I have a 1998 Odyssey. I recently added some transmission fluid as the reading was low - used foreign car fluid. I noticed soon afterward that the transmission seemed to whine when accelerating. Disappeared at increased speed. Checked the fluid level and didn’t appear that I overfilled. What else could it be?
What kind of “foreign car fluid” did you add specifically?
My recollection is that it was Advanced Auto parts foreign car transmission fluid.
What did the fluid look like and smell like?
No idea - are you thinking I should just replace with Honda fluid at this point?
Honda’s are very picky when it comes to transmission fluids, personally I only use Genuine Honda ATF-Z1 in three of the four Honda’s my family owns. The fourth Honda is an '89 and predates the ATF-Z1 spec, in your case your car should specify ATF-Z1.
I would maybe try replacing the fluid with the Honda stuff and see if it improves.
Thanks!
Yes. 1) Since you’re not sure what you added, and 2) it needs to be changed anyway if you never changed it before, or if it has been at least 50K since the last change.
However, you may still have a leak that needs to be fixed. On a '98, if the transmission seems to work well, I would ignore a slow leak as long as I remembered to check the fluid often. If you check the fluid regularly and you know this is a recent and relatively fast leak, then you might want to take it to a mechanic for an overall check to see if they can find and fix the leak. Otherwise, have it drained and filled with new fluid, change the transmission oil filter if it has one, and then check the fluid level weekly until you know whether it is a fast leak that needs service or a slow leak you can manage.
And it should go without saying that if you think you have a slow leak and decide not ot have it fixed, and end up driving it when it is too low, you will wreck the transmission entirely.
Honda fluid ONLY. You need to drain and refill the trans. Automatics need to be serviced every 25-30k miles regardless of what owners manual says. Dont ever wait 50k to service an automatic.
transman