Transmission Flush: Dealer or Jiffy Lube??

In my 98 Honda Civic of 168,000 miles, the last time I changed the fluid
was around 118,000.

Is is appropriate to go to the dealer, or for cost-effective reasons, can
I use the Jiffy Lube-type of place?

 

you can go any where
just make sure they use OEM HONDA FLUID..
i think it cost about 7bucks a litre from honda
you will need about 3Ls

 

The manual for my wife's CR-V says to have the dealer drain the fluid,
replace with HONDA GENUINE FLUID, drive the car, and repeat a total of three
times.

What does your Owner's Manual say regarding transmission service? If they
don't recommend a flush, and you haven't abused the transmission, then I
doubt that a flush is warranted.

Earle

 

-----------------------------------------

'Flush' and Honda 'automatic' should not be used in the same sentence.
You need to drain-n-fill you tranny with Honda Z1. You really could do
it yourself, or buy the Z1 and have 'your' mechanic do it. Since it was
done 50,000 miles ago, you could probably just do it once or twice
(assuming it was done three times at the last service). Check your
invoice, take about 3.5 quarts per drain.

You could have Jiffy lube do it once, and do it again next oil change,
and once again at next oil change . . . . .
'Curly'

 

Use the dealer, and have the dealer do only the operations specified by
the factory service manual.

For example, for my Odyssey Honda says to flush the transmission by
doing a series of four drain-fill-drive routines. Period.

You will ruin your transmission by taking it to Jiffy Lube and having
them do a flush.

Question: why do you want a flush? You don't. You simply want a drain
and fill. It's still better off to use a dealer, or to use a local
mechanic you trust. Why? Because you want them to use Honda-brand
tranny fluid from the dealer. Anything else will--you guessed it--cause
problems.

 

With Jiffy Lube, you will have to bring them the proper fluid. What are the
odds against Jiffy Lube using HG fluid, even if they swear up and down that
they will do so?

Earle

 

If they change it at all.

 

If you use Jiffy Lube, get the fluid from the Honda dealer and tell
them you want to watch them change it. If they give you any bullshit
about insurance regulations or any other reason why they can't do
this, take the fluid and find an independent mechanic. Better yet,
just start asking around now to find a good independent.

 

Maybe people should just print out all these articles
reporting on Jiffy Lube not changing fluids when its people
claimed to have done so, and present them to management when
making the request to watch.

It seems like Jiffy Lube should be grateful for any customer
right now.

 

I wouldn't tust any of thoes fast lube place's with anything but oil,
and even then you have to find a good one. I've had numerous problems
with pricing. They say it's going to cost X amount and it ends up being
X PLUS some other sum of money for some odd reason!

I once had a place tell me I needed a radiator flush and that if I
didn't I could "seriously dammage my engine." I had just had the water
pump replaced AND the radiator flushed about 6 months prior to this.
When I told this to the worker I got a "I've been caught!" Look. She
didn't say anything after that and just ran my card for the oil change.
Was she trying to take advantage of me or what?

It's hard to find a trusted workshop. Just make sure they are using to
spec oils and go from there.

 

Changing ATF on my accord is really fast - just change it after driving
for 20 miles or so to get it hot - turn the wheel all the way to the
right and there is the ATF drain plug - a 3/8" drive fits into the
square drive hole - tap the end of the socket wrench to break it loose.
ATF really gets hot and it tends to gush out - will severely burn you
- I just keep turning till it comes out and pull my hand away.

With regard to tranny flushes - I doubt they get all of the flush fluid
out of your tranny - I would guess this stuff is little more than
kerosene with something in it to color it or make it smell like
something else.

Flushing is probably a bad idea if the flushing fluid is anything but
the recommended ATF for that tranny.

I change my honda ATF at 30K - the recommended interval of 70K is too
long - got a warning light after first 60K and I only do highway
driving.

 

-------------------

(power) flushing is actually forbidden by Honda, since the internal
filter will get back-flushed throughout the tranny when the boob at
Monkey Lube hooks the hoses up wrong. Murphy was right . . .

