Nice! Thanks for your detailed report. I need these information when my CX-5 reaches 50K miles in about 2 years.
For sure!
I now plan to do a drain/fill every 30-50k miles. Not sure when, but at some point I'll drop the pan and replace the filter, but not looking forward to messing around with the silicone gasket stuff.
To summarize my experience:
1st session (9/1 - 71,270 miles): 3.5 quarts drained, 3.5 qts added. I did not measure correctly, so because of factory underfill, was still underfilled.
2nd session (9/8 - 71,554 miles): 3.5 qts drained. Before draining, measured it properly by running car through all gears and waiting for it to warm up and blue light shut off. With the car still idling, took measurement and found it to be low. Added 4 qts. Re-measured when finished, and now it was overfilled a bit. A tad below the second line on the dipstick.
3rd session (9/15 - 71,772 miles): Measured again, confirmed overfill. 4 qts drained, 3.7 qts added. Re-measured, level perfectly in the box on the dipstick.
Notes:
-Used ramps to raise front end. Wheel chocks in the back of course.
-Measured ATF drained using a 4qt clear drink pitcher that had quart and half quart markings. Worked perfectly.
-Drain plug for transmission uses same crush washer as oil drain plug, and same 8mm hex to remove. Tightened back on with new crush washers (they are cheap, play it safe) after each drain/fill to 27 ft. lb. of torque with torque wrench. No leaks detected.
-Unlike the panel to access the engine oil and oil filter which uses 8mm socket and push tabs, the larger panel that needs to be removed to access transmission drain plug/pan uses 10mm socket and push tabs.
-I will confirm that the dipstick design kinda sucks. Dirt will be under the dipstick along the metal surface where it sits on the transmission. Be very careful to clean it without getting dirt into the hole.
-I felt like pulling dipstick from below the car to be very awkward, so I always went from the top. Airbox was removed, I then turned it and reattached to the air tube to engine so that the airbox was just kind of laying on top of the engine bay, but it gave me enough room to access dipstick and turn car on to get to temp as needed.
-Amount of fluid drained was consistent with what I added each session. Pretty confident I'll have 3.7 qts drain next time I do this and will simply re-add 3.7 qts.
-The drained fluid looks darker than I think it actually is. Pics make the fluid look black, but it is more like a really dark blue, or almost like a brown with a dark greenish tint to it depending on how the light hits it. I suspect the fluid darkens pretty quick as the color always seemed to look the same on all 3 sessions. Maybe a little better the last 2 sessions.