Here's the deal.... will Monro use the proper fluid? Will they remove the plug and allow the junk to drain out?

I'd just get authentic Honda fluid and change it per the manual.

Gene

Skip the flush...put get the fluid drained and get at the filter, where ever it is. Double check with a Honda specific site maybe...but 9.5 times out of 10...there's no reason you shouldn't be putting 'regular' synthetic ATF back in it.
WallyWorld carries Mobil1 ATF....good stuff.

The 0.5 times out of 10 are chrysler A-604 4 speeds, you really want factory ATF+4 in those.

Myself I've sworn off ATF since I discovered UTF ;)

I usually buy a couple quarts of ATF and do a quick drain and fill every 7.5k when I change the regular oil.

Only at 100k or so will i actually drop the pan and replace the filter. The filter is really just a screen to keep the big stuff out of the valve body, the small particulates that a normal oil filter cleans out stays in the fluid in an automatic transmission.

I wouldn't call 40k old, but I too have heard of old auto tranny's dying after a flush. FWIW

heh dont need to change it THAT often, prolly comes back out red...coulda lasted 3X as long (around 30k)

"Flush killed my transmission" stories are probably mostly of the same type as "synthetic killed my engine" i.e. a horribly badly maintained POS gets serviced at long last and the new stuff breaks off caked on deposits that were gonna throttle and kill it in a few more months anyway.

Yeah, that's the way I understand it happens.

Yeah, at least up until:
I've cluelessly triggered one of these failures on a friend's VW. While I can't say for sure what would have happened had I left it alone, it wasn't displaying any symptoms when I changed the fluid and filter.

When it comes to transmissions, the more the better. As expensive as modern trannies are, it's cheap at the price. I've heard the rule of thumb at most of the boards I post at to be every 30k miles - more often if you feel like it.