Creative way to change transmission fluid?
 

Here's what I have:
1. Jack
2. 2 car ramps
3. "grease gun" - tube looking thing that pulls in fluid and pushes it put

It'd be easy if I had 2 more jack stands, but pretend I can't get my hands on 2 jack stands. Is there any way for me to do this? Maybe you guys have some creative methods =).

Thanks.

Jack your car up from the driver's side (high as you feel comfortable with), drain tranny fluid (24mm bolt?). Fill tranny from highest hole (14mm square-headed bolt?) and until it starts dripping out of the "lowest" fill-hole...

To fill, just buy a cheap pump and stick the "hose" into the side of the tranny. Position the bottle/pump so that you can sit down out from underneath the car. Start pumping, and start hoping that your arms don't fall off by the time you're finished pumping that terrible fluid into the tranny. ;)

I managed to find a garage in the area that had a steep driveway to the alley (3 feet long at a 8" grade). I would back in, put the car ramps at the base of the driveway in the alley and drive my front tires onto the car ramp. That way my back tires are on the garage floor and the front tires are lifted off the alley cement about the same level as the garage, giving me 6-8" of working space beneath the car beneath it the trans. Then trans fluid change as normal.

Hope that helps. sorry if it made no sense.

I don't know if you have an air source and didn't mention it, but I've always used compressed air to push the new fluid through the hose. Just poke a hole in the bottom of the bottle and pressurize it (not much pressure though). It saves a lot of arm pain. ;)

Josh

lol ok. So even though my car is not level, will it drain out properly and fill to the correct amount? That was mostly what i was worried about.

When you get close to being full, I would level the car out and fill just enough so its about to pour out of the fill plug. Draining, would technically work better slanted especially if you were slanted so the drain plug is on a slant downwards. Did I say slant enough in that sentence?

Its so simple.

Drain the old shit and put the plug back.

Open the fill plug and use one of those aquarium vacuums (kinda look like the Austin Powers Penis Enlarger Pumps). Its basically a long clear hose with an end you can pour the oil into. Put the hose end in the hole and route the fill end out the transmission tunnel and out the hood.

Fill your tranny. Just pour the oil in. Screw all that pumping shit.

Lol ok I see. Where do I jack it up if I do it on the side (this is for my TII btw I forgot to mention)? The stupid metal ridge will just crush like on my N/A.

Do you already have scrunched frame rails? If you do, just give'er. If you don't leave it as it's. Where to jack up, damn thats a good question. Usually I jack up on the crossmember and be sure the jack doesn't slide off and cause damage, it slips REAL easy. I doubt your frame rails are mint so just jack up there. I work at a tire shop, and nearly every car has scrunched frame rails.

This works. Done it like that..

For the win, its so freaking easy :)

Easiest way ever.

Screw out top hole and fill plug, and from the hood, drop down any kind of hose to the top plug and fill it up from the hood instead of pumping.

I cut a slit in my carpet and spread it apart, cut me a 3" id hole in the trans tunnel, I don't even get under the car to remove the plug, I remove/fill all inside the car.

I then glued 2 peices of velcro on the back edge of cut carpet/ diameter of hole edges., and now nobody can see it.

It also a good spot to make small items disappear from inside the car:)

Aaron, I really admire your write ups but ^^^ THAT one sucks balls.

Silly Ass Canadians. Attachment 705098

What's wrong with it?

^^^ Its unnecessarily complex.

You pour every fluid into every reservoir on the entire car. WHY the hell whould would you want to pump that nasty shit into the transmission when its just as easy to POUR it in fom the hood through a funnel and hose? PLUS, its quicker, easier, you don't have to jack the car up as high AND you don't look like a tard under the car with an air compressor.

I laughed at that write up when I ran across it a couple years ago. I still think its silly. Are you SERIOUSLY defending it because it marginally works or because you truly think its the right way to do it?

Get a haircut.

Just a common funnel with a vinyl hose conneted to it. The other end of the hose is fed thru the engine bay past the oil filter area, into the transmission where you removed the square fill plug.

Gravity feed. It helps for the oil to be at least warm, so it flows faster. This is just a repeat of the others above. EVERYONE has a funnel.

Feed a hose down through from the engine bay and use gravity. No pump required.

I've got a magic wand that fixes the car for me. It's pretty sweet! It does rebuilds, oil changes, coolant flushing..etc. I bought it off e-bay for two rubberbands and a squeegee sharpener!!!!! You should look into it!






Felt like post whoring.

It's actually a lot easier then the writeup makes it sound. I have a cap with the tube through it on hand that I made years ago. Most people have a source of air handy (I have a little compressor). Pop a hole into a new jug of transmission oil, screw on the cap, insert air nozzle into hole and fill transmission.

I've personally never tried using a long hose. To me that seems like it invites a mess under the car and in the engine bay. However different people will have different methods and if it works for you then that's what counts.

"Professional" mechanics often have a small handheld pump which works quite nicely. Recently these have become available in the auto parts stores for few low prices (probably made in China).

If you are changing the transmission oil, it's highly likely that the car is in the air for another reason. Either a clutch/transmission/driveshaft swap or a total fluid change (coolant, oil, transmission, diff, brake). The car would already be on a set of jack stands or ramps to accomplish the work.

I think you need to chill out a little bit. Nowhere did I defend the air-pump method as I was just asking what you thought was wrong with the writeup. I thought this was obvious from the exact text of my message; "What's wrong with it?". By which I was asking what is wrong with it. I'm always looking for useful criticism to help me improve my writeups and articles. What I don't need are insults (ie. hair comment) and hostility.

^^^ wow, seriously. oh well, someone has too, leave it to the new guys to do it.
anyways, what i did is what every tranny shop does, which is where i learned it from.

go to kragens, get a cheap ass fluid exchanger, hook it up to your drill, get some smaller hose, or use a garden hose and cut it down the length and reduce the total OD so you can get the bitch in there. pour all of your fluid into something, and sump it in.
OR, you can get a tranny filler from a snap-on or MAC dealer........................

wait, forgot, were talking about fc guys here, nvm...... (big roll of the eyes)

Lloyd

I've used pumps and also the funnel method (on various cars) and guess what?
Both ways work and it's not like changing tranny oil is something you have to do every month, so what's the big deal?

Either way is messy since you have to let oil ooze out the fill hole to set the proper amount, and, not being a flat-rate mechanic, ten minutes one way or the other hardly matters.

In fact, having now reached a certain age/level of frailty, my new favorite method is to let my mechanic do it while I watch.
It's nice to see the car up on a lift and be able to walk underneath and check out what's going on with the suspension, exhaust hangers, etc. from the comfort of my feet.
Coincidentally, we're changing all the oils- engine, transmission and diff- this Tuesday in preparation for my annual "visit the family" 3500 mile grand tour, so I'll get to see how they do it.

when i do it i use the hand pumps that cost like 6 bucks at shucks, they even screw onto the bottles most of the time... unless u buy the wrong one, then some rigging with some tape kept it on there lol.