ATF Change - Remarks from BobIsTheOilGuy site - please read.

Thread: Mazda Type-FZ Fluid & Skyactiv Drain/Refill Tips

Thread Link

This is for 2.0L engine. Hope it expands our horizons in regards to ATF change.

gova said:

Thread: Mazda Type-FZ Fluid & Skyactiv Drain/Refill Tips

Thread Link

This is for 2.0L engine. Hope it expands our horizons in regards to ATF change.

Click to expand...

Saved that link to my favorites. Thanks.

Good info! Thanks Gova

Good info.. I'm gonna do like the last post in that thread.

I have two identical marked containers

Fluid won't be changed for at least 24-36 hours after last operation.

Vehicle is in garage sitting next to new fluid

I will check level in the end but not gonna guess the refill amount either.

Kedis82ZE8 said:

Good info.. I'm gonna do like the last post in that thread.

• I have two identical marked containers

• Fluid won't be changed for at least 24-36 hours after last operation.

• Vehicle is in garage sitting next to new fluid

I will check level in the end but not gonna guess the refill amount either.

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Yeah lots of "nuggets" in there.

"If you do not have access to a scan tool, my experience was that the fluid temperature was at 122F within 1 minutes of start-up"

Wow it gets hot that fast?

I bought me a 4-quart clear plastic container with markers at the dollar store. Whatever measurement comes out I'll replace. Let idle at maybe 2-3 minutes then do a check the dip stick if needed.

CX-5um said:

Yeah lots of "nuggets" in there.

"If you do not have access to a scan tool, my experience was that the fluid temperature was at 122F within 1 minutes of start-up"

Wow it gets hot that fast?

I bought me a 4-quart clear plastic container with markers at the dollar store. Whatever measurement comes out I'll replace. Let idle at maybe 2-3 minutes then do a check the dip stick if needed.

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Read the line carefully:

If you do not have access to a scan tool, my experience was that the fluid temperature was at 122F within 1 minutes of start-up (but I drained the fluid when the car was still fairly hot and refilled right away, so your experience may vary).

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Here's our Chris_Top_Her's comment in ATF Drain/Fill:

Chris_Top_Her said:

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.

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Putting exact amount of drained out ATF back is a risky business for Mazda's as we don't know if the ATF was underfilled from factory like many other fluids on CX-5!

Thanks. Exactly what I was looking for.
Also, interesting comment he makes about the current Toyotas "not having dipsticks". Seems to be the industry trend..

i use 1 gallon window washer fluid cleaned out and dried first dump old in one and measure new fluid in another container and pour back in

gova said:

Thread: Mazda Type-FZ Fluid & Skyactiv Drain/Refill Tips

Thread Link

This is for 2.0L engine. Hope it expands our horizons in regards to ATF change.

Click to expand...

That fluid is still VERY clean, as far as fluid goes, IMO. Glad I have not bothered with mine.

Seems others in the thread linked agree based on the condition of their fluid, as well.

Unobtanium said:

That fluid is still VERY clean, as far as fluid goes, IMO. Glad I have not bothered with mine.

Seems others in the thread linked agree based on the condition of their fluid, as well.

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I did change mine in both cars. "Very clean" - based on what? I don't think we should go by perceived 'cleanness' of this. It is a closed system so unless there is a very premature wear, it will not get 'dirty'

Will this last much longer w/out change? I am sure it will do to 100K or so, perhaps even more. @100K it is too late to change it and then what?

By 100K most of cars are sold/traded so it is a moot point for current owner, but my changes brought much better shifting behavior. It is subjective but I stick to it.

gova said:

I did change mine in both cars. "Very clean" - based on what? I don't think we should go by perceived 'cleanness' of this. It is a closed system so unless there is a very premature wear, it will not get 'dirty'

Will this last much longer w/out change? I am sure it will do to 100K or so, perhaps even more. @100K it is too late to change it and then what?

By 100K most of cars are sold/traded so it is a moot point for current owner, but my changes brought much better shifting behavior. It is subjective but I stick to it.

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Based on the color of the fluid pictured, and my experience with transmission fluid.

I do not know much about transmission so bear with me here....

Question: the article said it holds about 8 qts but during a change/ fill you will only get 40-50% out.. so, if you wanted to do a full fluid change, how would you do all 8 qts.

Again bear with me here, so after the drain, could you turn on the engine for about 10-15 sec. and let the remaining fluid circulate to the bottom so to drain it out fully. If the transmission is not in gear would it hurt it?

