urgent help needed - tranny dipstick/fluid, quick question

A

amalik

Senior Member
sorry for the firestorm here, i have to finish this job tonight and go to work tomorrow.

so, my transmission fluid was a little too high in my pan, whenever I checked it while engine/tranny was parked overnight (cold), I was always above the hot sign, and obviously the hot sign after driving was way above the hot sign.

long story short, I drained the pan, dropped it, installed a new filter, and am filling back up now. I'm carefully measuring, and so far I've only put in 2 quarts out of a 1 gallon container and the Cold sign is already covered, even after cleaning/putting back in 2-3 times.

My concern is 2 quarts seems a little low, I'd like to start it, shift gears, maybe drive a block and get it to operating temperature, and make sure I'm not above hot -- but with only 2 quarts it seems concerning to do so, I thought ~4.5'ish quarts gets you to cold?

Am I being overly worried, or legit concern here? I think my driveway might be a little slanted as well, that might be throwing things off just a little, but it's not anything significantly slanted.

Thanks guys.
 
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amalik said:
sorry for the firestorm here, i have to finish this job tonight and go to work tomorrow.

so, my transmission fluid was a little too high in my pan, whenever I checked it while engine/tranny was parked overnight (cold), I was always above the hot sign, and obviously the hot sign after driving was way above the hot sign.

long story short, I drained the pan, dropped it, installed a new filter, and am filling back up now. I'm carefully measuring, and so far I've only put in 2 quarts out of a 1 gallon container and the Cold sign is already covered, even after cleaning/putting back in 2-3 times.

My concern is 2 quarts seems a little low, I'd like to start it, shift gears, maybe drive a block and get it to operating temperature, and make sure I'm not above hot -- but with only 2 quarts it seems concerning to do so, I thought ~4.5'ish quarts gets you to cold?

Am I being overly worried, or legit concern here? I think my driveway might be a little slanted as well, that might be throwing things off just a little, but it's not anything significantly slanted.

Thanks guys.
Click to expand...

you should alway check tranny fluid with the motor running and the tranny in Neutral.
drive it down the end of the street then check it.
 
hmm. I just saw the owners manual and it says the drain/fill capacity is 2qt also.

ill start it up and shift around a bit, and see where my hot is at.
 
amalik said:
hmm. I just saw the owners manual and it says the drain/fill capacity is 2qt also.

ill start it up and shift around a bit, and see where my hot is at.
Click to expand...

No fill it to cold with the engine running it will be about 4to5 quarts. It's only hot when you've driven it and got it to temp. Running it for 5-10 min won't get it to op temp
 
541joseph said:
No fill it to cold with the engine running it will be about 4to5 quarts. It's only hot when you've driven it and got it to temp. Running it for 5-10 min won't get it to op temp
Click to expand...

hmm. ok. i havent started driving yet, just started the engine and checking the dipstick every minute or so.
 
541joseph said:
No fill it to cold with the engine running it will be about 4to5 quarts. It's only hot when you've driven it and got it to temp. Running it for 5-10 min won't get it to op temp
Click to expand...

shoot and joseph,

here's what I go so far.

had to add about .5 more quart to get to above cold... so it's got about 2.5QT in there... the engine ran for 10 minutes... i shifted through all gears twice or 3 times.... and i'm still under the hot marks. Safe to take it for a spin? If I'm under hot when I come back... I can add some more.
 
amalik said:
shoot and joseph,

here's what I go so far.

had to add about .5 more quart to get to above cold... so it's got about 2.5QT in there... the engine ran for 10 minutes... i shifted through all gears twice or 3 times.... and i'm still under the hot marks. Safe to take it for a spin? If I'm under hot when I come back... I can add some more.
Click to expand...

Go a head and try just bring your funnel and fluid with you
 
541joseph said:
Go a head and try just bring your funnel and fluid with you
Click to expand...

It's a good thing I did... I reversed out of the driveway... but in the neighborhood.. Reverse totally didn't work at all until I added another quart, was actually kind of freaky. Learn something new everyday :) -- The Drive gear ate all the fluid it seems.

After getting my tranny temp to over 200 degrees, I drove back home... and had some really interesting experiences with the dipstick.

It showed no fluid at all until I put it in and out 3 times, literally, and that happened *a few times*.

From the times I did get results, I was still under the Hot marks and I definitely drove a bunch. I finally settled at around a little over 4.5QT, inching near 5QT.

It's not perfect, I'm again above the Hot line after operating temperature, so basically back to square 1... except I have a brand new OEM filter in there. This tug of war with the dipstick is getting old for me, we'll see if I have enough energy later on to siphon out a little if I'm a little over. If you have fluid that doesn't go beyond your upper Hot mark after operating temp, much props! Seems impossible to accomplish.

I definitely did learn from this experience to only measure after operating temperature... If you go by the owners manual and drain and fill 2.1 quarts for a 4WD, you basically would be screwed totally. I couldn't reverse but imagine how much worse it can get.

Thanks Shoot/Joseph.
 
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