative to that fluid, but you're lucky that it's cheap.
 
I change ours RDX's every time we do a transmission fluid change which is every 25K (km's). I Don't follow the MM on that. I only follow the MM for engine oil changes....

The SH-AWD is a superb system, sucks that they killed it on the current gen RDX.

Deets on SH-AWD - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SH-AWD
 
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Originally Posted By: dparm
With fluid only costing about $9/L, I'd say just change it out.


No doubt I will change it when the code comes up. Just seeing if this is a common interval. Not sure $9 per quart is such a bargain.
 
11300 miles seems really early for a driveline fluid, but who knows, if they made the system really trash the fluid, it could just be the case...
 
It isn't too strange. My mother's 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee called for 12,000 mile changes for the gear oil if the car was operated in extreme conditions.

Also, $9/L isn't so bad when you consider that the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee needs synthetic 75w90 which is usually $15-$20 per quart.
 
Our MDX with the VTM-4 system calls for rear unit changes every 30k miles, but with the first one at 15k miles no matter what. It's very specific that the first one be performed at 15k miles. These systems don't seem to be all that hard on fluid (they're simply AT type wet clutches), but they may be sensitive to fluid viscosity or something like that.
 
when SH-AWD first come out, they were filled with z1 for both AT and rear differentials. I had use Amsoil ATF in rear differentials since 12000km, that was before Honda/Acura spec ATF-DW1 for AT and DPSF for rear differentials. 2 year with lots of short trip in winter, the car has 36000km now and no issue so far.
SH-AWD is great! it's very much transparent, and you can only feel it when push the car harder. to see it in action, check this video, with ice on one side of pavement.... enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJZxVefta68
 
I am confused about how the MM works with the sh-awd rear differential. I had my oil changed at 4500 miles and had the mm reset. The mm at that point had only gotten down to 30 per cent.
Had a second oil change at 9000 and had the mm reset to 100 per cent a second time. Did these two oil changes throw off the MM keeping track of when the diff fluid needs to be changed?
 
for regular DIYers, the console display oil life, and sometimes alarm for required services approaching, such as B123, or B12 etc. when you reset mm with services code display in the console, it will reset the one being displayed. if there is no special code being display, a reset only change the oil life value.
dealership has tool reset each services they performed, even when there is no code being display on console.
hope this helps.
 
IIRC our mdx calls for it every 15k, it's the system prior to sh-awd. we had the simpler system on a crv--- the true dual pump system, and when the fluid got old, you knew it. and the maintenance interval was pretty realistic. From what I can tell, these systems slip the clutches. In the cr-v, when the fluid wore it would bind and shudder, not good for clutch wear, so I suspect the additive pack gets shredded pretty good by the time it's interval is up, at least in the dual pump system... controlled slippage. that was a 60k interval IIRC. For our MDX to ask for every 15k, I suspect the clutches are seeing frequent partial application, and I'd wager it's rough on the add pack in the fluid.

I'd change it without hesitation.

And no there's no listed substitute. I figure if there were an easy swap, amsoil, among others, would have something listed. I doubt it's a viscosity or friction coefficient thing--- I would suspect it's highly fortified with limited slip goo.
 
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