Hi, I have an 2005 Civic, I have 20k on it just checked all the fluids, I'm doing my own maintenance mainly because I like doing it, this thing isn't 2 years old yet, its my daughters car, she drives it hard from what I see only to school and her job, but she put on a lot of miles in a very short time.

I found the trans fluid to look brown not red more toward the brown.
I'm wondering if it should look so dark in such short order.
I think Honda ATF is a synthetic fluid, reason because it smells like Mobil 1 ATF, I know because I just replaced my Tundra ATF with Mobil 1.

What to do
1. take it to the dealer its under warranty, should they replace it for free?
the fluid is suppose to last longer than that isn't it 60k?
even if they charge me for new fluid , it gets documented, but I feel there something wrong.

2. change it myself and cross my fingers, I think a bad idea.
my Tundra ATF went 38k and you couldn't tell it was any darker.

The picture below is virgin fluid compared to the Civic fluid, any ideas comments thanks.
Yes its that brown.

 

Honda fluid should be red, not brown. Don't use anyting but Honda ATF in a Honda auto. I think it's ~65$ to have Honda do it.

 

So you think they would charge for that, even though its under two years old and 20k miles, $65 is that just a drain and fill one time just under three qts, or a complete change of fluid.

I'm concerned that this trainy wont live very long if it cooks fluid at 20k.
its always had a bit of a whine to it, I always figured it was just Honda now I'm sure something is up.

This things going back to the dealer, for the rocking seat TSB, so they can do the transmission too. thanks for the reply.

 

Today I took the Civic to my dealer, I had a sample of the brown ATF.
The service writer agreed theres something wrong, later today he called me and said that the tech told him the ATF was good to 120k and that Brown at 20k is normal he said he checked another car with similar mileage and that it was also Brown. He said drive it without fear till 120k?
I told him I wanted it in writing, and I asked him where in a manual does it say brown fluid is OK, to this he said no where.
I'm now going to search the manual to find where it says to change brown fluid.

I called several other local dealers, and posed the question ( is Brown ATF normal for a Civic with 20k.

First dealer. "Kuhn Honda" said ( no! brown is bad, It needs to be changed, and they recommend it be done at 30k) the same guy when asked about the 5/60 power train warranty said it was only 3/36

Second dealer. "Brandon Honda" the writer said he asked a tech, and the tech said (some get Brown some don't) maybe the bad ones get Brown early, they also said change it at 30k is what they recommend.

Third dealer. "Auto way Honda" the service writer said (he cant comment on the color without bringing it in, they recommend every 30k and at times because of severe duty like hot Florida they recommend every 10k )
He went on to say that if I had bought the car from them they would have explained it all to me I told the guy it was a Civic not a tow vehicle, and Honda lists 60k for severe duty 120 for normal duty for first change.

I feel its nonsense that the fluid turned brown in such short period, one reason they dye it Red is so you know when to change it. I don't know what good it will do, but I'm sending a letter to Honda.

 

they do not dye it red so that you know when to change it. Red dye is merely an indicator to seperate it from other fluids. It is perfectly acceptable for it to turn dark or even brown as the friction modifiers break down from their original prestine condition. I would rec. changing it every 30k miles but you can't base the condition of the fluid solely on color alone.

 

Plus you being hard on the gas takes a toll on the transmission with the constant down-shifts.

 

Thanks for pointing that out, so its like Mobil 1 oil that gets black but still works? makes sense, from all the information I'm going thru, it's also an indicator of high temps that made the color change, what I'm reading is if it stays around 170 190 degrees it should not turn a different color.
I'm going to do an experiment with some clamp on temperature probes, they record the temps every couple minutes, and I can do a graph on a say 40 minute beach cruise, it will be interesting to see just how hot that little trainy runs.

 

Yes I agree, who really knows how hard she runs the thing.

 

yes, automatic trans fluid is optimum at 175 degrees. Good luck getting it to stay at that though. It will remain efficient to about 190. After that it starts cooking the additives which changes the color/smell/Ph of the trans fluid. If it is getting hot, even just a bit over 190 I would check your trans cooler for a clog. If it isn't flowing at its most optimized it won't cool properly. Its easy to check if you have an air compressor and you arent afraid to get a little (alot lol) of ATF fluid on yourself and surrounding area.

 

Thanks, I wasn't sure if they had an external trans cooler, I don't recall seeing one, haven't been able to look since its still at the dealer. The dealer says its fine but as you can see I don't trust them, I'm going to question them more tomorrow when I pick up the car.

Does anybody know the thermostat temp on a Civic 2005, my sons Jeep runs 195 degrees I recently home flushed it, after 14 years and was black, it doesn't have an external cooler.