One of the first things I did when I bought my 2011 Acura TL months ago was I drained out the ATF-DW1 fluid and replaced it with Redline D6. According to Redline, their D6 fluid is a suitable replacement. However, I've been experiencing some upshifting issues during hard acceleration and can't help but wonder if the fluid is the cause. I didn't drive the vehicle long enough with the original DW1 fluid for comparison, so I'm just speculating. Here are the viscosity ratings for each fluid. The cSt at 100C is close, but at 40C there is a difference of 5 cSt. Is this enough of a difference to cause noticeable issues?

Acura DW1:
Vis @ 100C = 6.835
Vis @ 40C = 25.09

Redline D6:
Vis @ 100C = 6.4
Vis @ 40C = 30.7

 

Seems to be less compatible the cooler it is. It's been my experience that Acura transmissions can be a little difficult, I would consider changing back.

 

And Acura ATF-Z1, which was superseded by DW1 (for whatever reason), has the following ratings:

29.5 @ 40C, 7.05 @ 100C. Closer to the DW1 on the hot end and closer to the D6 on the cooler end.

 

The only thing I can extrapolate from that is maybe the Redline is too thin at operating temperature?

 

Yes, I noticed that too, but is 0.435 cSt really that significant? There must be something else in the DW1 fluid that the Acura transmissions require.