Honda Car Forum

Hi--
I'm a broke single Mom and I recently had to have the clutch replaced. I gritted my teeth and let a friend change it out to save $. I went to Auto Zone to have them check the transmission fluid level before leaving to drive 100 miles or so. The guy at AutoZone said that my friend messed up and should have put 5w30 motor oil in the transmission fluid resevoir, instead of transmission fluid. He said I needed to get the tran fluid drained asap. I asked my friend to do it, and he said "No, that's stupid." Do I need to have this professionally done, or is the transmission fluid okay? It's a 97 Civic dx Manual 1.6 liter

Update-- 10w90 gear oil is what he put in there. Not like automatic transmission fluid or anything~~ Can someone please reply to this??

I don't know for sure. It has been a while but I think it was 10w90 that we used to use in rear differntials and manual transmissions...but that was a long time ago when I worked in a GM truck shop. However, another site online references using 10w30 in Honda transmissions with a caveat.

I think your answer can be found here:
Manual transaxle lubricant

Honda manual transmissions use a fluid simular to 10w-30. Honda markets a fluid called Honda MTF that I recommend. It has qualities that are different then 10w-30 engine oil that are designed to work with your manual transmission. If you use automatic transmission fluid or a gear type oil you WILL destroy the bearings in your transmission. If you do not have access to Honda MTF at least have your friend change the fluid to 10w-30

10w-30 is the cheapest and most convenient way to take care of it. As was already stated, Honda uses their own tranny fluid, which is essentially motor oil with some additives.

Your best bet: Flush the fluid and refill with 10w-30.