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It is true that the statements about maintenance are scattered through out the Owners Manual, in all model years. I have sorted through the entire manual for all maintenance related statements. I have not found any inconsistencies - please point them out if you have found something. I summarized what appears in the 2021 and 2023 manuals in a table, and I highlighted any differences between the prior model year and the 2023 manual. It is attached below. I am not suggesting that you do what my table says - rather - I have indicated the pages where the statement are found. You can go and read the statements yourself and decide what you want to do. There is one area that is controversial. The manuals (all of them) appear to say that when a transmission fluid change is indicated you must also change the external canister filter. There is no doubt the statement is there. It even appears in the 2023 manual even though a separate fluid filter life monitor was added. Some have suggested it must be a typo or a cut and paste error.
Nice....so if I change my trans. fluid BEFORE it tells me to but at 3 years I do not need to change filter if the millage on the filter is still WAY before millage change.. It says if you are close to filter change then change it with fluid BUT it says NOTHING about changeing the filter if not close?? So I say thats confuseing....Telling me to change it if close but not if it is not close....?????????? I have read all you posted but am still not sure but I am leaning to just go by the dct millage..There will be times when I only have maybe 17000 miles to go to change dct filter but need to change the fluid..good work on the post ...
Nice....so if I change my trans. fluid BEFORE it tells me to but at 3 years I do not need to change filter if the millage on the filter is still WAY before millage change.. It says if you are close to filter change then change it with fluid BUT it says NOTHING about changeing the filter if not close?? So I say thats confuseing....Telling me to change it if close but not if it is not close....?????????? I have read all you posted but am still not sure but I am leaning to just go by the dct millage..There will be times when I only have maybe 17000 miles to go to change dct filter but need to change the fluid..good work on the post ...
If I follow your example correctly, that is the controversial requirement I also pointed out in post 13: "There is one area that is controversial. The manuals (all of them) appear to say that when a transmission fluid change is indicated you must also change the external canister filter." And yeah, it seems to be that if you change it at 3 years, it does not indicate a need to change the filter. But if you are changing fluid because the fluid life monitor is low, it seems to say change the filter too, but not in the discussion of the fluid life monitor on page 249. I agree that particular requirement seems like over reach. And especially out of place when the fluid filter life monitor was added.
The only thing I can suggest is to lay out your estimated service events based on your estimated mileage and time, and see if the concern actually happens and maybe adjust your plan to avoid it. In my case, I only put 2500 miles on my car in 1 year. I had the engine oil, and DCT filter changed at that time. At year two, at 5000 miles I will have the engine oil changed. At year three, I will have near 7500 miles at which time I will change the DCT filter (again) and also the trans fluid based on the three year rule. And I will reset the fluid life monitor as well. So I never encounter the potential dilemma associated with the apparent requirement to change the filter if the fluid life monitor is low.
If you drive a lot of miles, you might end up changing the filter at 7,500, 30,000, 52,500 and so on (if you go by the 22500 intervals). The fluid life monitor might get low at or near 45000 (maybe). So, you will encounter the dilemma that you just changed the filter at 30000 miles, but now the fluid life monitor is low (at 45000 lets say), but you just changed the filter 15000 miles ago at 30K.
But, if you instead changed the filter at 7500, 22500, 45000 miles, then it might work out. The fluid life will be low at 45000 miles (maybe). And if you have it, the fluid filter life will be low too.
A big question is what is the fluid life monitor going to really do? Since the instructions for an accidental reset say to change the fluid again in 45000 miles, it almost implies that the the worst case is that it gets low a 45000 miles. That is, it will get low at 45000 or higher mileage. And yet, on page 307, under Every 45000 miles, it says without qualification - change the fluid and fluid filter.
So, yeah its confusing, and needs a clean up. Should just be designed so that we can rely on the fluid and fluid filter life monitors, and the monitors should include time as a factor if it s a factor. The engine oil life does use time and other factors. The trans fluid life monitor does not say it uses time.
