2002 Honda Accord 4-cyl purchase. Trans probs?

I have the exact same car. My transmission has been bad for a few years, but it is getting worse. It slips into gears and hits them hard now and then. I replaced the fluid and added some lucas treatment and it’s seemed to help a little bit. My advice, if it’s running smoothly, is to change the fluid now, and then again every 15-20,0000 miles to make sure it stays clean, as there is no serviceable filter on these transmissions. I’m not sure what the service interval is for the transmissions, but I’m pretty sure its around 30,000 or something. Considering how many miles you have, it definitely would not hurt to change it sooner, even though the fluid is a little pricey. On that note, ALWAYS USE GENUINE HONDA FLUID!!!!!!!! If you don’t, kiss that tranny goodbye. The fluid is ZW-1 and can be purchased at the dealer for around $9 a quart. It’s about 2.5 quarts for a change, so you’ll need to buy three. You can change it yourself, it’s easier than changing the oil. There is a square plug that you just hook the ratchet into (you can look online for a diagram if you have trouble finding it). The reason it’s easier than the oil is because, again, there is no serviceable filter. I changed the oil myself on mine for the first time a few months ago, and that filter is hard to get without long, skinny arms and a filter wrench that will fit on a socket wrench. I did the transmission fluid as well and it was definitely easier once I got the bolt loose. You don’t even need to jack the car up, just know where the plug is and find it with your hand.

Even if you have somebody else change it, buy the fluid for them and make sure that they only use the Honda stuff. The places that say they will change it for $30 are lying to you, the fluid is barely that cheap. Also, NEVER let them “flush” your transmission. The machine they use will also kill it. If you want to actually flush it, buy a lot of fluid and either change it and drive it several times, or disconnect the cooler line and run the engine while you pour in extra fluid until it starts coming out red.

It sounds like your car was pretty well taken care of if they gave you receipts for some of the work, and if it’s running well now then keep up on the maintenance and it will last you a long time. I’m up to 208,000 miles on mine, and the engine is still performing like it just rolled off the line. It does leak some oil, but I’m going to invest the money in replacing all of the seals because these engines run clear past 300,000 miles easily. On top of that, it was not well taken care of as far as maintenance goes and it still runs well other than the transmission, and even that survived the abuse this long. I think you made an excellent choice in your car, just don’t let that money go to waste over not changing fluids.