Have to say, I'm intrigued by what the Acura TL guys are doing to improve the shift response on their 5ATs. They're using race-spec ATF that has reduced or no friction modifiers to improve shift response. FYI, friction modifiers are put in ATF to soften shifts. The downside is increased slippage of the transmission clutches which ultimately reduces tranny life because of increased clutch wear.

For those that have driven automatic Hondas, you probably can understand their frustration with the crappy shift characteristics of most all Honda autos.

The TL guys are adding Redline Racing ATF and some are doing a mixture of Redline Racing ATF and Redline Lightweight Racing ATF in addition to the factory fill of Honda ATF Z1.

http://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=52&pcid=9

http://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=137&pcid=9


Here's the huge thread. I've linked from page 16 of the 23+ page thread because you can get an idea of what's going on. There are a handful of tranny gurus on the site with lots of automatic transmission and ATF discussion.

http://tl.acurazine.com/forums/showt...764322&page=16

 

Very interesting, but I can't help to be worried that the general census is to use ONLY the Nissan Matic S fluid. The car says to use it, and many others on this board go along and confirm it as well.

Edit: Also, with a quick skim of the first page, it seems as though several guys have had trannys go out on them from using the Type F ATF that you have posted...I'll look more into this tomorrow.

 

I've been doing a little more research on Nissan Matic S/J and it turns out it's made by Castrol and is the same as Castrol Import Multi Vehicle ATF.

 

On the first page, there is just discussion from others that some Honda trannies haven't reacted well to certain types of ATF. In that 23+ page thread, there hasn't been a reported tranny failure due to swapping fluids. It appears these guys are doing about a 1:5 mix of racing ATF to normal ATF. They're not going 100% racing ATF.

 

I've read that some Honda transaxles are weak, but would they really design them to wear like that?

I'm just going to do a drain/fill every 15-20K with Matic-S. I don't hear too often of tranny failures on first gen Gs - well, at least not lately.

This is funny though: I used to add FM to regular Dexron-III when I had my altima to make it Matic-D equivalent. It shifted way firm before I would add it, and the FM made it shift like OEM... I always thought it was improving performance/life of the trans, but I guess that idea is wrong.

 

I thought Nissan ATF was made by BG. Infiniti dealers near me use the BG flush system to do tranny flushes. They use Nissan fluids only to do drain and refills. They told me it was the same fluid. Nissan up the street said the same thing.

http://www.bgprod.com/blendr/syntheticATF.html