Guide ATF Drain/Fill

Chris_Top_Her

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San Antonio, Texas
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'15 CX-5 Miata AWD
After 36000 miles I decided to drain and fill my ATF. According to the manual, 3.5-5 qt will drain out. I drained a little over 3.5 qt.
Oil - Up to 5qt of Mazda ATF FZ (It's blue then it comes out). I believe I paid about 14.50 at the dealer
Preferably a lift. I rented a 4 arm lift for a total of $14 including use of some tool i needed to borrow and an impact gun to install a part I bought.
Tools needed: 10mm socket, Flathead screwdriver, Phillips screwdriver, a general purpose pail with a measurement scale inside, a long funnel and a new washer (I got it free at the dealership) I believe the size of the drain plug was 8mm, you will need an 8mm allen wrench.

Before you even drain your atf I would get a reading after you've driven it so you know your current level is for a visual dipstick reference later.

1. Remove the dip stick from the reservoir. It's at the bottom front of the engine bay, pictured here. It is held in place by a 10mm bolt (already removed in the picture)







2. There are 2 access panels on the cladding that is to be removed; one is the oil access, and one opens to nothing really (I think this may be for the manual transmission). Notice at the top of the picture there is a door (the closes and smallest door to the front of the car), it does not need to be removed, and it is the access for the radiator, don't mess with it. Under the car loosen (or remove, I found it easier just to loosen all the the front and leave the 2 plastic rivets in the rear because they can be hard to get out) the underbody cladding. It consists of about 6 10mm bolts on the front, and like 4 plastic rivets on the side. You can see I have left the two rear on, and it just hangs, you can remove if desired. The transmission pan is to the right of the oil pan, in the picture the bolt is off already. Note that the left is my oil pan, yours will look different as mine has a valve added to it.









3.Allow the oil to drain into the bucket. 3.5-5 quarts is the drain amount. My oil came out reddish brown.






4. Replace the drain plug and a new washer onto the pan.



5.Use the funnel to add your new fluid, starting with the same quantity as you drained, checking for leaks after first quart. Do not reattach the bolt for the dipstick yet.





6. Idle the car (or drive around the block) to heat up the oil before you take a reading. I've found that idling to get a proper reading may take a while, so give it about 10 mins. You are supposed to check it at 50 c (122f). I did this before I drained and filled and it was reading below, got hotter and it was still below (used torque pro to get atf temp from ecu); it read correctly after I had driven though (tested after a drive with the motor still on, wiped it and retook the reading). Just a head up. Add (or drain lol) atf as needed.

7. Throw the oil into the toilet. (Just kidding don't do this)

My result was smoothing out some bump shifting I was getting.
The oil itself will run you about $70 for 5 bottles. Dealer charges about 75 for labour (varies), so by doing this yourself, you just saved about $75 an hour lol.
 
Don't throw the oil in the toilet. (whistle)

Thanks for the write-up Chris.
 
No that wasnt me,I just joined the forum yesterday,just a site that I found useful for many different things.
 
Thanks for posting. Mine doesn't need to be changed yet. I like 'How To' posts like this.
 
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Being a refugee from the early 2000's Honda world, the fact that this fluid came out reddish brown would have made me very suspicious.....I assume it was blue originally---didn't the color change make you or anyone wonder about over-heating? Maybe not enough history here with this engine/tranny for concerns yet. Anyone else noticed this coloration change? I've only got 15k on mine so far, so have not done a drain/refill yet.
 
You know this doesn't need to be done. I tried to buy an extra quart of tran fluid at the dealer and the parts guy said they never change it at the dealership routinely. He talked me out of buying it. How many times has that happened at a dealership! However that fluid was pretty dark at 36000 miles. Thanks for the how to.
 
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I was going to do it at 60k but did at 44k any ways. Was my first time and it went relatively smoothly. Getting the cladding off was the crappy part and crawling underneath the vehicle. Any way, I'm quite glad I performed this maintenance. After I took it out for a spin I did notice it becoming smoother going through the upshifts during acceleration. I'll probably continue doing this every 40k or every 5th-6th oil change while I'm down there.
 
