Transmission fluid change without filter replacement

[PatrickGSR94]

Something tells me that my drawer-full of Honda drain plug washers will work, also.

 

[ruthrj]

Those Honda ones will likely work. I use the same oil drain plug crush washer for my '17 Odyssey (oil only) and '13 CX-5 (oil and ATF drain plug).

 

[yrwei52]

Something tells me that my drawer-full of Honda drain plug washers will work, also.

At least between my 1998 Honda CR-V and 2016 Mazda CX-5, the drain plug washer is different.

 

[PatrickGSR94]

At least between my 1998 Honda CR-V and 2016 Mazda CX-5, the drain plug washer is different.

I'll compare the one that came with the Mazda filter to my drawer-o-washers.

 

[Kedis82ZE8]

I've done 3 out of 4 changes on the GX now gonna finally start on the CX-5 the weekend after next. I also need to do my Infiniti. I will need to thoroughly clean the pump out time since each car uses different fluid. Motive states to use denatured alcohol.

I have on order one of these Motive tanks that should make refill a lot quicker.

It is spendy but I plan to give it significant use over the years.


https://www.summitracing.com/parts/mvp-1745

 

[CX-5um]

Plan to do first drain and refill next Saturday

-Gonna put my CX-5 up on ramps on all 4 as I like lots of extra room underneath and drop all the underbody plastics

-Need to confirm factory fill is accurate at 122F (50C) using Forscan or my OBDLink/Fusion setup.

-I might do just one drain and fill this time around. It sounds like similar drain as my GX and you can only get around ~3 quarts out at a time

* I'm gonna refill from the bottom with my Motive Powerfill.

Are you gonna actually drive up 4 ramps at same time?...or front ramps and rear stands?

I got about 3.8 quarts each time (3 seperate attempts) while using front ramps only. I'm skinny so ample room for me....not so much under Mazda6 though.

 

[CX-5um]

Thanks for quantity drained info. Good to know.

Once I know I have an accurate factory fill I will just do front ramps but want to make sure it is level when I check it this first time.

I think my Rhino 12k ramps are too tall to put in area between the front and rear wheelbase so will likely need to lift the rear with a floor jack after driving front forward onto the jacks from the front. I could use jack stands in the rear as well but do feel safer with my ramps than jack stands. On the rear though probably not a big deal I won't be anywhere near back here. We'll see how it goes... in the end maybe I won't need any ramps or jack stands.

I know this has already been covered in thread just trying to gather info again.

Dipstick retaining bolt : 71-97 in-lbf

Drain Plug : 23-30 ft-lbf

**Is the AT drain plug 8mm hex like the oil drain (IIRC)? I converted to Fumoto so long ago forgot what the stock one was.

EDIT: Look at the other thread it does appear to be 8mm hex

Yeah I converted to Fumoto as well.

In my opinion, since the oil drain plug is on the back corner edge of the drain pan it's okay to use front ramps. I cannot recall about the transmission bolt location though. I actually drained both engine and tranny oil at the same time In hindsight I would just do 1 thing at a time to eliminate confusion.

 

[ColoradoDriver]

**Is the AT drain plug 8mm hex like the oil drain (IIRC)? I converted to Fumoto so long ago forgot what the stock one was.

EDIT: Look at the other thread it does appear to be 8mm hex

Correct. It is the same as the engine oil drain plug and uses the same crush washer.

Regarding the quantity of fluid drained it always seemed to drain however much I added as I was trying to get the fluid to the correct level.

1st drain: 3.5 quarts. This was the factory fill, first drain ever. I then added 3.5 quarts as I didn't measure it correctly the first time.
2nd drain: 3.5 quarts. Measured it correctly this time and confirmed low fill. Added 4 quarts.
3rd drain: 4 quarts. Measured again and 4 quarts ended up being too much. Added 3.7 quarts.

Measured perfectly in the box on the dipstick.

I also used the rhino ramps, same ones I use for oil changes, on the front tires. I suspect next time I do a drain/fill service to drain exactly 3.7 quarts, and now that I have the fluid at the correct level, should be easy to just drain and replace with same amount.

