Transmission fluid change without filter replacement

ATF filter cartridge is not that easy to get dirty in a sealed environment and most metal debris are stick with the maganent on the pan anyway. The hassle of using silicon to seal the pan properly is something even I hate to do.

Excellent explanation.

As for me = I'm lazy.
 
You can, it's just more of a pain since you can't get a new gasket for the pan.
There's a pan gasket available from Taiwan. But those cork type of ATF pan gasket normally is prone to leak unless you keep tighten the bolts from time to time.

Read CX-5um's posts (#68 and 71) and he only removed the section between airbox to inlet on top of radiator, and moved around the whole airbox without disconnecting anything else to access the ATF dipstick. I wouldn't try to weight the ATF, just measure the level when the blue light just turned off. And shift all possible gears while the transmission is warming up, or drive around a bit if possible.
 
IMO, if you're going to go to all the trouble of double-draining the pan and wasting half the ATF fluid in the process, those are pretty lame excuses for not doing it properly and changing the filter. Silicone sealing the pan like the factory does is not that big a deal! Seems like a lot of wasted effort to me.
 
IMO, if you're going to go to all the trouble of double-draining the pan and wasting half the ATF fluid in the process, those are pretty lame excuses for not doing it properly and changing the filter. Silicone sealing the pan like the factory does is not that big a deal! Seems like a lot of wasted effort to me.
The only benefit of taking the pan down is to get filter cartridge replaced. You cant get any more old ATF out because the other half stays mostly in the torque converter and some in valve body. By doing drain-and-fill only definitely is not a wasted effort to make ATF fresher.
 
The only benefit of taking the pan down is to get filter cartridge replaced. You can*t get any more old ATF out because the other half stays mostly in the torque converter and some in valve body. By doing drain-and-fill only definitely is not a wasted effort to make ATF fresher.

That's my point!
 
IMO, if you're going to go to all the trouble of double-draining the pan and wasting half the ATF fluid in the process, those are pretty lame excuses for not doing it properly and changing the filter. Silicone sealing the pan like the factory does is not that big a deal! Seems like a lot of wasted effort to me.

You may get some more fluid out doing that, but it still won't be more than 50% of it. There's no way to get all the fluid exchanged. So the effort really is just to replace the filter.

Still drain/fills will get fresh fluid in there which can't hurt.
 
So...doing my second drain and fill as I type this (waiting for fluid to finish draining).

This time I think I measured correctly. I moved the airbox out of the way, but left it attached. Started the car and waited for the cold temp blue light to turn off. Then with the car still idling, checked dipstick. Assuming that's what I am supposed to do, I think I am still low as it should be closer to the middle eh? Or the other line perhaps?

Edit: Car was still level, not on ramps yet.

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Anyway, here's pics from the rest of the service. 3 1/2 quarts drained out again. I went ahead and added 4 quarts this time. I managed to spill some again, doh! Might be hard to tell...fluid was brownish with a greenish tint to it. Not black like it looks in the pics.

The pitcher worked great as a catch can. Once I pit the lid on it, it poured very easily with funnel back into the empty fluid bottles, versus trying to pour out of the oil catch pan.

71,554 miles.


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So...doing my second drain and fill as I type this (waiting for fluid to finish draining).

This time I think I measured correctly. I moved the airbox out of the way, but left it attached. Started the car and waited for the cold temp blue light to turn off. Then with the car still idling, checked dipstick. Assuming that's what I am supposed to do, I think I am still low as it should be closer to the middle eh? Or the other line perhaps?

Edit: Car was still level, not on ramps yet.

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Nice!

ATF level should be at the central marker area on the dipstick at 122F while the engine is running. Make sure to shift into all possible gears during the warm-up.

Judging by the color of your drained ATF, I may consider another drain-and-fill if I were you.

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Good call...I am going to measure again later, but I think the 4 quarts might have been a bit too much for the underfill. I think I might have overfilled it slightly. I'll do 1 more drain/fill session and be a little more cautious with how much extra I'm adding. I'll have to pick up an extra bottle of FZ as I'm down to 2 1/2 of them left.
 