If I follow your example correctly, that is the controversial requirement I also pointed out in post 13: "There is one area that is controversial. The manuals (all of them) appear to say that when a transmission fluid change is indicated you must also change the external canister filter." And yeah, it seems to be that if you change it at 3 years, it does not indicate a need to change the filter. But if you are changing fluid because the fluid life monitor is low, it seems to say change the filter too, but not in the discussion of the fluid life monitor on page 249. I agree that particular requirement seems like over reach. And especially out of place when the fluid filter life monitor was added.
The only thing I can suggest is to lay out your estimated service events based on your estimated mileage and time, and see if the concern actually happens and maybe adjust your plan to avoid it. In my case, I only put 2500 miles on my car in 1 year. I had the engine oil, and DCT filter changed at that time. At year two, at 5000 miles I will have the engine oil changed. At year three, I will have near 7500 miles at which time I will change the DCT filter (again) and also the trans fluid based on the three year rule. And I will reset the fluid life monitor as well. So I never encounter the potential dilemma associated with the apparent requirement to change the filter if the fluid life monitor is low.
If you drive a lot of miles, you might end up changing the filter at 7,500, 30,000, 52,500 and so on (if you go by the 22500 intervals). The fluid life monitor might get low at or near 45000 (maybe). So, you will encounter the dilemma that you just changed the filter at 30000 miles, but now the fluid life monitor is low (at 45000 lets say), but you just changed the filter 15000 miles ago at 30K.
But, if you instead changed the filter at 7500, 22500, 45000 miles, then it might work out. The fluid life will be low at 45000 miles (maybe). And if you have it, the fluid filter life will be low too.
A big question is what is the fluid life monitor going to really do? Since the instructions for an accidental reset say to change the fluid again in 45000 miles, it almost implies that the the worst case is that it gets low a 45000 miles. That is, it will get low at 45000 or higher mileage. And yet, on page 307, under Every 45000 miles, it says without qualification - change the fluid and fluid filter.
So, yeah its confusing, and needs a clean up. Should just be designed so that we can rely on the fluid and fluid filter life monitors, and the monitors should include time as a factor if it s a factor. The engine oil life does use time and other factors. The trans fluid life monitor does not say it uses time.
The thing about the transmission fluid life monitor is it doesn't seem to track time, just mileage (and perhaps extreme use). I haven't seen one post from anyone that says the transmission fluid life monitor is counting with time for the three year changeout. They all say it appears to go with mileage.
So if your transmission fluid changeout is driven by the 3 year life and not mileage then you will never see the change transmission fluid message since the monitor should be reset every time you change the fluid and thus you will never fall under the requirement to change the DCT filter when the message appears (since it will never appear).
If your transmission fluid changeout is driven by mileage (you put 15,000 miles or more per year on your car) and not time then you will correctly fall under the requirement to change the filter when the message appears since you should have changed the DCT filter 22,500 miles prior to getting the fluid life message.
The thing about the transmission fluid life monitor is it doesn't seem to track time, just mileage (and perhaps extreme use). I haven't seen one post from anyone that says the transmission fluid life monitor is counting with time for the three year changeout. They all say it appears to go with mileage.
So if your transmission fluid changeout is driven by the 3 year life and not mileage then you will never see the change transmission fluid message since the monitor should be reset every time you change the fluid and thus you will never fall under the requirement to change the DCT filter when the message appears (since it will never appear).
If your transmission fluid changeout is driven by mileage (you put 15,000 miles or more per year on your car) and not time then you will correctly fall under the requirement to change the filter when the message appears since you should have changed the DCT filter 22,500 miles prior to getting the fluid life message.
I think so, yes. And do you get the change fluid message at 45000 which would be time to change the filter anyway, so no dilemma? I think maybe so.
I think that is exactly why they put the dct filter change info screen on the 2023 model..
.My tramission fluid WILL be driven by the 3 year rule and the filter { after the first flush and replace} will be driven by millage. I read that if you get at least 4000 miles on filter that is enough to get the metal chips out That is what the flush is about. After breakin it is clean....So my second dct filter will be by millage and the 3rd and so forth.. and every 3 years the fluid... Most likely I will put 3000 to 4ooo miles a year on my vette....Maybe 5000 at the most....At 76 I do not have all that much time left....I am from the hippy generation and I took advantage of all it had to offer----many times over
Good discussion...and good input.....
