2000 Honda Odyssey Transmission

frankmore

The transmission has just started slipping when it is cold . When it warms up it runs great how do i fix or what could be done

Mr_Shiftright

You might try doing a transmission service. Transmissions can get cranky as they age, especially when they are not warmed up. Some say this might be to hardening of various internal seals, which creates a kind of "internal bleeding", and thus a drop in hydraulic pressure. Anything that might clean the system or refresh the seals a bit could possibly help. It's just a guess. There's no cure in a can for actual internal wear, and 16 years is a long time for a transmission to operate trouble free.

isellhondas

Just don't let anyone talk you into "flushing" it! Simply drain and refill and be aware that some of those vintage had a nasty way of failing around the 140,000 mile range. It's worth trying a service first.

thecardoc3

A drain and refill will replace about 40-50% of the fluid that the system holds. The flush routine takes that up to the 90-95% range. The report of slipping under any conditions needs to be addressed ASAP because slippage means wear is occurring. If you can reduce or eliminate the slipping you can extend the life of the transmission. Servicing the fluid will not undo any wear that has already occurred, but it will get debris out of the transmission that is now circulating with the fluid.

isellhondas

Honda and others recommend against "flushing" because it reverse forces fluid and dirt back through the transmission often causing more damage.

thecardoc3

isellhondas said:

Honda and others recommend against "flushing" because it reverse forces fluid and dirt back through the transmission often causing more damage.

Hmmm...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpIg6w8XpBU

isellhondas

Interesting video and the car happened to be a 20 year old Honda.

I suppose if you are the manufacturer and you have seen bad things happen as the results of flushing you would recommend against doing this but if you had a Quick Lube or you had bought a machine for your shop then flushing would be a "good thing'?

Of course, those seals needed to be "conditioned" with the additive at the end?

I'm not saying there couldn't be any benefits to flushing but I have mine drained and filled every 30,000 miles and I've never had a problem.

thecardoc3

I'm not a fan of a lot of the gimmicks out there, but IMO a lot of the negative statements are themselves just another kind of a gimmick just like the additive pushers. As you saw, that transmission flush machine (and its that way with most of them) don't use any additional pressure or reverse the direction of flow. The transmission pump itself provides the pressure to perform the service. That's not to say that there could never be an unintended consequence from using them but lets leave that discussion for another day.

Here is what I do with my customers and my own cars. When servicing a transmission I do a modified flush without a machine. When possible I drop the pan and replace the filter then after refilling I use the engine to pump the old fluid from the convertor through an open cooler line while maintaining the fluid level by adding through the filler until the new fluid shows up in the cooler line. When there isn't a serviceable filter, then I just start with a drain and fill and then do the cooler line trick. That's a good enough routine to replace 85-90% of the fluid, and if the fluid is never allowed to degrade in the first place easily sufficient. Now with my Escape the flushes were performed at 60K, 125k and then at 180K with drain and fills at 30K, 90K,150K. The flush goes through 13-14 quarts of fluid by the time it runs clean. The drain and fill replaces some 5 of the 11 quarts the transmission holds. FWIW, my Escape just turned 190K and the fluid doesn't even change color anymore and looks like I had just put it in when I changed it at 180K. ( I stopped at 12qt since I realized I wasn't going to see any difference anyway).

isellhondas

I think your modified flush would be the way I would do it.

thecardoc3

There is some history behind how and why I do it like that. I started my career as a Ford mechanic in the 70's and the torque convertors back then had drain plugs in them, so draining the convertor was part of the service. When the drain plugs went away it didn't feel right only doing part of the job so I had to figure out how to complete the job and started pulling a cooler line way back then. BTW I still have my special tools for adjusting the bands.