Witch automatic transmission oil

[Crazy Gery]

I have to change the automatic transmission oil of mine '86 Accord 2.0 ex aut. Do i have to use the original Honda oil??

[MessyHonda]

yes the best thing is to use honda automatic fluid

[Crazy Gery]

Ok, Tanx!!

[import racer]

Well the manual says Dexron ll automatic transmission fluid.

[DBMaster]

I used Dexron II for the first few years of the car's life and then Mobil 1 synthetic ATF only. The transmission gave out at 300,000 miles. The rebuilt unit comes from Howard Engineering, which specializes in Honda transmissions and they state that I should only use Honda Z1. It runs for the same 30,000 miles between changes and costs the same, or less, than the Mobil 1 ATF. So, there you have it. Z1 didn't exist when these cars were new, but it is a specifically formulated product. Pay now or pay later, right?

[AccordEpicenter]

ATF Z1 is a friction modified fluid that is made to work with honda transmissions. You CAN use dex II/III compatable fluids but they tend to shift harder.

[DBMaster]

^^Very true - whatever "friction modified" really means. The company that my mechanic uses for Honda transmissions has an interesting web site.

http://www.hecreman.com/transmissions.html

When my tranny died I called him and asked if there was a transmission shop in the area he could recommend. He said that NO shop in this area could properly rebuild a Honda slush-box. I was amazed that the rebuilt unit I ended up with, while very expensive, shifted like a much newer unit. The fact that they recommend the Z1 fluid means a lot. I was paying $8 a quart for Mobil 1.

[ecogabriel]

Dexron III (which replaced Dexron and Dexron II) should work fine. But a more advanced fluid would make it shift more smoothly - I noticed it when I added an additive (lubegard)

http://lubegard.com/~/C-177/LUBEGARD...ATF+Supplement

I am not a fan of additives but I got the recommendation from the NAPA store I usually go. I had tried first the additive for manual trans and it was good - I could feel the difference in shifting in my Civic.

However, with the price of fluid + additive, next time I'd do the Honda fluid. I should add the trans cooler I have sitting around and an inline filter - our transmissions have no filter other than a plastic mesh. Lost posted something about adding a filter in the cooling lines; I wonder if someone else tried it