Fluids?

[grassmunk]

First let me say hi! I’m new to these forums, with the economy and my Nissan Murano costing me more in repairs than the car was worth my wife and I decided to become a 1 car family (for the time being). Since I’ve been put in charge now of taking care of her Fit I’ve got a question.

My wife got her 2007 Fit Sport sometime early 2007. Since then she’s only put 6,000 miles on the car. As we get close to the 10,000 mile marker we’re wondering what fluids we should be replacing?

A lot of the fluids say they should be replaced after 2-3 years but barely using the car for those years there's very little usage. Can those fluids go bad after 3 years or should we just follow the mileage recommendation?

[sonicsc1]

make sure oil by using the oil % which if you press the trip odometer . i think you should be fine i have 43000 all i do have done is oil have manual so changed that at 30,000 and tires check them air presure and for cracks which would mean dryrot but i dont think you should have no problems these are low maint cars.every one else will chime in welcome to fit freaks .

[polaski]

While you can go a long time without changing the fluids just remember that part of that reason is to take out contaminates and water. This is especially true for brake fluid which gets very hot in stops and absorbs any water it comes in contact with, which is why they say replace every 3 yr regardless of mileage. It's not a bad idea to do clutch fluid at the same time for the same reason.

You can usually follow the manual's recommendations unless you live in very hot/ very cold/ very dirty environment, or make lots of short trips (mainly pertains to oil). I have the dirty and cold so my oil is done every 4k summer/ 3k winter and the tranny fluid every 15k.

At least we don't have power steering fluid to worry about. Just coolant, oil, tranny fluid, brake, and clutch if you got it.

Don't skimp on the tranny fluid change, manual or auto. Use the Honda fluid and do it when you're supposed to or sooner.

[Texas Coyote]

Yep.... What Polaski said.

[secondspassed]

Do you guys recommend using the approved synthetic transmission fluid?? Amsoil, I think?
I'm at 40k and I need to change mine soon.

[Koi]

Only use Honda transmission fluid unless you're absolutely sure a high quality brand like Amsoil works.

[Texas Coyote]

Originally Posted by secondspassed

Do you guys recommend using the approved synthetic transmission fluid?? Amsoil, I think?
I'm at 40k and I need to change mine soon.

I have yet to put enough miles on my car to change the fluids other than engine oil and have been satisfied with Mobile 1 5W20 I am a strong believer in the benefits of synthetics and consider Amsoil to be the best..... I used their racing oil in a highly modified Harley Shovel Head engine 20 years ago and had friends that used Amsoil in Hondo Goldwings.... I took my Harley apart all of the time to change cams, pistons or whatever for performance gains and was always astounded at how clean the inside of it was and the lack of visible wear or signs of scoring there was.... I used it in the transmission as well and checked it out for wear and showed it to a dealer mechanic at 50000 miles and he said it looked brand new....Amsoil is great stuff.

[polaski]

While Honda may say that Dexron III will work in a pinch in their automatics, it does not have the same concentration of friction modifier. Those are the compounds that cheat shear friction; to make a fluid that will lubricate the bearings like an oil yet still allow the clutches to stick, they add friction modifier to the oil to lower its shear resistance under very high pressure.

IIRC the concentration in Dexron III is less, which would lead to sloppy shifts, higher transmission temperature, and excessive clutch wear. Dexron VI is just way too thin.

You're changing it once every 30k miles and it costs less than $30. Stick with the Honda stuff.

As for the manual tranny fluid, you're not going to find anything better than the OEM stuff. Conventional motor oil doesn't have the friction modifier (read: grinding gears), synthetic oil has too high a shear resistance so the synchros slide like butter (read: it just won't shift), and most every other manual transmission fluid on the market save GM Syncromesh is made for trannies that take 75w90 gear oil (read: high viscosity ruins the bearings). Anything made for a typical Ford manual tranny won't work because they take Mercon ATF (odd but true) and is way way too thin for a Honda manual.

As for the engine oil, I would run Amsoil in a heartbeat if it wasn't so darn expensive. I change my oil too much for that. The dust in the air here always ruins my day.

[kenchan]

all i would change is the engine oil and just circulate the a/c very well.

also check the battery to make sure it can still hold a good charge. my weekend cars are 99% of the time plugged into the wall with a battery manager to maintain top charge in float mode.

otherwise check your tire psi and i think you're good to go.

hey, i was a one car family way back when too. worked out well for us to save up for our house.

[p nut]

You won't see any benefits from running Amsoil in the transmission over the good ol' OEM fluid. I do use Amsoil for the engine, but stick to OEM for the transmission. If I ever get back into racing, I'll look into synthetics again.

I would, however, avoid Mobil1. I have some bad analysis results from their motor oils and have not been impressed. Used their stuff exclusively for years until two years ago when I found that they changed their formula and their quality has gone down the gutter. If going synthetic, stick to Amsoil. I'm currently testing out Valvoline Synthetic in my truck to see how it holds up.

[secondspassed]

Thanks for the advice guys, I think I'm gonna stick to the Honda fluid for my AT. I'm still debating whether I want to do it myself. If I do, my main issue is knowing how much to put in. Unfortunately, this is also my main issue with paying someone else to do it!