Is it possible to a DIY service on your Auto

Without looking at your links I have no idea what you are going on about. . After doing the same job for years you get to know what you can get away with and what you can't.
You seem to over think things sometimes. A good example was that Mazda with the ECU problem you had. Just by reading what you wrote I was 95% sure what the problem was and I ended up 100% right and it only took me a minute to diagnosis it and I didn't even have to drive it. You missed a couple of big clues. It just comes down to experience.
It's the end of this matter as far as I'm concerned.
BTW There is a good electronics/EUC repairer called "get it fixed" in katikati if you don't have anyone down your way. I have used them a couple of times and found them to be good.

intrade
Thanks for describing the method of changing all of the auto-transmission fluid in a car.
There is another method of tackling the problem of changing auto-transmission fluid at home. This is the method that I use for my old Honda Odyssey. Instead of changing all of the 9 litres each 30,000km, I drain the fluid that will come out i.e. 3 litres and repeat this process every 10,000km. Now I end up running a car that has auto transmission fluid that at any time is never all completely fresh but also is never extensively contaminated due to being in the car for 30,000km.
I wonder if the method that I use has any downsides that I'm not aware of.

Note Honda auto transmission fluid is much more expensive than Dextron ATF fluid.

As a side note, you don't want to do a full flush with a Honda gearbox anyway, especially if it's getting on a bit. Fill them with fresh fluid (with fresh detergents) and they wash the insides all right but block the filters in the process, and can kill them.

good thinking and yes honda dont use dextron, you need to make sure to use the correct fluids.
i did meet a women with a honda she got sold a bottle of gearbox fluid at a petrol station. no idea how she added it to the transmission but it was manual gearbox oil not dextron and not honda fluid .
i told here to get it booked in soonest for correct fluids exchange at transmission rebuild place . dont know what happen probably blowen up by now as i seen here a week later and it was non important to her more inportant to have some wooden floor built in to it lol. ah well. who cares huh. i could not be stuffed to tell the same thing all over .

d21 trans prob 2k to fix it

mack77 wrote:
intrade
Thanks for describing the method of changing all of the auto-transmission fluid in a car.
There is another method of tackling the problem of changing auto-transmission fluid at home. This is the method that I use for my old Honda Odyssey. Instead of changing all of the 9 litres each 30,000km, I drain the fluid that will come out i.e. 3 litres and repeat this process every 10,000km. Now I end up running a car that has auto transmission fluid that at any time is never all completely fresh but also is never extensively contaminated due to being in the car for 30,000km.
I wonder if the method that I use has any downsides that I'm not aware of.

Note Honda auto transmission fluid is much more expensive than Dextron ATF fluid.[/quote

Interesting! (Great minds thinking alike?) Our 1999 Accord V6 is due for its auto trans oil change. Drain and refill is 2.9 litres, total capacity 7.2 litres. I thought of the idea of giving it an "exchange transfusion". Years ago I saw newborn babies with RH disease given exchange transfusions of donor O Rh Negative blood: 100 mL of baby's blood out, 100mL donor blood in several times until all the bad blood was flushed out.
If I drain and refill 3 times, perhaps running some 10s of kilometres between each exchange, that will mean 8.7 litres of fresh blood - I mean oil! - will have been injected into the transmission, so it should have displaced most of the old, contaminated oil. Any comments?
Castrol list their Transmax TQ95 for this car, a lot cheaper than Honda's own. One of the shops currently has a sale so it won't be a very expensive exercise and won't involve disturbing anything other than the drain plug.

Just use Honda fluid, drain and refill once - nothing more. The filters in these transmissions are not serviceable, if you need to change the filter, you have to pull the gearbox out of the car. And if you fill your transmission with 100% fresh fluid you will dislodge all of the crap sitting around in it from the worn clutch linings (there is a clutch pack for each gear), and it will block the filter and contribute to an eventual death.

pandai, I thought I would just be draining out some of the "crap" suspended in the oil each time, and ending up with very little left in there after 3 drain/refill cycles?