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Wanted to share my experience changing the transmission fluid on my 2016 MDX with the ZF9 transmission:
The process itself is very easy. I bought 4 quarts of Honda ATF 3.1 from Honda; the same fluid from Acura costs more; I purchased the fluid from Majestic Honda and the total came out to $98 including shipping.
The only item you must have on hand is a scanner capable of reading transmission temperature. I own the Launch X431V.
All the drain/fill plugs use a 8mm Allen.
1) Jacked the car up on all four corners. Removed the front left tire to make accessing the level plug easier. Removed the fill bolt on top of the transmission before removing the drain plug underneath the transmission. The old fluid was very dark and didn’t look good at all after 49,000 miles.
2) After draining the fluid, poured in 3.5 quarts using the top plug as per the manual. Started the car and put it on Service mode to disable the traction control and manually shifted the transmission while on jack stands per the instructions found here and online. The fluid took a while to get up to the recommend 104*F; then removed the level plug and no fluid was dripping; needed to add .3qts more to start seeing the fluid drip from the level check hole/plug. I used the top fill plug to add more fluid.
The process itself is super easy; only problem is accessing the transmission temperature.
No way I can see a dealer charging $350 to do 30 minutes worth of work and $90 worth of fluid.
Hope this helps
The process itself is very easy. I bought 4 quarts of Honda ATF 3.1 from Honda; the same fluid from Acura costs more; I purchased the fluid from Majestic Honda and the total came out to $98 including shipping.
The only item you must have on hand is a scanner capable of reading transmission temperature. I own the Launch X431V.
All the drain/fill plugs use a 8mm Allen.
1) Jacked the car up on all four corners. Removed the front left tire to make accessing the level plug easier. Removed the fill bolt on top of the transmission before removing the drain plug underneath the transmission. The old fluid was very dark and didn’t look good at all after 49,000 miles.
2) After draining the fluid, poured in 3.5 quarts using the top plug as per the manual. Started the car and put it on Service mode to disable the traction control and manually shifted the transmission while on jack stands per the instructions found here and online. The fluid took a while to get up to the recommend 104*F; then removed the level plug and no fluid was dripping; needed to add .3qts more to start seeing the fluid drip from the level check hole/plug. I used the top fill plug to add more fluid.
The process itself is super easy; only problem is accessing the transmission temperature.
No way I can see a dealer charging $350 to do 30 minutes worth of work and $90 worth of fluid.
Hope this helps