Civic 8th Gen R18A with automatic transmission, 190,000km. Shifting into and out of R and D first thing in the morning took an abnormally long time, and the ATF had never been changed.
Two common types of A/T boxes for this vehicle, SPCA and MPMA.
For SPCA, total capacity 5.9L, change quantity 2.4L.
For MPMA, total capacity 6.5L, change quantity 2.7L.
I believe this car has the SPCA transaxle.
Original ATF is Honda Z-1, superceded by Honda DW-1, which is synthetic and has allegedly better low temp performance.
Drained ATF from the transmission, approx. 2.3L came out. Reddish hue still present, even though it had never been changed, but fluid was quite dark. Drain plug magnet had about 2mm thick layer of oily metallic buildup.
Put in 2.5L Honda DW-1 ATF from 1 liter containers, manufactured in Thailand by Apollo. Drove a little bit and confirmed the level on the dipstick.
Drive home was uneventful, and the car wouldn't shift into 5th for a while, preferring to stay in 4th, but eventually it did.
Let's see how it behaves in the morning.
Bonus: I didn't buy the tin on the left, which was Rs. 19,850 for 4 liters and called "Japan." Other retailers had the same tin for Rs. 12,500, which was dismissed as "China." The 1 liter "Thailand" bottle was Rs. 3,000. Can you see what's wrong with the tin?
Fractional Dilution Calculations:
Total Volume: 5.9L
Drain Volume: 2.4L
Remainder: 3.5L
Change #1 - 2.4 liters used
(2.4 / 5.9) = 40.7% is new ATF.
1 - 0.407 = 59.3% is old ATF.
Change #2 - 4.8 liters used
0.407 + (0.407 * 0.593) = 64.8% is new ATF.
1 - 0.648 = 35.2% is old ATF.
Change #3 - 7.2 liters used - I'll consider the ATF change done at this point.
0.648 + (0.407 * 0.352) = 79.1% is new ATF.
1 - 0.791 = 20.9% is old ATF.
6pm cold start after the first change yielded no difference so far. Still takes about 5 seconds to shift into D. Let's wait for the TCM to learn and the fluid characteristics to change.
