Honda Odyssey Synthetic Transmission Fluid

by admin on May 4, 2010

My wife drives a Honda Odyssey and she loves it.  The problem is I just discovered the year she is driving has a history of transmission failures to the tune of $3000 dollars to replace… bummer.

We have been traveling quite a bit and I have been pulling a trailer with the van. It pulls really nice with 250 horsepower under the hood.  I have been really pleased with the van but it has started to shift really hard between first and second gear.  I can’t tell if it is actually the shift causing the problem or if it is the lock up torque converter causing the problem.

Anyway it continues to progress to destruction.  This past weekend I decided to check the transmission fluid on the off chance the level was low.  I am using synthetic transmission fluid and I have been running the van hard.  It is up to 162,000 miles + now.  I fully expected some dark fluid probably slightly burnt smell (that nasty burning tranny smell).

Considering the transmission is shifting improperly and my wife has been stuck in 4th gear a couple of times driving home (and I have been pulling heavy trailers) you can imagine the absolute shock on my face when I pulled the dipstick to see a perfect beautiful light red color, at the proper level, with no odor of burnt.  WOW.

I change my motor oil and transmission fluid on a regular basis to try and make my vehicles last forever.

I wish I could say my transmission was going to last forever because of the transmission fluid I’m using but I am obviously having problems.  What I am finding from research is we have gone a lot longer than all the other folks that ran into this problem.  I haven’t sorted it out yet but I am hoping its a computer problem and not mechanical.  My transmission fluid isn’t showing the problem anyway.

If you know the answer to this problem please post below otherwise… wish me luck!

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

sts May 29, 2010 at 3:31 am

I want to start blogging too, what do you think, which blog platform is good for noob?

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