 

[ColoradoDriver]

Thanks everyone. I've been meaning to do this for a while now.

Sure thing.

The measuring is the hard part, but draining and filling is pretty easy.

 

[yrwei52]

Thanks everyone. I've been meaning to do this for a while now.

Waiting for your experience on this ATF drain-and-fill such as if your ATF factory-fill is low, how difficult to fill fresh ATF from underneath with "pumping" method, and how difficult to measure ATF level from underneath

 

[Speedie95]

Thanks for quantity drained info. Good to know.

Once I know I have an accurate factory fill I will just do front ramps but want to make sure it is level when I check it this first time.

I think my Rhino 12k ramps are too tall to put in area between the front and rear wheelbase so will likely need to lift the rear with a floor jack after driving front forward onto the jacks from the front. I could use jack stands in the rear as well but do feel safer with my ramps than jack stands. On the rear though probably not a big deal I won't be anywhere near back here. We'll see how it goes... in the end maybe I won't need any ramps or jack stands.

I know this has already been covered in thread just trying to gather info again.

Dipstick retaining bolt : 71-97 in-lbf

Drain Plug : 23-30 ft-lbf

**Is the AT drain plug 8mm hex like the oil drain (IIRC)? I converted to Fumoto so long ago forgot what the stock one was.

EDIT: Look at the other thread it does appear to be 8mm hex

I used 4 ramps too but I drove it onto the rears first then jacked the front to place the other two. My reasoning was that the parking brake locks the rears up so less chance of any slippage while jacking the front than doing it the other way around. I also put 4 jack stands under the pinch welds once it was on all 4 ramps because I like redundancy when my life is at stake. Only takes an extra couple of minutes.

I tried doing everything from under the car, but while I could certainly reach the dipstick that way it was a pain in the backside. I ended up removing the two bolts for the air intake, pulling it off the 3 mounts that hold it in place, and moving it to one side. With that out of the way it was much easier to reach the dipstick itself and get an accurate reading, and the fill was easy with a long quart bottle fill tube. I don't think I had to disconnect the MAF sensor doing it that way either.

Are you going to do the transfer case and rear diff at the same time? I did those plus ATF and the car is very noticeably smoother since then.

 

[yrwei52]

I used 4 ramps too but I drove it onto the rears first then jacked the front to place the other two. My reasoning was that the parking brake locks the rears up so less chance of any slippage while jacking the front than doing it the other way around. I also put 4 jack stands under the pinch welds once it was on all 4 ramps because I like redundancy when my life is at stake. Only takes an extra couple of minutes.

I tried doing everything from under the car, but while I could certainly reach the dipstick that way it was a pain in the backside. I ended up removing the two bolts for the air intake, pulling it off the 3 mounts that hold it in place, and moving it to one side. With that out of the way it was much easier to reach the dipstick itself and get an accurate reading, and the fill was easy with a long quart bottle fill tube. I don't think I had to disconnect the MAF sensor doing it that way either.

Are you going to do the transfer case and rear diff at the same time? I did those plus ATF and the car is very noticeably smoother since then.

All excellent info to me when I need to do drain-and-fill for my CX-5. Just want to see how does Kedis82ZE8 feel when he is doing it from the bottom side. Personally I'd do it from the top side the way you described without disconnecting MAF with engine running.

 

[ColoradoDriver]

All excellent info to me when I need to do drain-and-fill for my CX-5. Just want to see how does Kedis82ZE8 feel when he is doing it from the bottom side. Personally I'd do it from the top side the way you described without disconnecting MAF with engine running.

I did mine like Speedie95 as well. It felt too weird to me trying to go from below.

