The axle seals in your Honda Accord are primarily responsible for keeping your transmission lubricated and sealing the axle input shaft in your Honda. When these seals become damaged or torn, your Honda Accord can become a leaky, dirty mess. The fluid that will leak out from your axle seals is transmission fluid, and if left unrepaired your transmission could run without the proper fluid pressure or lubrication.
That’s what our how to change a Honda Accord axle seal DIY guide comes in, helping you prevent that kind of situation. Axle seals are relatively cheap parts, while your transmission is most certainly not. Today we’ll be showing you how to change a Honda Accord Axle seal in a 1999 Honda Accord SE with the 2.3 liter F23 SOHC VTEC engine.
While this vehicle in question is equipped with an automatic transmission, not much of this DIY guide will differ if you own a manual. Before you begin our DIY guide on how to change a Honda Accord axle seal, you must raise the vehicle and secure it safely. If you are not sure on how to safely secure your Honda Accord, check out our list of handy tips.
Drain your transmission, whether it’s automatic as our test vehicle is, or a manual.
If you are working on your Honda Accord, the automatic transmission axle seals are part numbers 91205-p0x-005 and 91206-PK4-003 respectively.
Now with the front of your Honda Accord raised and secured, you are ready to begin our DIY article. Remove your front wheels and make sure your vehicle is properly secured. You should go ahead now and use a flathead screwdriver to undimple your axle nut from the front hub assembly. The socket to remove the axle nut is a 36mm, remove the axle nuts now.
With your axle nuts removed, the fastest way to pop your Honda Accord axles is to remove the sway bar end links first. Disconnect both sides of your front sway bar end links to your lower K member and subframe.
Gun off this 14mm nut, disconnect the sway bar end link and then put the 14mm nut back. The next part you’ll be loosening is the steering tie rod ends, these are secured with a castle nut and a cotter pin. Remove the cotter pin, and back off the 14mm castle nut to free your steering rack from your front wheels.
Make sure not to damage the threads of your end link, otherwise you’ll be in for our How To Replace a Honda Accord Tie Rod End DIY article.
The next part you will be removing is the lower suspension fork or pickle. This unit has a long 17mm bolt that runs through the forked end, which then connects your lower fork to the front lower control arm. Undo the 17mm nut and slide this bolt out of your Honda Accord front lower control arm. The next bolt you’ll be removing is the 14mm lynch bolt that connects the pickle to your front shock absorber.
Remove this 14mm nut and your suspension pickle ( or fork ) should slide right off. With this suspension fork removed, you should now be able to lift your driver side hub assembly and remove the long axle that’s on the driver side.
Remove this long axle and then repeat this process to free the passenger side CV axle shaft. Now that you have both axle shafts removed, you can begin addressing your failed Honda Accord axle seals.
Here’s a before shot of our Honda Accord axle seals. As you can tell these are worn and beat up, not to mention pretty leaky and making a complete mess of the Honda Accord undercarriage and subframe. Depending on how bad your axle seals were leaking, you may or may not want to hose off the lower rear subframe to prevent any droppings as you work.
Remove the axle seals using a needle nose plier but do not damage, nick or scratch the outer surface or the inner gears.
With the Honda Accord axle seal removed, clean and prep the new surface and double check that you haven’t scratched or nicked the circumference of the axle seal opening.
Remove your new Honda Accord axle seals and make sure that this spring is still in place.
Carefully and evenly place your new axle seal over the side you are replacing first.
Once you are sure that you have the new Honda Accord axle seal evenly placed over the opening, you can depress to install. Firmly but gently press around the surface area of your axle seal evenly. Make sure you are not binding or putting the new axle seal in crooked. Make sure you do not bend or deform the metal ring that’s vital to keeping your spring and transmission fluid where they belong.
If you’ve reached this part of your axle job, you have now completed our How To Change a Honda Accord Axle Seal DIY article. If you have any questions about the process or steps on how to change a Honda Accord axle seal, let us know below!
