At 81k miles I decided that it is a good time to replace the fluids in the car that didn’t get attention back in May when I bought the car. I don’t have any idea if the transmission fluid or rear differential fluid had been changed in the past as part of routine maintenance. I wasn’t in a hurry and didn’t feel the need to run to auto parts stores so I ordered Royal Purple 75w90 gear oil (with included fluid transfer pump) and genuine Honda manual transmission fluid from Amazon since I have free shipping. Doing routine maintenance is kind of therapeutic in a way because you know it is done and don’t have to wonder any more. Plus you know when the next due date is because you have logged it in your maintenance journal.
The car was first jacked up and placed on jack stands (on the correct spots for the S2000) because you simply can’t get any access to anything in these low riding cars. Nothing wrong with that.
Rear Differential
- Make sure you can get the fill bolt off first with a 23mm spanner since there is very limited space. If you can’t get it off, don’t go any farther because you don’t want to drain something you can’t fill!
- Place a pan under the drain area. Remove the drain bolt with a 24mm socket. It may take a breaker bar as it did in my case.
- Drain into a pan.
- Clean the area and washer and then put the drain bolt back in place. Torque to 33 ft/lbs if you have a torque wrench.
- Use the fluid pump to pump in .8 of the quart bottle. When fluid seeps out the fill hole, it is full.
- Clean the washer and replace the fill bolt. Torque to 33 ft/lbs if you can.
- You are now done with this service.
Transmission
- With the car still on jack stands, use a 17mm socket to loosen the fill bolt. I had to use a breaker bar and ended up a casualty of the Busted Knuckle Garage.
- Put a pan under the transmission drain area. Use a 3/8″ extension to loosen the drain plug.
- Let all of the fluid drain.
- Pump in three pumps of new fluid to help flush more old stuff out.
- Replace the drain plug and torque to 29 ft/lb.
- Pump .8 of a quart into the fill hole until fluid starts to run out of the hole.
- Replace the transmission fill plug.
- You are now done with this service.