Don't throw the oil in the toilet. (whistle)

That reminds me of the bluff I played on City Hall when I moved to a new town. I called them asking where was the used oil recycling center and they told me there wasn't one. Suspecting there was, I said "Oh, good, that makes it easy. I'll just dump it in the storm water drain in front of my house." She immediately woke up and said "No! Don't do that!" and put me on hold once I promised I wouldn't hang up. In 30 seconds she was back and told me to use the oil recycling facility at the City Marina.

Funny how that works.
 
I was going to do it at 60k but did at 44k any ways. Was my first time and it went relatively smoothly. Getting the cladding off was the crappy part and crawling underneath the vehicle. Any way, I'm quite glad I performed this maintenance. After I took it out for a spin I did notice it becoming smoother going through the upshifts during acceleration. I'll probably continue doing this every 40k or every 5th-6th oil change while I'm down there.
rear diff oil too
 
I have gone round and round on transmission fluid changes for this vehicle. Some dealers say do it. Some say don't. Most don't even know how/if it can be done. As to color change, I wonder in this fluid if it is necessarily indicative of fluid life/fluid failure, etc. The fluid you all are getting out at 30K miles is much darker than I have EVER seen from a transmission before. Even at 100+K miles. It leads me to wonder if a) This is a horribly crappy transmission, or more likely, b) The color of the fluid is meaningless.
 
It leads me to wonder if a) This is a horribly crappy transmission, or more likely, b) The color of the fluid is meaningless.

Must be a "horribly crappy transmission". That's why they all predictably fail right around 50,000 miles.:D


Seriously, I could count on my fingers all the CX-5 transmission failures we've heard about and they all failed early due to a manufacturing defect. The engine/transmission is one of the best things about the CX-5 whether you're talking 2.0L g or 2.5L g.
 
Must be a "horribly crappy transmission". That's why they all predictably fail right around 50,000 miles.:D


Seriously, I could count on my fingers all the CX-5 transmission failures we've heard about and they all failed early due to a manufacturing defect. The engine/transmission is one of the best things about the CX-5 whether you're talking 2.0L g or 2.5L g.
Exactly. Which led me to conclude that fluid color means zip. Like diesel motor oil.
 
I drained/filled my ATF yesterday at 50,000 miles. Really, it's so easy that I can't imagine why anyone would not do this, regardless of Mazda claiming that it never has to be done. I keep my cars until they die, so doing this every 50K makes as much sense to me as changing the oil.
The worst part of this for me was just reaching the dipstick. I don't think that I have very large arms, but man it was a tight squeeze just to jamb my arm down far enough to get to the dipstick! Removing the cladding underneath wasn't too bad - I use ramps to lift the front of the car making the access pretty easy. Beyond that it's as simple as an oil change. Seeing blue liquid on the ground where I spilled a little bit of fluid was kinda odd. Like a blueberry muffin was bleeding on the driveway. LOL. I've never had a blue fluid before.
 
I drained/filled my ATF yesterday at 50,000 miles. Really, it's so easy that I can't imagine why anyone would not do this, regardless of Mazda claiming that it never has to be done. I keep my cars until they die, so doing this every 50K makes as much sense to me as changing the oil.
The worst part of this for me was just reaching the dipstick. I don't think that I have very large arms, but man it was a tight squeeze just to jamb my arm down far enough to get to the dipstick! Removing the cladding underneath wasn't too bad - I use ramps to lift the front of the car making the access pretty easy. Beyond that it's as simple as an oil change. Seeing blue liquid on the ground where I spilled a little bit of fluid was kinda odd. Like a blueberry muffin was bleeding on the driveway. LOL. I've never had a blue fluid before.



How many quarts did you drain out?
 
It was 3.5 quarts. As suggested, I measured the amount coming out to decide how much to put back in. Checking the level of course after that.

Thanks! That sounds about typical from most transmissions I have serviced. 3-5 quarts...
 
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