 

[Speedie95]

I found that this worked perfectly for the fill part of the procedure (I didn't have a long funnel), and it's an exact fit for the Mazda ATF quart bottles. WalMart and AutoZone carry it too.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

To get a precise read of the ATF temp, and with the kind assistance of Kedis82ZE8 in another thread, I used this. *** WARNING *** It's way too easy to get addicted to setting up dashboards to monitor every facet of the car's performance! (evil)

http://www.obdlink.com/mxp/

 

[yrwei52]

Transmission fluid change without filter replacement Reply to Thread

I found that this worked perfectly for the fill part of the procedure (I didn't have a long funnel), and it's an exact fit for the Mazda ATF quart bottles. WalMart and AutoZone carry it too.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

Yes I have this filler tube from WalMart and use it for filling the rear differential on my Honda CR-V.

To get a precise read of the ATF temp, and with the kind assistance of Kedis82ZE8 in another thread, I used this. *** WARNING *** It's way too easy to get addicted to setting up dashboards to monitor every facet of the car's performance! (evil)

http://www.obdlink.com/mxp/

It seems you guys like this OBDII reader, I may need to get one for the future ATF change.

 

[Kedis82ZE8]

Here is what I just discovered.

- Like my other cars probably easier to start with a cold car than a hot one. I had to let the car a long time to cool down as expect.

- I put on front ramps and remove the entire bottom plastics. Pretty easy with an electric screwdriver and a trim remover. I did this another few times inspecting for my oil leak of past which rear main seal is holding fine but found something else I will post in another thread.

- Loosened 10mm AT plug retaining bolt using long handle extension and then unscrewed with fingers from bottom. I could have done this easily with a ratchet on bottom.

- I jacked up rear of car and used jack stands and used a level to determine it was level.

- Started car up when coolant got down around 120 and AT fluid was down to like 108. This started to get fluid up to temp shortly

- Pulled out dipstick and at 122F it was just shy of the minimum range.

- Pulled car off jack-stands and backed off ramps.

- By this time AT had warmed up to 130F but I noticed I could still get at dipstick and for certain flat there. At this temp it had just started to cross the low fill mark.

So I have a factory low fill but not sure by how many ounces.

Any theories on how many ounces the 122F range on the dipstick from top to bottom might be?

I am going to drain flat on the ground and fill from the top with funnel. Filling from bottom would be kind of a PIA.

EDIT: Also remember that dipstick snaps into place and should be flush with the AT case.

EDIT: Of course shouldn't be too hard for me to add a few ounces and re-check as well.

 

[ColoradoDriver]

Here is what I just discovered.

- Like my other cars probably easier to start with a cold car than a hot one. I had to let the car a long time to cool down as expect.

- I put on front ramps and remove the entire bottom plastics. Pretty easy with an electric screwdriver and a trim remover. I did this another few times inspecting for my oil leak of past which rear main seal is holding fine but found something else I will post in another thread.

- Loosened 10mm AT plug retaining bolt using long handle extension and then unscrewed with fingers from bottom. I could have done this easily with a ratchet on bottom.

- I jacked up rear of car and used jack stands and used a level to determine it was level.

- Started car up when coolant got down around 120 and AT fluid was down to like 108. This started to get fluid up to temp shortly

- Pulled out dipstick and at 122F it was just shy of the minimum range.

- Pulled car off jack-stands and backed off ramps.

- By this time AT had warmed up to 130F but I noticed I could still get at dipstick and for certain flat there. At this temp it had just started to cross the low fill mark.

So I have a factory low fill but not sure by how many ounces.

Any theories on how many ounces the 122F range on the dipstick from top to bottom might be?

I am going to drain flat on the ground and fill from the top with funnel. Filling from bottom would be kind of a PIA.

EDIT: Also remember that dipstick snaps into place and should be flush with the AT case.

EDIT: Of course shouldn't be too hard for me to add a few ounces and re-check as well.

Keep in mind the level should be perfectly within the square between both lines on the dipstick. Not really a min max situation here.

 

[Kedis82ZE8]

Mine was just shy of this lower mark at 122F

 

[ColoradoDriver]

Mine was just shy of this lower mark at 122F

If that red mark was where yours is, that was the same as mine.

I drained 3.5 qts from factory fill, after some experimentation, a refill of 3.7 qts got my level in the marker.

 

[Kedis82ZE8]

Thanks! Good info!!!