My fluid looks like this after wheeling in some deep water. I have bought 8 quarts of fluid so far and a filter/gasket kit. What is the best process for this? My thought was to put in 4 quarts, drive then drain and replace filter and gasket and refill with 4+ quarts. I have read some threads on this matter just wondering if the muddy fluid changes anything? Sucks as the damn cheap fluid is $4.50 a quart.

 

Looks like ur trans sucked up a bunch. Guess you'll have to keep changing it for awhile.

 

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAMNNNNNNN...give you any problems that made you check to drain it?

 

Got some DEX/Merc III @ Walmart for $11.00 a gallon

 

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Haha yea, Made it fine wheeling at night, next morning went to go at it again and she starting smoking right at the entrance to the trail luckily. Apparently the trans breather got flooded, boiled the water and shot it out along with about 3 quarts of fluid. Looks fun, bad idea. Lot's of this happened. My diff fluid looks the same.



So should I just keep doing like 4 quarts at a time, and drive how long? I like the gallon idea!

 

agreed run that thru it for a week and drain it and do it again if its still muddy.

 

Take this with a grain of salt... (use at you own risk, or better yet don't even try it).

Anyways, my buddy did the same thing after stalling out in a pond so here's what we did. First off we dropped the pan to clean out what had settled at the bottom of the pan. We then put the pan back on and overfilled the trans with fluid. We bought gallons of the cheap trans fluid. Next we took the cooler line off at the radiator, and then ran a line from the outlet of the trans cooler into a 5 gallon bucket. With one person manning the ignition and one watching the bucket, we started the truck and let it idle until the fluid from the line just started to spit, then we would shut it off. We did this a few times and once the fluid started cleaning up, we would run the thing in each shifter position to help clean out the valve body. Overfilled and repeated until the fluid cleaned up then put the lines back on, changed the filter and topped it back off. Again, I'm just throwing it out there. It's not the proper way to do it, but it's better than having dirt stay in the trans (and it actually clears out the torque converter and valve body instead of just the pan).

 

This is the way it was done " back in the day". There is nothing wrong with this except the time and the mess.

 

That sounds like an excellent idea. It gets the ugly stuff pumped out more quickly rather than drain/refill/drain/refill and recirculate the same crap through the trans repeatedly.

 

That's cool it used to be a common way to do it. I was just practicing a little CYOA.

 

oosportxj, I am about to this, just having a little trouble following your last steps.

So after you reattached the line, did you pull the drain plug on the panto let out ALL the remaining fluid, then pull the pan again to change the filter, then refill? Thanks in advance for the clarification.

 

Thats how I read it. Unless you want to bathe in trans fluid, you need to drain it prior to dropping it to change the filter.

 

Yep, that's exactly what we did.

Make sure you check the fluid level a bunch of times while it's idling and after running it through all the shifter positions. You want to make sure all of the circuits bleed out any air so your fluid level reads accurately.

If you're careful about shutting off the engine as soon as the flow starts to spit, you should have no worries. And another thought, you might want to throw in a bottle of LubeGard ATF Protectant (the stuff in the red bottle). It's really good stuff that helps make up for any shortcomings in the cheap by-the-gallon trans fluid. Good luck, hope you can save your trans!

 

mechanics will tell you that the only way to completely change tranny fluid is to have a transmission flush. otherwise all of the old fluid in the torque converter gets mixed back in with the new fluid. transmission flushing is the only way to change the fluid in the torque converter. a flush costs 100 - 175 dollars depending on where you get it done. this would be as cheap as draining and refilling 5 to 10 times depending on the price of the fluid you use. not to mention all of the time you will save.

 

That's why I recommended the bucket method. It does the same thing as a trans flush machine, except the "fancy" machine is left out (it doesn't just drain the pan). A trans flush machine (the ones I have used) is just a vertical clear tube with a piston in it. You disconnect the trans cooler line and hook the machine up in between the trans line and the cooler in the radiator. You fill the machine with about 15 quarts of trans fluid which goes in the tube above the piston. When you start the car, the fluid being pumped out of the trans goes in the bottom of the tube, pushes the piston up which pushes the same amount of new fluid to the trans.

Both do the same thing just with different tools. But a bucket at home lets you do it as many times as you want without worrying about labor costs going through the roof if it needs multiple flushes.