I bit the bullet and changed the tranny fluid this weekend.
Not bad but a couple of notes:

1) The flanges where my Corsa Indys bolt together is in the way of dropping the pan straight down so i ended up dumping at least a quart of old fluid on the concrete. Also, filling the pan afterwards with the engine running makes for some interesting gymnasics in dealing with hot exhaust.

2) The little metal/rubber thing that the filter plugs into was a bear to get out. I ended up prying one of the edges in with a screwdriver then pulling like heck with pliers.

3) The pan was pretty clean and the fluid looked good after 47k miles. Just a little brown sediment in the pan but the magnet that is mounted in the pan was covered with greasy, metal filings. There must have been half a teaspoon.

4) My torgue wrench wouldn't go down to the 97 in lb so i have to retighten the pan mounting bolts after i get another wrench. No leaks, yet.

5) While I was warming the transmission up to 70 degrees, I put the C5 in gear. I got ABS warning and Traction Control warnings at the same time. The front wheels were obviously stopped and the rears were spinning at about 30 mph. I thought it was funny to get both messages at the same time.
I was going to take some pictures but there was really nothing to see.

I took it for a 100 mile spin and got the transmission up to 200+ degrees. Everything worked fine.



[Modified by RedLandRocket, 8:12 AM 5/22/2002]

 

No need to pull pan :smash: Take and get it pumped in :yesnod:
Get it ALL changed,not just a few quarts. :yesnod:

 

But what about the filter?

My filter was pretty dirty. :confused:

 

change the filter then get it flushed. that way you get a complete change of atf. :cheers:

 

Either way,ya need to pump it in for a total fluid change. :seeya

 

When you flush, do you use the in/out lines to the cooler?

 

Yes, you use the cooler line :yesnod: Either one,the machine has a check valve. It's a cake walk

 

I was a bit concerned about getting it pumped because of potential clog issues in the cooling lines. Is this a valid concern?

BTW, I also have an aftermarket tranny cooler.

 

If you don't have a clog now,You should not have a problem at all :D
Just some smoooooth shifting :yesnod: Put the Amsoil ATF in it :cheers:

 

Just an FYI, you do not need to pay a shop to use their machine to pump it. After pulling the pan and swapping the filter, you can disconnect the front cooler hoses and simply attach clear hose extensions to them. One is input, one is output. Get a pair of large 15qt drain pans, and stick the output hose into it. Open all your cans of new ATF and pour them into the other drain pan, which MUST be clean. Then, have a helper start the engine, the tranny pump will pump all the old fluid out through the output and pull the new in through the input. Make sure the input is always in a deep corner of the pan sucking fluid. Watch the clear extension on your output line, as soon as the color changes from the dark red used color to a brighter red of new fluid, shut the engine off and reconnect the hoses to the cooler lines. Then pull the check/fill plug under the car with the engine running, and follow the normal procedure to check fluid level, you'll probably have to add just a little more with a fluid pump to get it just right, because of the cooler's volume.

A shop charges roughly $100 to do this, and if you want to use synthetic fluid, they need extra to flush their lines of the normal ATF. Redline synthetic ATF runs around $8 a quart, you'll need around 10 for the car and another 5 or so for the shop's machine. That's $220 for a shop to do it. Compare with $20 for 2 drain pans, $5 for a fluid pump, $5 for some clear hose, and $80 for synthetic ATF. $220 vs $110, and it doesn't take long.

Sam

 

no thanks :eek: