Transmission Service
 

I have a 2013 Fit. It was just suggested by my Honda dealer to have a 10 qt transmission service at 30,000. I have an automatic. The price is very high for it ($229.95) and wanted your feedback if I need to do it so soon. Thanks everyone.

i have a 2012 fit sport automatic. didn't change transmission fluid till the maintenance minder told me to @70k. i believe it's to be changed every 30k after that (changed again @100k).

the 09 (original owner) was AT that had about 57k miles. did not change AT fluid before trade. that said, 30K sounds waaaay to early.

If you think the dealer's new boat is more important than feeding your family, go right ahead. A drain and fill uses 3 quarts and is easier than an oil change.

That is not a routine service. Only time you would do a 10qt service is if you used the wrong fluid in the first place or your fluid is neglected and extremely dirty. And for peace of mind I change mine every 10-15k on all my Hondas.

Draining the fluid from the pan only removes about 2.6 qts or only about 40% of the fluid. Fill capacity for a rebuild is 6.18 qts.

The flush that dealers try to sell will get all the fluid out plus it's probably mixes with the old fluid during the process. SO it's possible it may require 8-10 qts. I'm not recommending a flush. I have never had one done and probably never will. I've never heard of anyone having a transmission that was caused by not flushing. In fact I have heard of people having transmission problems after a flush. Those were probably in cars with over 100k miles.

As mentioned you should wait until the maintenance minder tells you it's time to change. That's what the Honda shop manual recommends. A flush should not be needed.

At fluid change time you can follow this procedure and get most all the old fluid out.
Change it as recommended, drive a day or two and change it again, do the same one more time. It does waste a little fluid. I tried that on a Protégé 5 I used to own. Don't know if it helped anything though. Lots of cars do not recommend changing transmission fluid.


Clifton

I have a 2012 Fit. Dealer also recommended I change my transmission fluid at 30k for $80. They said it's what Honda recommends, even though I couldn't find it anywhere. I asked them how they do their transmission fluid change, and they said they just do a drain and fill once. I checked my transmission fluid, and it was a bit on the darker side, and I also didn't have ANY equipment to do work on my car at that time, so I just sucked it up and paid for it.

^^ X2 on this! Its very simple to do if you can access and loosen the ATF drain plug... Only taking approximately 3 qts, just have an extra quart on stand by for spillage or top off.

Its a bit of a catch 22 when asking about ATF with our Fits...

The older ATF Z1 models recommend either 60k miles or 2 years (whichever first) for the initial ATF drain and refill, then every 30k or 2 years after this.

The newer ATF DW1 factory filled models... there's no mention of ATF replacement other than either if prompted by the MMS or if the vehicle is towed behind a motor home every 30k/2 years.

Both of these notes were found in owners manuals in the maintenance minder section. The ATF Z1 version was found on Page 185 of the 2008MY manual and the ATF DW1 version on Page 197 in 2013MY manual.