Tranny filter and fluid

[91GranSport]

WHAT THE HELL? AN AUTOMATIC WITHOUT A GODDAMN TRANNY FLUID DIPSTICK? WHAT THE HELL IS GM THINKING?

 

Sorry about the Caps, it's just that hearing something like that is like someone throwing hot coffee on my face. What the hell is going on? First I hear that the 3.5L Twin Cam Intrigue needs a special tool in order to do an oil change, and now the frikking Alero doesn't have a dipstick for the tranny fluid? What the fuck is going on man? I'm glad my car is a '91 and a Buick at that, rather than a brand new Olds.

 

I try to change mine about every 30-35k. Yeah, these new cars are freakin' retarted. My mom's Alero doesn't even have a dipstick to check the tranny fluid. I always wonder about GM engineers. ..."Hey, I have an idea! Lets build these cars without tranny dipsticks, so when the tranny starts to slip from loosing tranny fluid, they'll have no way to put any in and their tranny will fail, and they'll have to buy a whole new one!"....bah!

 

 

Aaron

[91GranSport]

You have to take your car to a shop that has a special machine that flushes out tranny fluid. That's what I did. You can't flush out your entire transmission without one of those machines. It'll use fresh fluid to force all the existing fluid out of your transmission, then run some fresh tranny fluid in there with some detergent, then finally drain that shit out and refill it one last time with fresh tranny fluid.

 

When you guys say you are changing the tranny fluid and filter...are you just replacing what fluid is in the pan or exchanging the entire volume of tranny fluid? 8)

When you drop the pan on the auto's there is a filter right there. just swap the filter, bolt the pan back on and refill the fluid.

 

RedZ

 

Kenny was asking if you change ALL the fluid in the tranny. By just dropping the pan, changing the filter, etc... you are not doing an actual full tranny flush. BTW, what all is involved in fully flushing the tranny? I know that it usually requires around 6qts for a pan change IIRC and the auto's hold hella more than that. :?:

[patgizz]

you can do a whole flush at home, but it has the potential to get messy, as well as needing a buncha fluid. take a bucket of new stuff, put the cooling line return into it, and put the cooling line out to a empty bucket and run it till clean fluid comes out. tranny shop told me that's basically all that machine they have does and it works just the same

[Justin]

Yeah, the Alero/Grand Am doesn't have a dipstick, they have a plug to pull on the side of the tranny, if fluid runs out when you remove the plug, it's ok. Listen to this though, the new style explorer, up until the last couple months, yes, they did fix it, didn't have a dipstick either. You have to take the little Torx plug out of the middle of the actual tranny drain plug. There's a little tube that runs up into the pan, and if its full, fluid will run out. If it's low, you need to screw a special tool into the plug, then inject fluid up through the pan. I'm not making this up, I work on fords.

[91GranSport]

What is the automotive world coming to? Like Shawn said earlier, it's coming to the point where you have to make an appointment with the dealer just to have a Goddamn oil change. Before you know it you'll need special tools just to remove your frikking battery.

 

Yeah, the Alero/Grand Am doesn't have a dipstick, they have a plug to pull on the side of the tranny, if fluid runs out when you remove the plug, it's ok. Listen to this though, the new style explorer, up until the last couple months, yes, they did fix it, didn't have a dipstick either. You have to take the little Torx plug out of the middle of the actual tranny drain plug. There's a little tube that runs up into the pan, and if its full, fluid will run out. If it's low, you need to screw a special tool into the plug, then inject fluid up through the pan. I'm not making this up, I work on fords.

[imperialfleet]

Page 3 is mine!

 

Just for general information with respect to a tranny fluid change on a '99 Olds Alero with the 2.4L engine. It takes 5.6 quarts of fluid when doing a pan drop and filter change. Trust me, it totally sucked ass not having a fill tube, it took about an hour to fill it back up. Make sure to get a damn 3/8" dia. hose about 4' long and a funnel to pour in the fluid.