Tonight I will change my transmission fluid. I have all the necessary items and the help of my mechanic brother. I've watched all the YouTube videos. I feel confident that we can do this with no problems. My question is does anyone have any tips for the removal and reinstallation of that large plastic panel? Also, I'm using a fluid pump similar to a sports ball air pump to refill the transmission. Any tips for a first time user of this type of pump would be appreciated. Thanks guys
There's a lot of plastic clips on the bottom of the vehicle. We lost count when taking it off lol, but make sure to remove them with a tool if you have it or use a flat head screw driver. As for the pump, it's going to be tiring pumping it but its doable. Some people on this forum uses a funnel with a clear tube attach at the end that curves into the fill hole when refilling. Either way will work, but we did the pump method. Here is our video, also make sure the vehicle is leveled so the fluid will be filled up properly.
I've watched your atf change video like five times. It's the most thorough one. You make good videos.
I used my kid's colored chalks to mark the different kinds of fasteners and where they came from when I did my transaxle fluid change. It helped a lot when it came time to button everything back up. Now that I've removed the covers a few times, I can do it without the visual aids.
The 3 rear-most clips are a bit bigger than the rest so pay attention to those when you clip the cover back. Do the change when the tran is relatively warm for a more thorough drainage, and practice common safety.
Lots of great info here. I'm pretty sure I read all of this info in preparation for doing mine. The most frustrating thing was removing the undercover, the clips in mine were just hard to remove. It's not that hard and it's done pretty quickly. With all this info, you should be fine. I did mine with the car on a pair of harbor freight plastic ramps and jack stands for the back, making sure the car was leveled like mentioned above. I used a red hand pump I got at harbor freight too and once it gets started it's not that bad, and it got filled quicker than I expected.
There are a few things that make this much easier: 1) The pump that screws into the ATF bottle. 2) The special tool that removes the plastic clips, instead of a flat-blade screwdriver. 3) Jacking the car up as high and level as possible... ideally, overhead. It's so much easier this way. First off, it's easier because removing those bolts can take a lot of torque, and it's a pain to get a breaker bar under there while you're lying on your back. Second, it will drain and fill with WAY less mess. Third, the only way to know you've filled it properly is if the car is level, and four, it's a lot easier to use a torque wrench to properly replace the two bolts if you have room under the car. I changed it myself using a ramp in front and jack stands in the rear. To ensure the car is level, what I suggest is that you tape a bubble level to one of your car doors when the car's on the ground. Then, you can jack the rear until the car levels. It only needs to be level when you refill, and it obviously doesn't need to be exactly perfect.