Then you can fill it up, run it and top off with a full 8 qt change?

Just asking, not trying to be silly or stupid.

ddtigger1 said:

I do not know much about transmission so bear with me here....

Question: the article said it holds about 8 qts but during a change/ fill you will only get 40-50% out.. so, if you wanted to do a full fluid change, how would you do all 8 qts.

Again bear with me here, so after the drain, could you turn on the engine for about 10-15 sec. and let the remaining fluid circulate to the bottom so to drain it out fully. If the transmission is not in gear would it hurt it?

Then you can fill it up, run it and top off with a full 8 qt change?

Just asking, not trying to be silly or stupid.

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I'd not do that. Half a fluid exchange is good enough. If you want to get nutty about it, do the job twice after driving around a bit.

^ this is how it used to be done when one was able to tap into the ATF cooling line. With CX5 it is not possible.

The only option you have is to change the fluid several times to get to the happy point of new vs old.

gova said:

^ this is how it used to be done when one was able to tap into the ATF cooling line. With CX5 it is not possible.

The only option you have is to change the fluid several times to get to the happy point of new vs old.

Click to expand...

You don't want to shock the transmission with a bunch of new fluid.

I used to think the above was bulls***, and would argue and argue that the transmission was not a fish, and the fluid was not aquarium water. After killing multiple transmissions because of fluid changes though, I digress. DO NOT SHOCK THE SYSTEM! I personally am against changing it at all. As the mechanic who warned me about it before each of mine had issues because I had the fluid changed (not flushed, drop/filled, AT THE DEALER), "if the fluid is bad, the clutches are already having issues, and changing it is going to introduce a different friction coefficient as well as much more concentrated/new detergents, and you will sludge up the valve body/it will die like a dog. If the fluid is not bad...you don't need to change it anyways".

Again, I called bulls***, because I was a young man with a college degree and he was just an old guy with a lazy eye who puttered around and talked about his race-cars in the 70's (that ran 11's, seen the timeslips and photo-albums, btw...), and the world had moved on from his glory years, and surely he was ignorant of the way things are NOW...but I got my plate of crow 3 times in a row before I stopped coming back for more.

1) 1988 Mustang GT. Ran fine with the old fluid in it. Old as hell, got it back in 2005ish. Changed the fluid...DEAD. Would not hardly shift out of first unless I redlined it and backed off and did all sorts of nonsense.
2) But the 1988 GT was an old car...and now I had an Infiniti G20, true, it had 110K miles on it, but the fluid looked good, it shifted great, never had set up, what could be the harm? Infiniti dealer did the fluid drain via pan drop. 5K miles later, it was the same as my Mustang GT, except it had OBDII, and it was throwing tq converter codes, slippage codes, and all sorts of crap. Dead as a dog.
3) Well those two cars were older, and had higher miles. Now I had a 2010 Grand Jeep Cherokee (in 2014) with only 68K miles, and the service interval was 60K miles. Surely THIS ONE would be fine to change fluid on! ITS EVEN IN THE SERVICE MANUAL! Well...it wasn't. I ended up with a tq converter shudder that was new after the fluid change, and never really went away.

Also of note) I had a 2001 WS.6. Surely manuals are fine to change fluid in, right? No. It never shifted the same again. I should have left the 75K mile fluid in it.


Here is the list of cars that I got better performance of/shifted and worked smoother after changing the fluid in:

My only experience with a drain and fill was with my 2002 Acura TL (known for transmission problems). Did one with 30k on the warranty replaced transmission to get some of the updated fluid into the transmission. No issues at the time, but the shifting improved. Sold the car 30k miles later and still shifted fine. But those transmissions were known to fail eventually.

"Shocking" the trans would be more true of something with higher mileage on it, clutches would be worn and the friction of the fresh fluid would be doing its thing against the trans. Now if you changed the fluid out every 20 to 30 thousand miles, it wouldn't be an issue, but IMO it'd be more of a waste. Maybe intervals of maybe 40k? Don't know. It's like religion and politics, everyone has a different opinion. Since I got my warranty out to 100k miles, I'll just not worry about it.

I've hear some people say before X miles or never. X is somewhere south of 60k.

The only transmission maintenance that possibly or most likely caused failure was a flush on my G35x. Torque converter began to experience shudder months after this work. Never again for me. Fortunately covered under my Infiniti Elite warranty though.

Regarding draining the automatic transmission oil, before we discuss about totally draining it via drain plug, is it really possible to drain it completely? What about the remaining transmission oil inside the torque converter and oil cooler?

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