I haven't looked at the drain plug area yet, but I thought Honda's recommendation was extremely inefficient. Draining and filling three times to flush everything out is odd. Seems there must be some way to suck out more of the fluid. Perhaps one of those suction type oil changers? I'm wondering how much of the extra fluid resides within the valve body. There is no torque converter, so it can't be in there... is there a trans cooler in the base of the radiator like on an A/T? Those coolers and their lines could hold a fair amount of fluid, but they're easily drained.

Guess I have some investigating to do... but plenty of time to do it. I'm only at 4,500 miles now!