5 speed transmission fluid info

[jeober]

I am planning to do a WS-ATF flush when the weather gets warmer. However, I wanted to share this particular information now regarding the fill and overflow ports on the transmission. It's a bit different than expected. See below:

 

[jeober]

I have now 16L of WS fluid for my flush. This stuff is obviously right from Japan and not cheap. I made a bit of a deal for this with dealer service. Expected to pay about $41-51/container depending on the discount you can swing.

 

[Bluto]

How does the manual say to drain it? Drop the transmission pan? Any plan to get the fluid out of the torque converter and cooler? On my last car I did a drain and fill, drove around some, then another drain and fill. Does not get all the old fluid out, but replace a good bit of it.

 

[greasefingers]

WOW that is very different from the standard way. The picture explains it all. What one would assume is a drain plug (on the bottom of the pan) is actually not a drain plug since it has a well/tube inside the pan housing. So the only way for the ATF to be drained is to remove the pan.

On my 2003, I just removed the bottom pan plug and it drained nicely. Obviously there has been a design change!

 

[jeober]

yes, greasefinger,

what one would assume is a drain port is actually the overflow port. There is a standpipe in there. I was totally surprised and I wanted to alert this. Using the fill port for overflow would have been a big mistake. Look how high it is.

Dropping the pan is the way to remove. I do plan to pump out the pan fluid though the fill port with a hand pump, if this works, as the first step to my manual flush procedure.

I also need to verify than the trans cooler return line empties back into the pan. If so I can add fluid back this way rather than through the fill port using 2 L liter increments of the manual flush.