2006 V6 (sealed transmission), 67k miles on the OEM fluid, so I decided to flush it (and going to be towing from time to time, so I added an external tranny cooler and upgraded to Redline fluid). Two issues arose:
1) I had drained the first three qts from the pan, and when I went to tighten the drain plug, I was proceeding slowly with my torque wrench set to 20 ft-lbs, and as it was tightening down, suddenly the plug started spinning freely. The bolt was still in there, but it was just spinning. It wasn't loose enough that I could spin it with my hand, but with a wrench it was putting up almost no resistance. No fluid was dripping out, so it almost seems as if there is a threaded sleeve in the pan that receives the bolt, and the bolt was turning this sleeve -- can anyone confirm this? Although no fluid was "dripping", the next day I could tell it was a little oily around the hole, so there was some seepage. A new pan is only $87 online, but I decided to just coat it in JB Weld and leave it until next time I decide to change the fluid (another 60k miles or so). My question here is twofold: 1) can anyone confirm that the transmission pan has a sleeve for the drain bolt? and 2) Thoughts on the "JB Weld it and leave it until next time" strategy?
2) I was doing the final level test, where you short the OBD2 port, put the car in AT temp sensor mode, and wait for the tranny to reach 115-130. I got the car to go into "temp sense mode," where the "A/T OIL TEMP" light went on for two seconds and then went off, and by all accounts, it should then be about 10 minutes or so before the new (room temp) fluid got up to 115* and the light came back on. Well, after about 30 seconds, it lit up. I got down and opened the check hole, and nothing came out, not a drop, but the pan was still cold. So I added a little more fluid and did it again -- same thing, the light came on in about 30 seconds with the pan still cold, and still no fluid, so I added a little more. After doing this about three times (adding well over a quart of fluid), I decided that there was no way the sensor was right, since 115 is pretty warm, and the fluid was absolutely cold. Finally, I let the car simply idle for 10 minutes or so, with the "A/T FLUID TEMP" light on solid. I figured that it would start blinking at 130 (the upper temp limit where it will blink, indicating the fluid is too warm), and at no point did it blink. After about 10 minutes, I checked it and got the "slow trickle" of fluid, indicating the level was proper, and the light still was not blinking, so my thought is that, as long as the light isn't blinking, it wasn't too hot to check. I'll check it again tonight, but anyone have any thoughts on why the temp sensor was coming on right away with the tranny cold? And thoughts on simply letting it idle until it felt "hot," but checking it before the light began to blink? I figure doing it this way, I can be sure it's not too low (since it would have blinked if it was too hot), but it might be slightly high (although can't be all that high if it didn't overflow cold). What i might do is let it idle again until the A/T OIL TEMP light does blink, turn it off let it cool for ~5-10 mins, and then check it again so I can be pretty sure I'm near the proper temperature range.
Thanks in advance.
1) I had drained the first three qts from the pan, and when I went to tighten the drain plug, I was proceeding slowly with my torque wrench set to 20 ft-lbs, and as it was tightening down, suddenly the plug started spinning freely. The bolt was still in there, but it was just spinning. It wasn't loose enough that I could spin it with my hand, but with a wrench it was putting up almost no resistance. No fluid was dripping out, so it almost seems as if there is a threaded sleeve in the pan that receives the bolt, and the bolt was turning this sleeve -- can anyone confirm this? Although no fluid was "dripping", the next day I could tell it was a little oily around the hole, so there was some seepage. A new pan is only $87 online, but I decided to just coat it in JB Weld and leave it until next time I decide to change the fluid (another 60k miles or so). My question here is twofold: 1) can anyone confirm that the transmission pan has a sleeve for the drain bolt? and 2) Thoughts on the "JB Weld it and leave it until next time" strategy?
2) I was doing the final level test, where you short the OBD2 port, put the car in AT temp sensor mode, and wait for the tranny to reach 115-130. I got the car to go into "temp sense mode," where the "A/T OIL TEMP" light went on for two seconds and then went off, and by all accounts, it should then be about 10 minutes or so before the new (room temp) fluid got up to 115* and the light came back on. Well, after about 30 seconds, it lit up. I got down and opened the check hole, and nothing came out, not a drop, but the pan was still cold. So I added a little more fluid and did it again -- same thing, the light came on in about 30 seconds with the pan still cold, and still no fluid, so I added a little more. After doing this about three times (adding well over a quart of fluid), I decided that there was no way the sensor was right, since 115 is pretty warm, and the fluid was absolutely cold. Finally, I let the car simply idle for 10 minutes or so, with the "A/T FLUID TEMP" light on solid. I figured that it would start blinking at 130 (the upper temp limit where it will blink, indicating the fluid is too warm), and at no point did it blink. After about 10 minutes, I checked it and got the "slow trickle" of fluid, indicating the level was proper, and the light still was not blinking, so my thought is that, as long as the light isn't blinking, it wasn't too hot to check. I'll check it again tonight, but anyone have any thoughts on why the temp sensor was coming on right away with the tranny cold? And thoughts on simply letting it idle until it felt "hot," but checking it before the light began to blink? I figure doing it this way, I can be sure it's not too low (since it would have blinked if it was too hot), but it might be slightly high (although can't be all that high if it didn't overflow cold). What i might do is let it idle again until the A/T OIL TEMP light does blink, turn it off let it cool for ~5-10 mins, and then check it again so I can be pretty sure I'm near the proper temperature range.
Thanks in advance.
