1995 Acura Legend

[JavierG]

Hi everyone. I just purchased a one owner 95 Acura Legend with 123k miles. There doesn't seem to be a leak of any kind and it doesn't seem to consume oil either. It runs nice but does seem to shift hard from first to second. Do you think I should just stick with my favorite oil (PYB) at the next OCI or should I go the Auto RX route first? BTW, I picked up a 5 quarts of Kendall HM w/Liquid Titanium last week for $1.45 qt and 5 quarts of Kendall Full Synthetic w/Liquid Titanium for $2.45 qt at one of my local Pep Boys (they had them on their discount table). I also picked up 5 quarts of PYB at $2.59 at Kmart during their sale last week. Thanks for any advice.

 

[wallyuwl]

Seems like a good find. Do you have service records from the previous owner?

If you don't have records or it hasn't been changed in the last 50k miles, the first thing I would do is change the transmission fluid. That is the first thing to do when you experience any shifting issues. Blow the money and get a full flush from the dealer. Including filter if equipped. I'm not familiar with that car so give specifics on fluid type, etc. You could suction out some tranny fluid and run some ARx for 1000 miles in the transmission before the flush. I highly recommend Lube Guard red bottle transmission addative with the transmission flush.

For oil, as long as you use something that meets the required spec you should be fine as long as your oil change intervals are reasonable (typically 5k for conventional and 7.5k for synthetic). If you can see through the fill hole and it doesn't seem gunked then no need for ARx, Kreen, MMO, etc. If you don't see anything through the fill hold, but want to do some cleaning anyway just to make yourself feel better, run PU or Redline through it for a couple 4-5k mile oil change intervals. The Kendall won't be quite as good at cleaning as these other two, but at a price like that I'd go for it. It is a good oil.

If you don't have records and/or they haven't been changed recently, you should also get the coolant, brake fluid, and power steering fluid changed.

 

[Billbert]

A lot of uninformed people used Dex/merc ATF, and got a hard shift. Switch out to Castrol Import multi-vehicle ATF and your shift quality will likely improve.

 

[eagle23]

Definitely change the ATF. That's what's causing the hard shifts. If you go to the dealer, make sure they use the new synthetic, not the old Z1.

If you can change engine oil yourself, you can do Honda/Acura's flush/fill. The drain plug is right there. You can add through the top at the "fill" bolt. Drain & refill, 3 times. It takes 3 qts each time, maybe a smidge more. Drain/refill, drive a few miles, then do it again two more times, same way. Driving around the block is more than enough...all you're doing is mixing the stuff. Percentage-wise you come out about 90%+ new fluid.

Valvoline Maxlife ATF is a good one, so I've heard, though I switched to Redline D4. I'm trying the Maxlife this time on my 2007 Acord V6. I am also adding a bottle of Lugegard Platinum, which I would also suggest. Both are available at NAPA, if one's convenient to you.

The PYB or whatever is fine; the engines aren't hard on oil.

 

[JavierG]

Wow! Thanks for all of the great advice guys. I'll definitely make sure to address my transmission fluid issue. Thankfully I have a NAPA, Autozone, Pep Boys, O'Reilly/Kragen, etc. all within a 2 mile radius. I'll let you know how it all works out.