09 tc, manual

So I called a local trans shop for a quote to put in Eneos fluid in my manual. He said he wouldn't do a non-oem fluid especially since I'm still under warranty. Said he will put in whatever I want, but I should stick with the Toyota stuff.

Also, price to install was $79 but said he would drop the trans pan (didn't know there was one) and clean the magnet off and I think he said something about a seal or filter in there he would take care of. This was Cottman Transmission.

So is it safe to use Eneos or should I stick with stock? In winter its clunky shifting until it warms up and I want smoother shifts.

 

First of all,its easy to DIY check out the tech section,and anything is better then OEM,im personally using eneos myself,

i personally wouldnt let anyone would on my work besides myself so i know it will get done right,its very easy to change the tranny fluid,you dont have to drop anything,

 

i dont think you have a pan to drop, but if you did i wouldn't drop the pan just use the drain and fill plugs

 

We don't have an oil pan for the transmission(I believe most manual's don't) so this guy doesn't seem to know what he's doing. For fluid any 75w-90 gl-4 or gl-5 will do(I use eneos). Now honda's automatic transmissions are a different story. They require oem fluid or they won't work right.

 

The comment about Honda trannys needing to run oem fluid is not accurate. I have owned a 02 civic, and still have my 05 accord. I always use Royal Purple Synthetic fluid in my tranny and my engine. I even use their coolant additive. I understand that many people say the same thing but I have yet to be proven wrong. Another thing I bought my cars new and I did let them break in before I changed the fluids.

 

My experience is from a '86 and '98 accord. Service manual specified oem fluid(and only oem fluid) and there are plenty of storys on the internet of people having issues with non oem fluid. There is an addative that will transform regular atf into honda atf.

This only applies to automatics and they may have changed it.

 

DIY

 

when you look in the owner's manual for most car manufactuers, they will tell you to use genuine OEM fluid, now if you want to use OEM fluid, there is no problem with that, but other people prefer other brands, which are also good if not better than stock fluid, its all preference and no we dont' have transmission pans, i think he misunderstood you on that one, as for not really trusting an auto tech, if you trust one enough to work on your car, then yes go for it. It is a pretty simple DIY, but thats why people play to not have to worry about doing themselves

 

honda has bad auto trannys anyway

 

Actually most manuals specify a type of fluid for example:
And the service manual says that the transmisson fluid is "ATF type T–IV". However the 2001 honda civic manual sais:

 

Now that we can all agree on.

 

Ordered my Eneos 75w90 from amazon today. Cant wait to get it in. Will let you all know how it changes things.

 

Well. Eneos came in. I installed it. No real difference. It's 100 outside if that has anything to do with it.

edit; On second thought, there might be a slight improvement in gas let-off drive-train jerkiness. Seems a bit smoother when you let off the gas in gear. Then again, this could be psychological. Will update more as I notice things.

 

I used mobil 1 75w-90 and i like it i didnt notice a huge difference but i can tell it helped

 

the comment that anything is better than oem is the most common piece of tuner misinformation in the world, period. Yes, there are higher performance fluids, but this whole "aftermarket is always better than oem" is horse crap. I have seen more "better than oem" aftermarket junk tear up peoples cars than I every have oem.

Eneos is a great product though. The shop is basically telling you to cover your **** against "we wont warranty this because you dont use factory spec fluids" bs.

 

I agree 100% with engifineer on this one. There are good aftermarket products and there are bad ones. Eneos, Motul and Redline are all good aftermarket brands, in my opinion.

On *MOST* vehicles, the brand of the various fluids doesn't matter that much, but there are most definitely some specific cases where it matters. For example, there are different types of coolant that can't be mixed. I'm pretty sure Honda transmission fluid is one of these instances. I don't remember the details, but I think it has something to do with the sensors in the tranny not reading properly if the wrong type of fluid is used... I don't know, it was something like that. I'm not a Honda guy. I've never heard of anything like this with any Toyota/Lexus/Scion vehicles though. I'm pretty sure they all just use the standard products. I wouldn't be surprised if the shop told you that in order to protect the factory warranty, or the warranty that the shop offers on their work. Personally, I'd be pretty surprised to find a tech (at a dealership or any other shop) that would even notice that a different tranny fluid was used.

Go with what your comfortable with.

 

But but but but.... I agree completely. Aftermarket is not always better. Just because a company makes the claims, and people buy into it and then post on a forum that their butt feels a difference doesn't mean jack crap. I just wish this would translate onto this particular car culture, sadly I doubt this will happen.

 

Honda had bad transmissions in the 98- 2002 accord. That was because they didn't actually build their own transmissions.

I'm using m1 in my 91 accord. Still pulling strong at 220k and I even use nitrous (50 shot) sometimes.

The transmissions will blow if you're sitting in the car and auto-sticking. I have yet to have a problem (knock on wood) with my cb7's transmission.