Earlier tonight, I performed an early CVT Drain and Refill on a 2017 Honda CR-V with 19,570 miles.
The manual advises that a drain and refill should take 3.9 quarts for the FWD model and 4.5 quarts for the AWD model. The one I was working on was a FWD model.
I drained the fluid after a 40 mile highway drive, so the fluid was very hot. The fluid was allowed to drain for about 25 minutes. Here is what drained out:
Almost 5 quarts came out. While it is possible that this fluid has some serious thermal expansion, 20% seems unlikely.
I refilled with 4 quarts (spec is 3.9 quarts), idled the car for about 7 minutes (until the coolant temp gauge read normally), and performed the fluid level check.
Much to my surprise, the fluid level was pretty much spot on. The only conclusion that I can come to, is that the CVT Fluid was either overfilled from the factory, or someone decided to top it off during PDI when the transmission was still cold.
Based on this experience, I strongly encourage everyone to NOT rely on measuring the amount of fluid drained to dictate how much fluid to add. It is possible that the fluid level was wrong the factory. If you are unable to properly check the fluid level, you should not be doing the fluid change.
The manual advises that a drain and refill should take 3.9 quarts for the FWD model and 4.5 quarts for the AWD model. The one I was working on was a FWD model.
I drained the fluid after a 40 mile highway drive, so the fluid was very hot. The fluid was allowed to drain for about 25 minutes. Here is what drained out:
Almost 5 quarts came out. While it is possible that this fluid has some serious thermal expansion, 20% seems unlikely.
I refilled with 4 quarts (spec is 3.9 quarts), idled the car for about 7 minutes (until the coolant temp gauge read normally), and performed the fluid level check.
Much to my surprise, the fluid level was pretty much spot on. The only conclusion that I can come to, is that the CVT Fluid was either overfilled from the factory, or someone decided to top it off during PDI when the transmission was still cold.
Based on this experience, I strongly encourage everyone to NOT rely on measuring the amount of fluid drained to dictate how much fluid to add. It is possible that the fluid level was wrong the factory. If you are unable to properly check the fluid level, you should not be doing the fluid change.
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