What was the condition of that drain+fill? Burnt? Dark? Excess amount of metallic flakes or buildup on the drain bolt? Focusing on things you can diy would be additional D+F and using OEM solenoid replacements.

 

The condition of the fluid was bright red when I took it out. And we did swap most of the solenoids from the OEM transmission onto the JDM one but it is possible that we may have missed one.

 

The car is at 135k miles and at 100k miles the transmission was replaced with a JDM transmission with 40k miles.

Just curious, why was it replaced so soon, and with a JDM transmission?

There are no Pilots on the Japan Domestic Market.

 

The transmission fluid used to burn within 30 minutes of driving, torque converter was not in the housing properly and was causing friction. Honestly the price of the transmission was good, it had low miles, and it looked clean. And that is true there are no Pilots in Japan, but they have the MDX and the transmission is identical.

 

P0741 indicates an internal pressure leak in the tq converter clutch hydraulic circuit. Either the converter has internally failed or debris is stopping a valve from closing all the way. 99.9% the trans need to be rebuilt/replaced.

 

Would my car show signs of this code? Because to me and the rest of my family it feels completely fine to drive. How can I tell if I am one of the lucky ones?

 

Does the torque converter work? Does it "lock" when you reach 45 mph (I think?).
If the fluid Is clean and its shifting fine there isn't much you can do but wait for it to actually fail.
I am not the kind of person to replace a transmission/torque converter just because of one code, I would most definitely wait until there is a failure of some sort.

 

Same issue here on an 05, p0741 code is confirmed or pending during all freeway travel, but the tranny still drives and shifts well. Fluid is clean, clutch solenoid was tested and free of debris, will check the rest when I have some more time.
Does anyone know if this is likely the torque converter or the transmission, or both?

would a friction additive help the torque converter lock up?

I plan to pull a used tranny and torque converter from a rear wrecked pilot at the junk yard and install myself , otherwise the cost of repair is higher than the value of the car, which is otherwise in great condition.

 

You need to determine if the torque converter clutch is able to lock up in cruise. Take the Pilot for a drive on a level road with little traffic. Bring it up to 55 mph and hold a steady speed. If you can, count the gear changes as you accelerate and watch the tachometer. As the Pilot shifts into 5th , you should see the tach drop for 5th gear, and then do another drop of about 200 rpm as the torque converter locks up. If you don't get the second rpm drop, then your TC clutch is not working. If the TC clutch is slipping, you will see a sloppy or slow lockup drop, and possibly a wavering tach in final cruise.

You can try to clean up the fluid with drain and fills, and there is an external filter that you can replace on the '05, but this may not help. Long shot cheap fix that you could try is to add a transmission seal conditioner. A member here on the forum swears by AT 205, if you can find it. It might help bring up system pressure and improve TC clutch function for a while, or it might not. Something to maybe try before you get out the wrenches. All the best.