[sunhunter]

Hi, I picked up a couple of bottles of honda mtf and am waiting for my shop manual to arrive. The owner's manual shows the fill and level check plug bolt. Is there a drain plug bolt as well? Also, does anyone have any hints or words of advise on changing the manual transmission oil?

Thanks, Hunter

 

[Resist]

How many miles does your car have? I'm sure you know it's a 90k miles/6 year change out.

The drain plug is just below the filler plug and to the side. Looks like it takes a allen wrench to remove.

 

[kapps]

Actually, it's about 60k miles for the change. I am also waiting for time to do it. There should be a drain bolt and check bolt (the on that you fill it up to).

 

[sunhunter]

I got my shop manual today. Hurray!!

Thanks for the info folks. You are right. The manual shows a fill and a drain plug each.

I have about 35k so far, so yeah, the schedule says I can wait a long while yet. I don't care though. I'm hoping that the mtf change will make the shifting smoother. At low speeds it sometimes does not want to go into 1st gear. It lightly ground a couple of times. I think it is worth trying as it is only $10 to do the change and maybe there are some metals to be removed. Well, maybe more money since I need to get a floor jack and a couple of more jack stands. I'm going to start doing the engine oil changes myself as well. I don't think the kid at the service station uses a torque wrench. I wonder if they have one...

Hunter

 

[Resist]

Actually, it's about 60k miles for the change.

Not sure where you got this number. The service manual clearly says 90k/6 years for the manual transmission.

 

[sunhunter]

I just looked in my service manual and the mtf replacement for severe use is 60k or 3 years and normal use is 120k or 6 years for 2000-2003 models.

 

[Resist]

I'm looking at the maintentance schedule for normal conditions. What year is your manual for? It is a Honda Service Manual correct?

 

[kapps]

I got 6ok miles out of my head because I believed I saw it in the owners manual (2000, Florida heat). Sunhunter, that grinding you hear are your syncros not syncing the engine/tranny speed. I've noticed the Insight doesn't have very good syncros and mine have been gringing the gears since <20k miles. I find the only solution is to upshift slowly and deliberately. To downshift, always double clutch (even with syncros) because the whole weight of the car is on those syncros. I've got the extended warrenty so I'm probably going to bring it up with Honda sometime before that warrenty ends to see if they might do something with it (I''ve seen other manufactures replacing the transmission). Anyway, there's no harm in replacing the MTF early; hope it helps.

 

[sunhunter]

My service manual is "Honda 2000-2004 Service Manual". I got it from helminc.com. Maybe they made some typos? At least it is not a wrong "answer to selected problems" like in a school text book. Those were always a real pain in the butt. I wonder if they put these wrong answers in just to make sure you are doing your homework.

I did not know about the center lift points until I got my manual. This should make jacking up the car and lowering onto jack stands a whole lot easier. I am thinking that I can jack up from the center of on side and place both jack stands for that side at the same time. Is this feasable? I hope so!

Hunter

 

[kapps]

Jack the car from the center on the side (that metal strip that goes for-aft along each side). This is how I do it in order to get a jack stand under the front jacking point. I've done it many times and it works like a champ.