Honda's Z1 is the only acceptable ATF to use, otherwise you spend a
bunch of money later replacing the Dexron with Z1 (or replacing the
tranny). :-(

'Curly'

 

Jiffy lubes do not have a very good tract record on transmission
service.
Lot of them use the same barrell of fluid fit all with a bottle of dope
stuff.
DIY it or Dealer or A good repair shop.
As said Honda uses special fluid and sometimes special service
procedures.
MT

 

For **** sake, use either a trusted dealer or a trusted independent
mechanic. Have a look at this before you go to a Jiffy Lube type place:

http://www.nbc4.tv/mechanicinvestigation/index.html

John

 

BTW, if you go to a Jiffy Lube and they actually do the work they will

1) Use a "universal" fluid, not the correct Honda fluid.

and

2) Use a machine flush and solvent, which Honda says not to do.

John

 

99.99% odds they will use the wrong stuff.

Why anyone goes to these places is a mystery to me.

"There's a sucker born every minute."

John

 

I know for a fact that Jiffy Lube really did change the fluid in my Dodge
Durango... ;-(

I took my Durango to Jiffy Lube for a transmission fluid and filter
replacement. I was changing the oil on it myself, but I couldn't figure
out how I was going to drain a transmission with no drain plug without
making a mess. They didn't have a filter in stock. Kind of odd, I see
lots of Durangos on the road. The local parts house brought one over.
Wrong one, obviously. Some phone calls, dealer-only part. Then they had
to get authorization to buy a dealer-only part... 2000 Dodge Durango 4WD
must be rare. Somebody goes to the dealer and gets the filter. My car has
been on the lift for two hours, causing quite the service backup for the
sole remaining lift. The manager is talking about refilling the
transmission so they can drive my car off the lift when the filter arrives
from the dealer.

Finally, it looked like they were all done. I heard the car start. I saw
the backup lights come on and go off. I instantly new something was wrong.
On fast idle after having cooled down, I didn't see the body lurch at all.
A few more backup light on/off cycles, and the engine was shut off.

A few more tries, with different people looking on. Off comes the pan for
the third time. Something about the filter was in backwards. Reassembled,
everything seemed to be okay. The "best" they could do for my troubles was
to give me 10% off the price of the service.

They insisted no damage had been done to the transmission. I pointed out
that it had been run for at least a couple of minutes with no fluid. They
insisted that it hadn't engaged, so no problem. I had them make note on
the receipt that it had been run with no fluid for five minutes.

Of course, 50,000 miles later, if the transmission fails, they will deny
any connection... but who knows. I have over 300,000 miles on a Chevy
automatic transmission. If the Dodge fails at 110,000, is it inferior
quality Dodge materials, or a lack of lubrication 80,000 miles ago?



Next time, I had my wife take the Durango to the local tire shop.
They changed the engine oil, drained the transmission, oops, no filter.
Refill the transmission. Order part, no dealer in town. Take it back,
replace filter, refill transmission. Two days later, it won't go into
reverse. Take it back, add some fluid. A little while later, stalling,
unrelated, methinks. I take it to the dealer, transmission clutch pack is
shot, not releasing, killing the engine. That's $200 plus labor, some other
service done anyway, $800 bill. As I type this, that seems pretty clearly
like I should have taken it back to the tire place and claimed some cost
against them, and I can't remember why I didn't. I think it was over
10,000 miles later.


A friend called and asked where she should take her car for some diagnostic
repair. All I could tell her was the dealer. I get newer cars serviced so
infrequently, and when they do go bad, it seems like the independents can't
solve the problem, and the dealers can, immediately, that there's just no
point. The dealer is $90 per hour, the independent is $60, but he wastes
time in diagnosis. I take my old truck to the local guy for things I
could do myself, but don't want to, like changing the radiator. Anything
that requires skill, it's off to the dealer.

 

<snip>


Both of them probably didn't use the correct fluid either. Most chain
stores use some BS universal transmission fluid and not the correct one
for the vehicle. For modern vehicles, GM uses Dexron III, Ford Mercon
V, Chrysler D4, and most others also have proprietary fluids.

Find a good dealer or an independent SPECIALIST to service your cars.

John

 

And the flushing method recommended by Honda is quite simple: drain,
fill, drive (2-4 miles), drain, fill, drive, drain, fill, drive, drain,
fill.

 

How much did you save by not buying the Honda fluid? LOL.