DIY: Changing Manual Transmission Fluid

[AllShowNoGo]

ok a few questions after reading pages upon pages of posts:

1. does the car have to be evenly leveled to change the tranny fluid? i mean as long as it takes 2 quarts, wouldn't it be fine?

2. do i have to flush out the tranny or can i just let it drain, replace the fluid, and let the excess drain and done?

3. do i have to use a pump to put in the fluid? i was thinking just using one of those cups that i use to put in my motor oil, except it also has a long white tube coming out of it?

[ebdiam]

1. Yes, level as possible. It will not take all the 2 quarts but close.
2. Let the old fluid drain completely until it stops dripping, replace the fluid. If I was going to flush it I would: drain it, refill, then drive around for awhile, drain, and refill again.
3. I don't think there's any other way to do it without the pump, its cheaper - just buy one.

[AllShowNoGo]

Originally Posted by ebdiam

1. Yes, level as possible. It will not take all the 2 quarts but close.
2. Let the old fluid drain completely until it stops dripping, replace the fluid. If I was going to flush it I would: drain it, refill, then drive around for awhile, drain, and refill again.
3. I don't think there's any other way to do it without the pump, its cheaper - just buy one.

1. if the car is not gonna be on a lift, how do i fill up with tranny fluid with the car being evenly leveled? doesn't the car have to be raised on one side?

2. should i flush the tranny or just refill/replace the fluid once and call it a day until another 30k miles?

[J808AllDay_Si]

where under the car is this located??

oh and does it matter what kind transmission fluid i use??

[Tastycakes]

Good DIY man, I just bought some GM synchromesh MTF fluid and am about to change it. A note the GM stuff is like $15 bucks a quart. I talked him down to $12 cause you can get it for like $8 from gmpartsdirect.com. And the mechanic says he wouldn't put the LSD additive in a FWD transmission for the LSD.



At any rate, couldn't find a big as syringe at wal-mart but I did find a 5 foot tube in the fish section . Hooked it up to one of those "deluxe" oil funnels and im going to try to run the tube down the side of the transmission and fill it up top and hope it works out.

[Tastycakes]

Originally Posted by Tastycakes

Good DIY man, I just bought some GM synchromesh MTF fluid and am about to change it. A note the GM stuff is like $15 bucks a quart. I talked him down to $12 cause you can get it for like $8 from gmpartsdirect.com. And the mechanic says he wouldn't put the LSD additive in a FWD transmission for the LSD if anyone's curious.



At any rate, couldn't find a big as syringe at wal-mart but I did find a 5 foot tube in the fish section . Hooked it up to one of those "deluxe" oil funnels and im going to try to run the tube down the side of the transmission and fill it up top and hope it works out.

[Tastycakes]

**** why cant I edit my post, I hit quote on accident lol.

[Zeuceone]

yeah dont put any lsd additive. with that long hose you got you can fill the tranny from the engine bay. as long as you dont have the stock intake.

[Tastycakes]

I still got the stock intake, took a couple of minutes but got it through. The tube worked great filling up from the engine bay. The gears feel smoother but it still grinds ~33% of the time on the 1-2 shift above 7,000 RPM. No 3rd grind yet (only drove it a mile so far) but I could really care less about 3rd. When it doesn't grind at high RPM on 2nd it still feels very, I dunno sketchy, like it's on the verge of grinding. I haven't felt a smooth high RPM 1-2 shift in like 10k miles, it sucks.

This 2nd gear **** is really getting old. It's def not abuse, I'm at 50k miles and the original clutch still hooks up tight. When I get a clean 1-2 shift it chirps the **** out of it. I'd assume the clutch would wear out before a synchro would :/

Any way, at 50k miles and got a full warranty til 60k, gonna take it in one of these days.

[Zeuceone]

the gm fluid helped smooth out second really good.

[Tastycakes]

Maybe mines just too far gone, at what mileage did you put the GM fluid in and how often would 2nd grind?

[Zeuceone]

it was at about 25k or so. it would grind when ever i shift at 8k or so.

[ebdiam]

Originally Posted by Zeuceone

it was at about 25k or so. it would grind when ever i shift at 8k or so.

I find it grinds at redline when you've been shifting that high back to back, or you are shifting too fast.

[LSnoob]

today my friend and i were changing the mtf to amsoil on my car. It filled up to about 1.6qts and started to drip out. Should i be worrying cause the amount of oem oil that came out was more than 2 qt's and we didnt even use 2 qts while putting it in the tranny.

[Zeuceone]

That's normal.

[LSnoob]

aite ,just making sure cause i dont want a messed up tranny

[HardBoiled]

I just changed my MTF out and went with Amsoil. Best way I can describe it is that it now shifts when cold about as smoothly as it did with the factory MTF did when it was at operating temp. With the Amsoil it shifts like a hot knife through butter when it's warmed up and still very smooth when cold (not winter yet so we will see how it does when the time comes).

This is on an 2008 Civic Si with just under 4000 mi. on it with no shifting issues other than I wanted it to be smoother and more positive. My cars vin is also not in the TSB list. I also put in Hybrid racing shifter cable bushings and an Ingalls engine torque dampener......not all at the same time though so I did get a good feel for which part was doing what. The last thing was the MTF change to Amsoil.

My observations after reading what everyone posts around here is that there may be several factors that cause some damage these transmissions. My belief is that if your having troubles like you transmission slipping out of gear it is because actual damage has already been done. Once a transmission has these types of issues no miracle oil or additive is going to help.

[HardBoiled]

I also wanted to add that mine too was overfilled from the factory. The MTF pretty much came shooting out of the fill plug hole and from what I could collect I got over 2 qts.

Overfilling this much is not good.

[SteveOFG2]

i changed my fluid yesterday and yes i too have went the amsoil route....and im happy to say im having the same results...its like a whole new car....but damn that old fluid made on hell of a mess wen comin out. ohh well that new car feeling has me loving my car even more <----way to live life

[Oil Doc]

Hmmmm..

Sounds like what I have been saying all along...

Doc