8:10 AM CST

02 6spd.

Car is up in the air and level.

Removed the fill plug then the drain plug. I was expecting a gush of fluid after I pulled the plug and all I've seen is a trickle.

It's been draining 20 minutes and I don't think there is a quart in the drain pan.

First thought is I did something wrong, but this is pretty simple.

Second thought, has it been this way since new?

Thoughts?????

 

Don't know if this will make you feel better but it does indicate a smaller capacity between drain and fill than the book figure.

When the local guy did mine last year he could only add slightly less than 2 quarts instead of the expected 4 and a half.

Cheers, Andy

 

9:00 AM CST

I lifted the car left to right and a little more fluid came out.

I have a case of trans fluid so filling definitely was going to be the telltale factor.

It took 3 1/2 quarts...

Hard to believe a tech somewhere drained it and forgot to fill it??

Well, it's done now, I'll be curious to see how it shifts.

Thanks for the comments.

 

Any update on how things turned out - did the tranny work better? Hard to believe it only had a little more than a quart in it.

 

Most of the oil is locked up in the torque converter. You can not drain that oil. What you did is drain the pan. Now you are ready to drop the pan and change the filter.

To change the oil. You have to flush it out.

Here is an easy way to do this. Get three large buckets(2 to 3 gallon size) and get new transmission oil in the gallon sized container. Get enough fluid per specs to replace all the fluid. Find out which oil cooler line is the return line. Discount this line some where near the radiator or oil cooler. Hook up a hose (I have used old rubber fuel lines) to the return line and place into the first gallon container of transmission fluid. This will suck in the new oil.

Discount the other transmission oil cooler line. This will be outflow line. Hook up another line to this line and place in first 2 to 3 gallon bucket.

No the fun begins. Start the car. Watch your levels and keep changing the buckets and oil container until you have used up all the new oil. Make sure you stop before you use all of the new oil. You don't want to get air into the system and you don't want to flush out the new oil. If the engine is running, the transmission oil pump is moving fluid around.

Once you have used most of you new oil up. Kill the engine. Hook the oil cooler lines back up and check your transmission fluid levels. I think there is 12 to 20 quarts of transmission fluid in a transmission, but please look it up.

I would ask for an extra hand or two if you can get someone to help you watch over the process. Oh, shifting during this process is not a bad idea, but you will need the rear tires jacked up too.

If you have sticky valves, you can use Sea Foam for transmissions. Follow their instructions. In General, you need to drive the car and make some shifts before you change the oil.

One more Oh, this could get messy. I would take it to an oil change facility and have them do it. They have a special machine designed to do this work.

 

His car is a 6spd not an automatic. Hence, no torque convertor.

 

It appeared to be a little better but no night and day difference, so I hope no damage was done.

 

I bought one of the plastic hand pumps at AutoZone and pump the old fluid out and then pump in the new fluid at the capacity cited in the owners manual.

Todd