[Lunarmonkey]

As a fellow 6spd owner, I'm saddened everytime I read one of these stories. Like quite a few of us on here my last vehicle (civic) made it a long time (19 years), and while I wasn't expecting that out of the truck, I was hoping for at least 10. I just wish we knew why the 6sp have their issues.

If it was towing related, I wouldn't tow
If it was fluid, I'd drain and fill every oil change
Heat is the killer? I'd install a huge cooler.
I just hate the uncertainty.

 

[wjfyfe]

If it was towing related, I wouldn't tow
If it was fluid, I'd drain and fill every oil change
Heat is the killer? I'd install a huge cooler.
I just hate the uncertainty.

Using our transmission as a guinnea pig, while utilizing a ScanGuage, under normal usage, I have found that transmission temperatures have been consistently 80-100 degrees over OAT.

Also, while utilizing a ScanGuage, I have failed to find any evidence that towing, even at maximum weight and triple digit OAT, has created any issues, including over heating.

Performing multiple fluid changes, along with associated fluid analysis, I have failed to find any fluid related issues to date.

As you can see, so far this study of our transmission has failed in providing a smoking gun. What probably would have been more help is that if somebody had thought of doing a fluid analysis at the time a transmission failure had been diagnosed?

Bill

 

[stevem5215]

My worst analysis was the first one at 30k. Since then I've been watching more closely. Actually, I think I've got mine stabilized enough that it'll last as long as it was designed to last now. Disabling the VCM with a muzzler isn't hurting either I'm sure. The next analysis will be interesting to see for sure. Here's my 30k thread on it to browse for those who are long term interested in how it's been going for me.

Transmission oil change out at 30,000 mi. It's a...

I changed my Transmission Fluid today on my 2017 RTL it had 31,400 mi on it. I'm attaching a couple pictures of the change and the one is quite surprising considering this vehicle only has 31,000 mi on it. The fluid doesn't look healthy to me at all. More like you'd see from a vehicle with...

www.ridgelineownersclub.com

 

[davessi]

I've had a 2022 for a year now which my Wife drives, currently with around 12,000 miles and which weve been very happy with it except for some quirky feature performance due to radical new electronic features and the touch screen being shared for multiple applications. However the maintenance schedule hidden in the automatic maintenance monitor reminds me of people owning Jaguars 60 years ago in England. If the vehicle needs this degree of care and attention we will replace it in short order. I'm accustomed to driving to driving Tacomas. The current one is 12 years old with 385,000 miles and the only maintenance it has had is engine oil and oil and air filter changes and preventative maintenance such as external parts subject to excessive dirt such as serpentine belt, idlers and tensioner. I recently replaced all the wheel bearings as a precaution since it gets in the dirt most days. There is no schedule for other fluid changes and I haven't done any. In fact changing transmission fluid not in a clean room and when there is no drain plug seems foolhardy. In fact many people report transmission failure within a few thousand miles after a scheduled transmission oil change. I recently had to rescue a friend in his Chevy Sierra truck shortly following the scheduled 100,000 mile fluid change, and the local mechanic I use had exactly the same problem on the same model of truck he just bought personally after a fluid change. I know of three people with Mercedes ML320s who experienced the same problem. Now all you experts are going to tell me I abuse my Tacoma and maybe you are right and maybe this is why Toyota design the tolerance for this type of abuse into their designs which is what Jaguar never did. I dont see the need for absolute cleanliness in opening a transmission much differently than doing work on diesel fuel injection systems and this work is not done in a regular shop. This post notes that the dealership wisely will not work on a transmission other than to bolt in a new a sealed unit; this is probably based upon past experience.

 

[silkiechicken]

I've had a 2022 for a year now.

You probably don't have to worry about the 9 speed so much. The problematic transmission is the 6 speed.

That said, they don't seem to be making cars like they used to. Our old 90's Honda was a trooper and is still on the road today, just not being driven by us anymore.

