2005 oil filter & transmission fluid drain bolt?

tk11 · 08-10-2008, 06:46 PM

Two questions please.

1) I can see the oil drain plug through a open area in the plastic tray covering the underneath of the engine. Where is the oil filter? Do I reach up through the small open area by the oil drain plug? Can I reach it w/o putting the car on jack stands?

2) Second, I need to do a drain and fill of the transmission. Where is it located and do I have to take the plastic tray off cover the bottom of the engine to reach it? If I have to take it off, I see some normal bolts but also some plastic 'bolt's holding the plastic cover on. How do those come off? Also, how many quarts of transmission fluid does a drain and fill take?

Thank you for the help.

zhieson · 08-10-2008, 08:03 PM

You should probably refer to the maintenance manuals on the forum to be certain. I know I used them to change my transmission and oil.

I would highly recommend putting your car on jack stands. It is way too much work without them.

tk11 · 08-10-2008, 10:39 PM

Please tell me where I can find the maintenance manuals on the forum... and thanks for the help.

zhieson · 08-11-2008, 03:06 AM

In case you couldn't find it on your own. It's under DIY -> General Maintenance - > 2004-08 TSX Service Manual Scans - DIY

tk11 · 08-11-2008, 11:56 AM

Good stuff... thank you. Two questions still after looking at diagrams.
1) Do I have to take off panel that covers bottom of engine to get at oil filter and transmission fluid drain bolt?
2) Has anybody jacked their TSX up with the front jacking point? Is that what you use for putting stands under the front side jacking points?

Vegito · 08-13-2008, 11:39 AM

I got sick of removing the cover for the atf.. i got a fluid extractor

http://tsxclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29097

tk11 · 08-13-2008, 08:21 PM

Thanks for the pump info. I'll look into it longer-term but need to do it this weekend before a long trip. Hence... it sounds like I must remove the bottom cover. I saw some screws/nuts that held part it but it also looks like some other non-standard connectors? Is there a special tool to remove them? Also, can I get at the oil filer w/o removing the cover? Thank you.

Age · 08-13-2008, 11:12 PM

You don't need to remove the bottom cover. The oil will stream a little bit sideways and miss the cover. You can remove the cover if you want with a flat head screwdriver. Just dont' break them and remember where the connectors go.

The oil filter is closer to the passenger side wheel about 1'-0" above the bottom of the car. No cover removal needed. Just reach in with your oil wrench.

The jack point is in the middle of the front. See post #5 for a picture. The two front jack stands go under the side of the car at the reinforced points.

DIY oil change?

KBH · 08-14-2008, 05:56 PM

You do need to remove the cover to do the ATF drain. Along the front lower lip and a few points on the underbody, it is held in place by several expansion plugs. There is a flat circular plug inside a thin outer plug. The outer plug has two small gaps under which you can slide a thin blade screwdriver or needle nose pliers. Once you pull out the center plug, the outer one will come out easily. There are also a few standard hex bolts around the wheel wells. I think there were about 12 or so attachment sites in all. You'll need to raise the car to remove the cover but you can do the ATF drains with the car on the ground. The drain plug faces the driver side front wheel and is removed with a 1/2" socket. I shredded a few of the expansion plugs before I figured out what to do and haven't bothered to re-install the cover since then.

tk11 · 08-17-2008, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KBH

You do need to remove the cover to do the ATF drain. Along the front lower lip and a few points on the underbody, it is held in place by several expansion plugs. There is a flat circular plug inside a thin outer plug. The outer plug has two small gaps under which you can slide a thin blade screwdriver or needle nose pliers. Once you pull out the center plug, the outer one will come out easily. There are also a few standard hex bolts around the wheel wells. I think there were about 12 or so attachment sites in all. You'll need to raise the car to remove the cover but you can do the ATF drains with the car on the ground. The drain plug faces the driver side front wheel and is removed with a 1/2" socket. I shredded a few of the expansion plugs before I figured out what to do and haven't bothered to re-install the cover since then.

Regarding the expansion plugs... you mentioned the outer plug has 2 small gaps. Is that where I insert the small screwdriver or pliers to pull the center plug out? If so... then I just pull the outer plug out too after the center plug relieves the pressure created by the center plug? Thanks...

KBH · 08-18-2008, 01:48 PM

Exactly. Just gently slide the screwdriver blade under one edge of the center plug to lift it out. Or you can grasp opposite edges of the center plug with the needle nose pliers and pull it out.

BTW, getting the ATF drain bolt off the first time is tough. You can't get a lot of leverage unless you have the car up on a lift. Once it does break loose, the fluid starts coming out pretty fast...If there are a lot of metal fragments on the drain bolt (which is magnetic), you may want to consider replacing your ATF filter as well. (located under the airbox)

tk11 · 08-18-2008, 06:29 PM

Thanks for the experienced advice. A question on the ATF filter. When you indicate under the air box does that mean where the main engine air filter is? Is that hard to change and do you recall the approximate charge for it? Thanks again.

KBH · 08-18-2008, 07:21 PM

Check this thread from a few weeks ago. I'm learning all of this on the fly myself

Does the TSX have an ATF filter?

The filter costs about $20 online, maybe a little more at the stealer. It is located just below and to the rear of the big air pipe connecting the filter box to the manifold. Pretty easy to change by yourself as long as you can get the hose clips off without shredding you fingertips. I actually posted some pics in another thread on this same subforum after I cut the filter open. There was a lot of metallic crud on the filter so it must be doing its job. How many miles on your car?

tk11 · 08-18-2008, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KBH

Check this thread from a few weeks ago. I'm learning all of this on the fly myself

Does the TSX have an ATF filter?

The filter costs about $20 online, maybe a little more at the stealer. It is located just below and to the rear of the big air pipe connecting the filter box to the manifold. Pretty easy to change by yourself as long as you can get the hose clips off without shredding you fingertips. I actually posted some pics in another thread on this same subforum after I cut the filter open. There was a lot of metallic crud on the filter so it must be doing its job. How many miles on your car?

Thanks for another great post. I'll read it fully. My TSX has 29,000 miles on it. How many on yours when you changed the filter?

KBH · 08-19-2008, 01:47 PM

That's pretty low mileage for an 05. One could argue you don't need to worry about your ATF for a while unless you're noticing some slippage or other shifting anomaly. I had about 85k miles when I changed the filter. There seem to be multiple lines of thinking regarding this. Some say after about 10-15k miles, your transmission is pretty well broken in and all the little metallic bits that are going to come off the hardware are now suspended in the ATF or stuck to the drain plug or in the filter. Changing the filter therefore will give you much cleaner fluid from then on. Others say if the plug and filter are doing their job as Acura designed, the fluid should be fine as long as you follow Acura's ATF replacement schedule. I suppose as in many things, it all comes down to how you drive. If you live in VTEC range and track the car, you'd probably do well to overmaintain all your moving parts and fluids. If you're just a commuter, you've got better things to spend your dollars on. My feeling is if you're going to go to the trouble to change your ATF, you should go all the way and drain and fill 4x and do the filter at the same time, but I would do it at a pretty long interval (in my case >80k) Just changing 30% of the fluid (one drain and fill) doesn't seem worth it - nobody changes oil only 1.5 quarts at a time.