SEAFOAM TRANS TUNE just added to Fragile Honda 5-speed Automatic Transmission

[discountdon]

Originally Posted by Kira
Forgive me. What year is this neglected Honda? Gettin' it cleaner is Job 1. TIA for the 1,000 mile report.

VAGUE COMPARISON: I used Maxlife Dex/Merc LV (full synth.) for 5 D&Fs in an AW55-50 in an '07 Volvo over 30K of ownership and felt good all along the way.
The 6th D&F was Idemitsu conventional. It felt smoother.
I'm thinking "body" works sometimes.

NOTE: I run LubeGard (red) at the recommended dosage -1 oz. per system quart- at all times.


Model year '04. What's interesting was that Honda basically used the same transmission with minor variations across their 3.5L V6 engined lineup of Accord, Odyssey, PIlot, and Ridgeline. Many early trannys blew from the extra curb weights, passengers, cargo, and towing.

Heat is the #1 killer of trannys, more weight & load equals more heat.

Sorry I was too busy with work, sleep, laziness and worrying about the CVirus to reply. I'm currently ~1,400miles into my Auto-RX Plus treatment in my transmission, fluid is super clear and pink (from all the previous cleaning I did), shifts 100% perfectly. I have 3/4 more D&F to look forward to soon - still cheaper than servicing at an indy shop... it's a saga or a tragedy depending how you look at it. I remember emailing the proprietor & inventor of Auto-RX, Frank adamantly stated to follow the directions EXACTLY: 6oz & 1000 miles! If one was to run AX on a dirty tranny, then yes I would listen! I'm at 7oz and way past the recommended 1000 miles - but then again I have super clean tranny and I probably have OCD.

There was this very old reply on this forum where a longtime member treated his 2 Dodge Caravan's trannys with AX for rural USPS mail courier service, can't find the thread just now, but what he was saying was he purchased the vehicles used at over 100,000+ miles cheap and could get over 300,000+ miles on them - while many trannys of the same ilk pre-maturely blew from just soccer mom duty, don't remember if he added a tranny cooler to them.

Thanks for your feedback on experience with LV fluid vs fluid with more "body", that may be because of either the viscosity or the elemental makeup of the Idemitsu...

For example Valvoline Multi-Vehicle MaxLife can be considered as a LV fluid. Valvoline Import ATF is also Group III full synthetic (Group III) with a higher viscosity, but is lacking the MaxLife seal conditioners... Yes their elemental makeup are a bit different. I was thinking of mixing something like Lucas ATF Transmission Conditioner or even Lucas Transmission Fix to MaxLife ATF to bump up viscosity at a ratio determined by a viscosity calculator - might not be the brightest of ideas...

You can run LG all the way up to 2 oz per quart per the manufacturer.

Make sure you change the filter if any, I plan to change mines after I D&F out all the Auto-RX I have with a WIX (see WIX website for your application):

 

[ryanschillinger]

I have a 2007 pilot 2wd with the same 5 speed automatic. I generally use valvoline Maxlife atf in my automatics, but I’m normally a Toyota guy. I did the cooler line flush every 30k on my 2013 Corolla. Now my brother owns it and I just flushed it for him again at 150k if I remember the mileage correctly. Still shifts like new. Did the cooler line flush on a high mileage Camry and it worked just fine also. Is there a reason against doing the cooler line flush on these Honda automatics? I see answers both ways online. I pull the hoses off the trans cooler and attach clear tubing and run that to a gallon jug. Let the vehicle idle and run it through the gears. Jug fills up about halfway, I pour about half the gallon of maxlife in and repeat this until the fluid comes out clean. I would like to do a full fluid exchange with the maxlife to see how it performs in this car. I will probably add lubegard red as plenty of positive reviews on it.

 

[ryanschillinger]

I did the cooler line flush with maxlife and added a Hayden 677 trans cooler. Definitely improved shift quality but when cold it still has a little delay going into forward gear. I didn’t install the LG but figure it’s worth a try. Not sure if I should use red or platinum.

 

[bruce381]

you have not tried all the snake oil additive yet keep going or change sensors and get it over with.

 

[MolaKule]

Anytime a solvent-type cleaner is used the sump pan should be dropped and wiped of particles, the filter replaced or strainer cleaned, and the fluid should be replaced in total.

The exception might be LubeGard RED, but even with that, at least one drain and refill should be done.

 

[HangFire]

Anytime a solvent-type cleaner is used the sump pan should be dropped and wiped of particles, the filter replaced or strainer cleaned, and the fluid should be replaced in total.

No sump pan on this beast.

Fortunately for the OP, the '04 has an relatively easy-to-change external trans filter. My '05 had a somewhat harder to change internal element filter, later they eliminated everything but the very internal filter.

 

[HangFire]

I did the cooler line flush with maxlife and added a Hayden 677 trans cooler. Definitely improved shift quality but when cold it still has a little delay going into forward gear. I didn’t install the LG but figure it’s worth a try. Not sure if I should use red or platinum.

you have not tried all the snake oil additive yet keep going or change sensors and get it over with.

Shift sensors usually affect 3/4 and 4/5 shifts.

Not going into drive when cold is either wrong ATF, or (for me and my 05 Pilot) the early signs of transmission death.

 

[ryanschillinger]

Bummer. Other than that it shifts nicely. It just takes a little longer to go into drive than it seems it should. No budget for a new trans so if others are getting good results with snake oil I’m not opposed to trying it. All I’ve done is the fluid flush and install a trans cooler. I don’t see any way to change a filter on this one.