 

[stevem5215]

One reason shops like dealerships don't do transmission repairs in the field anymore is because it's easier and cheaper for them to swap out a whole unit and let a clean room shop rebuild it elsewhere under controlled circumstances. I have a buddy who does rebuild transmissions and the first rule at his shop is cleanliness of the transmission rebuilds. His shop isn't the cleanest inside but on his bench areas it is like a kitchen table for clean. The disassembly area is the dirty section. The cleaning section is cleaning the parts. The rebuild area is kitchen table and kitchen sink clean though. The whole thing is to clean clean and clean some more. The inspection of the "hard parts" is done and then a rebuild kit (including trans upgrades) are ordered along with hard parts needed for refurbishment of the units. It takes time. A typical rebuild takes on the order of 8 -16 hours. No dealership anywhere is going to do that. And the labor rate would kill any costs. But truly, if you want to know what's wrong inside a transmission this is the only way to know why it failed. Other than a fluid analysis to assist in a determination if not disassembled.

And I've seen lots of Chevy transmissions torn down. They get abused in trucks all trucks. My buddy owned a Cheby Silverado 1500. He ran it till it rusted out. He maintained the transmission and engine well though and both of those were fine at over 200k. I bet it would've still been on the road if he had Fluid Filmed the underside of it.

 

[zroger73]

Your post got me curious. A quick Google search shows transmission rebuild prices to be around $3,000-6,000.

Rebuild kits are around $300-800 for the parts.

Dealer labor is around $150/hr.

I've seen YouTube videos where rebuilders can do the job in a few hours.

There must be a LOT of profit in rebuilding transmissions!

 

[stevem5215]

Yes there is. He makes bank on rebuilds. All other shop work like brakes etc are shorter jobs but those rebuilds make some bucks. And it's interesting to watch him do them. (been watching for years) You should have seen his dad to the old 2 speeds from cars like Packard's and others. He won't touch those now but his dad was great on the old stuff.

 

[longball2go]

As a fellow 6spd owner, I'm saddened everytime I read one of these stories. Like quite a few of us on here my last vehicle (civic) made it a long time (19 years), and while I wasn't expecting that out of the truck, I was hoping for at least 10. I just wish we knew why the 6sp have their issues.

If it was towing related, I wouldn't tow
If it was fluid, I'd drain and fill every oil change
Heat is the killer? I'd install a huge cooler.
I just hate the uncertainty.

Amen to this statement and as a owner with 60K on the ODO Im just praying it holds out until the redesign hits the market.

 

[stevem5215]

Don't pray. Know. Take a sample of the Trans oil at change time. Send it in for analysis. Cost to know ? About $30. Is it worth it to you ? It is for me.

 

[wjfyfe]

Don't pray. Know. Take a sample of the Trans oil at change time. Send it in for analysis. Cost to know ? About $30. Is it worth it to you ? It is for me.

Total agreement, here is how our transmission is faring, no guesswork or praying involved, just the facts!

What I (think I) have learned about the 6-speed...

Here are my sequential transmission oil reports: 34,462 miles: Our viscosity level was found to be 4.90 after this period of time. On it's own not looking too great. Iron levels were also really high making it appear that there is a lot of internal wear going on? On it's own this report was...

www.ridgelineownersclub.com

Currently we are at 63,000 miles looking to do the next maintenance minder fluid change somewhere around 70,000 miles.

As has also been stated several times over the course of these discussions, I do not believe that there has been a single owner returning here to report a complaint about their replacement 6-speed?

Bill

 

[Lunarmonkey]

As has also been stated several times over the course of these discussions, I do not believe that there has been a single owner returning here to report a complaint about their replacement 6-speed?

Even if thats true and hopefully it is. Like you, I too scored what I think was a pretty fantastic deal on my 2019. If it costs me a $7000 transmission to keep it going after 5 years. The purchase deal goes from fantastic to pretty sub par.

Don't pray. Know. Take a sample of the Trans oil at change time. Send it in for analysis. Cost to know ? About $30. Is it worth it to you ? It is for me.

