Zen, Muse and the Art of Honda Transmissions

Honda's are the Diva’s of the mom vehicle world.

In particular they are very sensitive to the type of transmission fluid they are given.

Recently Gwen, my Honda Odyssey was given a sip of generic transmission fluid from a caring individual at one of those retail change-the-oil locations (who will remain anonymous for now). I was informed about the added fluid after the fact but didn’t think much about it.

A short time later Gwen began showing signs of distress, bucking at intersections, revving RPM (also known as transmission flaring) and not accelerating properly.

She’s not exactly young and she has seen over 180,000 miles of travel and local destinations but she’s family. She’s our transportation and travel companion. We’ve shared a lot of good memories.

The treatment for the toxic sip of generic transmission fluid is a drain of the fluid and a refill of the 3 quarts with authentic certified Honda transmission fluid, which we did.

Less than a month later on our trip to Monterey for the weekend, Gwen had a relapse and then seemed to be doing better while in Monterey. Then this morning while I was attempting to drive Red and Mick to school she seemed to be ready to give up the fight entirely.

Bucking and not accelerating the whole way to school, Gwen chugged through intersections I was sure we’d be stranded in. During the morning break, I took her to a nearby mechanic. Go figure, she drove just fine.

The mechanic wanted to charge me $225 just to put her on the diagnosis computer.

Give me a break!

I’m lucky enough to have a Honda certified mechanic in the family so I sat in their parking lot near tears and called him up.

He was aghast at the high fee for basically using a hand held device one can buy from Snap-On Tools for $75! He suggested I bring Gwen to him, which I did. So for the price of a tank of gas (pricey but less than $225!) to get there and back and $30 for 6 quarts of Honda certified transmission fluid (3 for today and 3 for reserve), a couple bucks for a slice of pizza, Gwen is running happy again.

The 3 extra quarts are to use next time Gwen needs them. She may need another transfusion because only half of the fluid gets changed at a time as half remains in the transmission somewhere while half is available to drain.

My family Honda Mechanic also states that transmission fluid in Honda’s should be changed about every 3rd oil change, automatic transmissions being the “weak link” in Honda’s. A dealer mechanic wont verify this, but after close to 30 years of servicing almost exclusively Honda’s, my mechanic knows them well.

And I sure as heck will take his word for it over the guy charging $225 just to look.

Oh, the relation to writing or Muse? Travel time baby! Long car rides are Zen for writers and I got 5 hour's worth today.