THonda

It's time for my 04' Pilot transmission fluid change (47K) and I wanted to find out the procedures and necessary kit. I purchase the fluid from the dealer but didn't know if I needed anything else. If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it.

wcooksey

1st: The 2003 Pilots had a transmission related recall on them. If your 2004 did as well, then the tranny fill plug under the hood (toward the back-center of the engine compartment) will have been taken up by an extra hose the dealership "rigged up" to pump extra fluid to the tranny as part of the recall. This looked like a b*tch to take off and use to fill the tranny, so...

In this case. . .make darn sure you have a means of filling the tranny via the skinny little tranny dip-stick pipe first, then empty your tranny, and refill with about 3.2 quarts (I don't think the 2004 is any different). Make sure your using the TRANNY DIP STICK, and not the OIL DIP STICK!

If your didn't have the recall, and you can just get a funnel with a hose at autozone, remove the tranny fill plug on top, empty your tranny from the bottom, and fill via the nice hole Honda has provided.

William

THonda

Thanks. I'll take a stab at it this weekend. I'll also check to see if there was a recall related issue with the 2004. Thanks again.

AcuraFanatic

Honda (and me personally) doesn't recommend flushing the transmission fluid because it will bring back up metal particles into the transfer case. Honda recommends tranny fluid changes every 30,000 miles on your Pilot I believe.

All you need is to pick up is Honda ATF from the dealer (the amount you need will be in the owners manual) and just drain and refill it like you would with oil.

sleezye

its not any harder to fill up if the oil jet kit is installed all u have to do is take out a 12mm bolt instead of a 17 and pull the hose out atf is 3.3 qts

AcuraFanatic

Oh wow I'm an idiot :doh: I gotta stop working so many hours. h:

THonda

This job sounds easy enough, but I'm having some reservations about this oil jet kit. Is there some kind of service bulletin or manual that will illustrate this? Or is it simply a look & see where the OJ kit is? Sorry if I'm sounding retarded. I looked for recall info on the 2004 and there wasn't. So I'm not sure if there was a kit installed or not. Somebody please advise.

THonda

Ok. I did it this past weekend. It wasn't bad, but that skinny dipstick hole was a small pain. Thanks for your help.

sasasf

Here is how to change the transmission fluid on a Honda Pilot

I just did this on an 04 Pilot that had the transmission recall contraption attached and it was not a problem.

Here's how:

No need to remove the engine cover or anything, just look about 12 inches directly behind the transmission dipstick hole and you will see a bracket holding a metal tube bent at a 90 degree angle that runs down into the tranny with a rubber hose attached. (I tried to attach a picture)

1) Remove the one 12MM bolt that holds the bracket/tab/metal tube part in place.

2) Once this one bolt is out, you can grab the metal tube where the hose is attached and wiggle the whole part. Pull metal tube straight up as you wiggle. There's an o ring that seals this so rotate/wiggle it back in forth as you pull and it'll come straight out (no need to remove the rubber hose that's held on by that spring clamp).

3) Once the part is out of the way you can access the transmission filler port (see attached picture)

3) Now you can add the fluid (took me about 3.5 quarts). Don't overfill.

simplyredvw

Actually, I think it's easier to do on vehicles that have the oil jet kit.