I think I'm on board for future testing. I even still have the fluid sitting in a container from my first drain and fill a few months back. I wonder if sitting in a sealed container would adversely affect the results?

 

[silkiechicken]

Even if thats true and hopefully it is. Like you, I too scored what I think was a pretty fantastic deal on my 2019. If it costs me a $7000 transmission to keep it going after 5 years. The purchase deal goes from fantastic to pretty sub par.



I think I'm on board for future testing. I even still have the fluid sitting in a container from my first drain and fill a few months back. I wonder if sitting in a sealed container would adversely affect the results?

Send it in and add to the data pool! I have requested the dealer to save some from our dead tranny, even though it had a 3x DF only 6k prior to the shifting issues... and 8 total DF's in the last 50k, which may literally dilute our findings.

 

[royicus]

Has anyone gotten a transmission fluid analysis that accurately predicted imminent failure? They'll only find what they are looking for in the fluid. Let's say some o-ring failed that allows an internal leak somewhere, or that there was a bad casting that caused an issue... that won't be seen in an oil analysis. Blackstone, or any other oil analysis lab isn't Theranos!

 

[wjfyfe]

Has anyone gotten a transmission fluid analysis that accurately predicted imminent failure? They'll only find what they are looking for in the fluid. Let's say some o-ring failed that allows an internal leak somewhere, or that there was a bad casting that caused an issue... that won't be seen in an oil analysis. Blackstone, or any other oil analysis lab isn't Theranos!

So far we have no fluid analysis information from a prefailure or failed transmission.
Bill

 

[14v6]

Anyone know what Honda's design expectation spec is for the 6 speed in a Ridgeline application? Is 140k on overtime, just broken in or in the upper range?

 

[stevem5215]

No one knows the design spec for life outside of Honda engineering. Any product is the sum of it's assembled parts quality though. So if some part fails earlier than the designed life that affects the whole unit. What we've seen lately from Honda though is lower quality in the parts causing failures not typically seen in reliable Hondas. And the corporate heads at Honda have admitted as much.

 

[gti16vman]

I do not believe that there has been a single owner returning here to report a complaint about their replacement 6-speed?

There has been one that I am aware of, user PericoRandy, his post here: Transmission failure

What we will never know is if installation of the first trans had anything to do with it failing or not. I would guess that a lot of folks that did have theirs replaced may very well have traded the truck in and we would never hear how that replaced trans fared.

Has anyone gotten a transmission fluid analysis that accurately predicted imminent failure? They'll only find what they are looking for in the fluid. Let's say some o-ring failed that allows an internal leak somewhere, or that there was a bad casting that caused an issue... that won't be seen in an oil analysis. Blackstone, or any other oil analysis lab isn't Theranos!

Completely agree with this. Unless we get analysis of a failed or about to fail trans, we will never really know if monitoring via fluid analysis can predict anything. Especially since we really have no idea what is actually failing in there.

 

[stevem5215]

That's the purpose of testing. When abnormal things show up you know what the item in the transmission is failing. Big rig trucks test theirs regularly. When starting to go they'll know and rebuild before it blows damaging far more inside the engine.

 

[Will48121]

My worst analysis was the first one at 30k. Since then I've been watching more closely. Actually, I think I've got mine stabilized enough that it'll last as long as it was designed to last now. Disabling the VCM with a muzzler isn't hurting either I'm sure. The next analysis will be interesting to see for sure. Here's my 30k thread on it to browse for those who are long term interested in how it's been going for me.

Transmission oil change out at 30,000 mi. It's a...

I changed my Transmission Fluid today on my 2017 RTL it had 31,400 mi on it. I'm attaching a couple pictures of the change and the one is quite surprising considering this vehicle only has 31,000 mi on it. The fluid doesn't look healthy to me at all. More like you'd see from a vehicle with...

www.ridgelineownersclub.com

I’ve been browsing piloteers which obviously have a much larger data set. They seem pretty dead set on disabling VCM to prolong fluid life and save torque converters.