So I bought my A4 91 Coupe, 65K miles last fall. She's been in the garage for the most part due to winter (Canada) receiving all sorts of pampering, cleaning, polishing and assorted love (one of these days my girlfreind IS going to start to get jealous *LOL*)

I have minimal background / history on the car, however, based on what i do know and the condition of the car, at nearly 15 years old, it has been very well taken care of.

Anyways, I have already converted her over to Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil, and would like to upgrade some other fluids. I plan to "do everything right" and treat her well so that she lasts a long time for me. A few questions:

1. How hard is it to change the tranny fluid? I have never done this job on any car. Would like to go synthetic. Also, should I change the filter at the same time. Someone told me not changing the filter when changing the fluid is the worst thing you can do - that a fluid change without a new filter makes you worse off than when you had the used fluids.

2. Would also like to change the rear differential fluid, also going synthetic. How difficult is this job?

Local Mr. Lube shop charges $60 for the differtnial fluid change (Synthetic) and $199 for the tranny (also synthetic). Don't want to spend the coin if I can do these jobs myself, plus I enjoy doing these things, so as long a si know what I'm doing or can learn, I like to take it on myself.

3. Any other suggestions on valuable / worthwhile fluid changes, upgrades, etc?

 

Let's see....

The filter isn't all that important. Your friend is way off... what is important is getting ALL the fluid out. And this is how you do it:

1) get a case of fluid. You will need a lot.
2) remove the UPPER coolant line from the radiator (this is the smaller metal line on the right - passenger - side of the radiator).
3) attach a 5' long piece of hose to the end of the line, use a hose clamp to hold in place.
4) get a 5 gallon bucket to accept the fluid. put hose in bucket.
5) remove the transmission dipstick, insert a funnel.
6) start car. go to right side and monitor fluid flow.
7) once the fluid starts to slow, pour in a quart.
8) keep this up until about 6 or 7 quarts have passed through the system.
9) shut down the engine, let things settle. Reattach hose to radiator.
10) jack up car, drop tranny pan, replace filter.
11) refill transmission
12) pop a cool one - done.

Rear diff -

1) jack up car.
2) on the right side of the diff, there is a plug. remove plug. pipe wrench or 17mm allen will remove the plug.
3) get a small hand pump (Mighty-Mite is very good).
4) using the pump, pump out all the old fluid.
5) get 2 bottles of GM diff additive; pump them in
6) get a bottle of gear oil, 75-90wt (or there-abouts); pump it in
7) fill until it starts to weap out of the drain/fill hole.
8) reinstall plug. done.

Hope this helps! Those labour prices seem high, even translated into USC.

 

Replacing the power steering fluid with a synthetic is another good thing to do. This one is simple; go to a store and get a turkey baster. DO NOT use the G/F's one for this!! There will be consequences....

Suck out all of the fluid from the PS reservoir and refill with a synthetic (I use Red Line Synthetic in my 87 as it sees lots of high RPM use during autocross or track use). Start the motor and with the wheels off the ground, turn the wheel lock to lock a few time. Repeat three or four times.

If the brakes have not been serviced, a brake fluid flush is worth doing. You can use a Mity-Vac to do this or you can install a set of Speed Bleeders on the calipers to make it a one-person job. It takes about a quart of fluid to do a flush. Suck out the flid from the master cylinder reservoir and refill with fresh fluid and bleed the brakes according to the service manual. I use Castrol LMA in my 92 driver and Ford Motorcraft Heavy Duty fluid (yes, FORD ) in my 87) Or use your favorite DOT3 or DOT4 fluid.

One of the best buys you can make is a factory service manual. They are available from Helm, Inc., the suppliers for GM Go to www.helminc.com to order one for your car. You can find them on eBay or sometimes in the C4 Parts For Sale section. Well worth having if you want to do a lot of your own work

 

Thanks guys - I appreciate the feedback and suggestions.

Yeah, the labour rates are just stupid. Like I said, the tranny flush is $199 for synthetic, but only $89 with regular ATF? Go figure, it's not like it takes $110 worth of synthetic to flush the tranny.

And yes, I am definitely going to get a factory service manual soon.

I've heard nothing but good things about them. I'm going to a Corvette swap meet next weekend in Puyallup Washington, hoping someone there might be selling them, or selling a used one. If not, I will order a new one.

Cheers - thanks again.

 

I work at the Meet in Puyallup. Last yeyar, I bought a manual set from a vendor. Make sure you get the manual set with red covers. The red covers are the "production" versions. Manuals with a white cover are a preliminary manual that was used as sort of a draft so changes could be made before the printing of the final version (red cover).

 

Thanks George. I will look for the red books.

Can I ask, how many books are in the set and what did you pay? Just want to make sure I don't get duped by someone.

 

I believe all of the C4 manuals are two volume sets. The first book is general repair and have sections for each major area (A/C, cooling, engine, suspension, etc.) and the second book covers electrical repair and driveability/emissions.

The set I got at the meet for my 87 was $60 but I bought a brand new set for my 92 direct from Helm. From what I have seen on the Helm website, they will ship to Canada and prices are in USD. Expect to pay about $100 USD for new from Helm plus shipping. Shipping takes about 2 weeks.

Guess it depends if you want a nice brand new set or a set that is used. I have seen some in pretty sad shape with pages torn and lots of greasy stains.

Sometimes you can find good deals on eBay but then you or the seller may have to deal with customs or declarations.