Good call...I am going to measure again later, but I think the 4 quarts might have been a bit too much for the underfill. I think I might have overfilled it slightly. I'll do 1 more drain/fill session and be a little more cautious with how much extra I'm adding. I'll have to pick up an extra bottle of FZ as I'm down to 2 1/2 of them left.
Since you rely on coolant temperature instead a true ATF temperature, I believe your actual ATF temperature may be lower the way you use the coolant blue light. I'd try to measure the ATF level again from cold to blue light off, then measure it making sure the level is at the center marker area. Try to use a clean turkey baster or compact siphon pump to suck the extra ATF out if the level is high. If you decided to do the third time shortly, then don't worry too much about the ATF level at this time.
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Since you rely on coolant temperature instead a true ATF temperature, I believe your actual ATF temperature may be lower the way you use the coolant blue light. I'd try to measure the ATF level again from cold to blue light off, then measure it making sure the level is at the center marker area. Try to use a clean turkey baster or compact siphon pump to suck the extra ATF out if the level is high. If you decided to do the third time shortly, then don't worry too much about the ATF level at this time.
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How would I properly use one of those tools to measure ATF temp? I don't know how those scanners work, but am willing to learn.
 
How would I properly use one of those tools to measure ATF temp? I don't know how those scanners work, but am willing to learn.
If the ATF level is high, use this sophon pump getting the ATF out little by little through the dipstick hole until it reaches to the proper level.

To read ATF temperature, you only need to get some OBDII reader. Make sure to get a right one which actually reads the data from ATF temperature sensor, not simply uses engine coolant temperature and displays it as the ATF temperature.

Anyone found an OBD2 phone app that will read transmission fluid temp?

Any Scangauge users confirm AT temp is picked up?
 
If the ATF level is high, use this sophon pump getting the ATF out little by little through the dipstick hole until it reaches to the proper level.

To read ATF temperature, you only need to get some OBDII reader. Make sure to get a right one which actually reads the data from ATF temperature sensor, not simply uses engine coolant temperature and displays it as the ATF temperature.

Anyone found an OBD2 phone app that will read transmission fluid temp?

Any Scangauge users confirm AT temp is picked up?

Perfect, thank you!
 
Judging by the color of your drained ATF, I may consider another drain-and-fill if I were you.

I am planning on one more.

That said, fluid looks worse in the pics than I think it actually is. It's blue so I think even driving it a bit is going to give it this type of color. It's brownish with a noticeably green tint. It's not black like the picture makes it look like.
 
Interesting tidbit of information for you.

I went down to the dealer as I was a quart short for one more drain/fill. He tried to charge me $24.95 for the one bottle of fluid. When I countered and told him I just bought 10 quarts there a couple weeks ago for $14.89, he says "oh they gave it to you at cost". He then proceeded to see it to me for the $14.89 instead of the $24.95.

So there you have it. They try to screw you everywhere at the dealer. Shouldn't fluid just be one set price anywhere? Apparently not...
 
Interesting tidbit of information for you.

I went down to the dealer as I was a quart short for one more drain/fill. He tried to charge me $24.95 for the one bottle of fluid. When I countered and told him I just bought 10 quarts there a couple weeks ago for $14.89, he says "oh they gave it to you at cost". He then proceeded to see it to me for the $14.89 instead of the $24.95.

So there you have it. They try to screw you everywhere at the dealer. Shouldn't fluid just be one set price anywhere? Apparently not...

Prices are different everywhere. The dealer up around me will charge $8 for a filter, while a dealer 30 miles south will charge $6.75 for the same thing. Also depends on the guy behind the counter.
 
Ok...did my 3rd and last drain and fill session. 3.5 qts was too little. 4 qts was too much. I used 3.7 qts on this last session and it was perfect. Measured again after cycling through all the gears and the blue light went off (took several minutes) and the fluid was perfectly in the box on the dipstick.

Color wise, looked the same as the last session honestly. It's a blue fluid, I think its going to darken pretty quickly. Picture once again makes it look black, but trust me it is not.

Anyway forgot to snap a pic of the dipstick at the right level, but I plan on measuing it again soon as I ordered one of those scan things and downloaded a phone app to read ATF temp.

Edit: yes I need to sweep out the garage, badly.

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