[pknowles]

Hay guys. I just got a 98 Civc EX auto for my wife and I want to change out all the fluids since it has probably never been done (oil being the exception). I've always flushed my own automatics by dropping the pan and fitting a hose to the pump inlet (most cars and trucks you cut the filter neck off and clamp a hose to it) and letting the pump flush new fluid from a bucket through the trans. I was told that the Civic's trans filter is not at the bottom of the pan like I'm used to and you can't reach it unless you rebuild the trans. Is this true? Does the trans have a pick-up tube going to the bottom of the pan that I can attach my hose too so I can flush the trans? I was going to drop the pan and look myself, but figured someone out there has probably done it before. Thanks.

[pknowles]

I got word that the offical Honda service manual says to do the following (highly condensed):

1. Drain
2. Fill
3. Run on jack stands with wheels off the ground
4. Repeat 1-3 about 3x
5. Check level one last time on level ground

I would pull a cooler line, but it's not worth braking one which on an 8 year old car is very possible considering the lines have probably never been apart. Also, I would not want to run the transaxle dry even for a moment. A regular tranny would be OK, but the transaxle basically is the whole drivetrain. Plus I looked in a shop manual and the return line doesn't dump into the sump like most stuff I'm used too. So if I did pull the line a bunch on trans parts would be running dry; not good. I willing to beat that's why the pulling the line method is not the way to flush from Honda's manual.

This post has been edited by pknowles: Oct 28 2005, 12:31 PM