How to Check and Fill Fluids 2001-05 Honda Civic 1-7L 4-cyl

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In this video, we're going to show you how to check and fill fluids. This is a 2003 Honda Civic with the 1.7-Liter 4-cylinder. This is pretty much the same for the 2001 to 2005 Civics with this engine, as well as various other Honda vehicles. Power steering fluid, which we check on the marks. Ours is a little low. Use Honda and Acura-specific power steering fluid. Bring it back up to the full line.

This is the color your fluid should be in the reservoir. Make sure that it isn't dark or burnt smelling. These things can indicate pump failures and other kinds of wear in the system. When the vehicle's off and has been sitting for at least a few seconds to allow the oil to drain down, remove your engine oil dip stick. Wipe it off. Put it all the way back in.

When checking your oil level, these two dots indicate one quart. As you can see, ours is right at the top dot, nice and full. Halfway between would mean you need a half a quart. This dot would mean a quart. Anything below, you'll have to add a quart at a time and inspect your dip stick each time. You can't judge the condition of the fluid off-color with oil because it becomes very dark, very quick. Make sure that you monitor the mileage for your oil change intervals.

With the engine cold, carefully release the radiator cap. Make sure there's no pressure, sure that you have plenty of coolant in there. Our radiator's full. Here on the expansion tank, we have our minimum and our maximum fill lines. As you can see, ours is empty from when we changed our radiator. We'll remove the cap, use a funnel to bring it up to that full line with 50/50 diluted coolant. Remove the cap on your master cylinder. Inspect the condition of the brake fluid. It should look like green today. Any kind of milkiness or dark discolorations indicate that there's some kind of contamination to the brake fluid, and it should be flushed and refilled immediately.

The minimum and maximum marks are on the side. As long as it is between there, you're okay. You don't want to top it up if it's between the min and max because, as your brake pads wear down, more fluid is needed to fill the void behind the calipers and a little bit of fluid sucks down. As long as there's fluid in the cylinder and above the minimum line, only top off after replacing your brake pads.

Start the vehicle. You'll want to make sure that your engine has reached operating temperature and that you've driven the car a little bit to allow the transmission fluid to circulate properly. Remove your transmission dip stick, wipe it off, reinstall, and check your fluid level.

The fluid level should be between these hash marks. Otherwise, you'll want to install a funnel where the dip stick goes and top off your fluid.

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