[rbarrios]

Couple things went right.
1-Dexron VI on sale.... so I bought 11 quarts.
2-I recently passed 50,000.

Since I do alot of severe driving (stop and go LA traffic) I decided to drain the transmission.
Note ....this is a PARTIAL drain... as more fluid remains in the trans cooler, lines, torque converter.
My plan--
drain 5 qts-
refill-
drive for a few hundred miles to circulate the fluid and repeat.

Manual says 5.3 qts of fluid on a drain.
I MARKED the full line on the bottles... for reference later.
with a hot engine/trans- I checked the trans dipstick several times to see the current fluid level. On mine it reached the HOT mark.

You will need
plastic sheating (paint supply section of Home Depot).
Cardboard (I use it to absorb any splash drops- and to help me slide in/out easier.
7/16 socket or wrench.
a container to catch used fluid. (I Used a square 28 qt container from Wal Mart).
5-6 qts of Dexron
a long funnel to reach the trans- for refilling fluid.

THe Drain plug is very easy to get to--- MUCH easier than the engine drain bolt... Im thin-- I didnt even need to raise the vehicle and slid in from the front of the vehicle.

I personally marked the drain plug and trans- with a Sharpie- so I have reference when I put it back on. note the little black line....



Remove the drain plug- and allow it to drain. (I also opened the trans dipstick).

The bolt is in good condition. It has that thread sealer stuff on it.

Once its done draining put the bolt back in. The reason for the mark--- once the marks lined up as in the 2nd pic above- I turned it about another 45 degrees so that the thread stuff would get into the threads.

I then refilled the trans with 5 qts.

To double check- I refilled the empty bottles with the used fluid-- up to the line I had marked way back at step one.

I ended up with 4.8 qts in the bottles. (I refilled with 5 qts).

Here is what the bottom of the container looks like--- no debris.
For color reference-- I wiped used fluid and new fluid on white paper towel....
(Disregard the German Shepherd hair--- theyre always keeping me company)...

interesting that the used fluid looked a little more red when I wiped it on---
in the camera pic- it shows no tint of red... looks more like motor oil...
but there was a tint of red in there.
No smell of burnt fluid

Clean up- and check all dipsticks. put away tools.
This was about 1:30 of work- mostly due to pics and refilling containers with the turkey baster.
Next time I do this- It will probably be 30-40 min.

I will drive and recheck fluid level.

 

[Rocky]

Deserves a sticky. My habit on tranny fluid is always to have at least a quart more than "they" say you need.

 

[jwhjr]

They couldn't have made it any easier to do. Great write up as always.

 

[XRDreamliner]

Just to clarify, to get a proper fluid level check - park on a level surface, the engine is running, the transmission fluid is at operating temperature, and the transmission is in Park (set the parking brake).

 

[quantum]

I wAs waiting for you to do this rbarrios. I need to do mine in the next month or so. I only have 36000 miles but because a couple thousand are towing miles I want to change it. Thanks for the write up and pics.


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[quantum]

Deserves a sticky. My habit on tranny fluid is always to have at least a quart more than "they" say you need.

Agreed and done.

 

[rbarrios]

just for comparison...

the 1st drain- new fluid vs 50K fluid.
and the 2nd drain about 420 miles later- new fluid vs mixture of old+5qts new.

 

[quantum]

Are you done now, or are you going to do it once more? The colour is getting closer to each other.

 

[rbarrios]

thats it. just 2 drains.

Someone had posted a percent change with a 3rd drain...
and well 2 is good enough for me.

 

[jungle bunny]

What about changing the filter?

 

[medicrxdoc]

What about changing the filter?

On the trans? There is no pan to drop so this would require dropping the whole trans and spliting the case (vertical to the ground). So in short, no filter replacement.

 

[jungle bunny]

On the trans? There is no pan to drop so this would require dropping the whole trans and spliting the case (vertical to the ground). So in short, no filter replacement.
[/quote

0h of course im referring to the tranny filter , this whole section is about transmission fluid , duh

I guess this would be the first auto tranny ive seen with no filter

 

[rbarrios]

theres a filter-- its just not user serviceable.
Its a lifetime filter- so to speak.

But like he said-- you have to remove trans and split it open (if you look at trans- it comes apart in half) to get to filter.

 

[quantum]

Well I finally had some extra time tonight so I decided since we are going camping on the long weekend, it would be a good time to change out the transmission fluid. I have 65,000km as of today.

The pics are all comparisons of the new fluid vs. what I took out. In a couple thousand kilometers I will do the exchange again. I got 4.5 quarts of fluid out this time.

The old fluid still smelled very sweet, more so then the new stuff....not burnt. Amazing how holding it up to the light, you cannot see through the old stuff.

Also, the transmission plug which has a magnet on the end, did not have any metal filings or metal paste on it whatsoever, so that was good to see. It feels like the transmission shifts smoother now than before.

 

[jwhjr]

I did this yesterday as well. I got a little over 4 qts out, but it took about 4.5 qts to get to the proper level on the dipstick after running it. Maybe it was a little low? I used one of these to drain it into, so it's easy to see what comes out.

 

[rubberman]

Normally a tranny fluid change isn't required till 100k miles and I haven't checked the manual on the Traverse to see if it's the same. But since there isn't a user serviceable filter, would it wise to do a fluid change more often?

 

[quantum]

Normally a tranny fluid change isn't required till 100k miles and I haven't checked the manual on the Traverse to see if it's the same. But since there isn't a user serviceable filter, would it wise to do a fluid change more often?

Judging by the color of the transmission fluid that people have had come out of their Traverse, I would say 50k mile change is a wise decision. These transmissions run fairly hot, even with the tow package, they easily get up over 210*F in heavy traffic. Most pickup trucks run around 150 to 170*F, so 200-210*F+ seems pretty high to me.

That being said, I did not do a UOA, so maybe my fluid was okay.

 

[bigbluetraverse]

I think keeping the temprature up overall helps the direct injection work better.. Seem to remembere reading that once a while back.

 

[rbarrios]

newer GM engines run at 210 for emissions purposes... where the older engines were happy at 180... and some people removed the thermostats to run around 160

 

[rubberman]

newer GM engines run at 210 for emissions purposes... where the older engines were happy at 180... and some people removed the thermostats to run around 160

Yeap. My 2000 grand prix GT has a 165` stat. those cars run better at that temp then the stock 195`.