960 trans service

hollywood953 · Post by **hollywood953** » 12 May 2010, 16:19

I pulled the trans dipstick and the fluid smelled very burnt. I followed the steps for just draining the fluid (3.5 quarts) and refilling with new fluid. I plan to drop the pan and clean the screen and change the filter this weekend. I checked the fluid cold today and it look like it's WAY too full. Is there a trick to doing this? I haven't run the car in a few days due to this misfire thing. I used a ratchet to get it out from the top.

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Post by **jblackburn** » 12 May 2010, 16:26

The cold fill mark is almost always off.

Drive around for 10-15 minutes, and then check the level at the HOT mark with the transmission in park and the engine idling.

You may want to do another drain and fill in a few days to push more of that old nasty fluid out of there. When I flushed mine, the fluid was nearly black.

hollywood953 · Post by **hollywood953** » 12 May 2010, 16:47

should I drop the pan and clean the screen? The instructions on this site say to disconnect the hose and run the engine until new fluid comes out. should i do that? The manual says this car holds 7.5 quarts of fluid. I guess the trans cooler holds about 4 quarts?

Post by **jblackburn** » 12 May 2010, 16:56

I wouldn't worry about the screen for now. Generally if that is clogged up, it's starving your pump and the transmission is already not working anyway.

I wouldn't do a full flush on it just yet. I would do another 2 or 3 drain-and-fills for now, space them out 2 or so weeks between each. After your fluid is red-ish, and after it's been run through it for a few months, I would say it's safe to "graduate" to the full flush. The AW transmissions are a bit sensitive to being flushed if they're older and by replacing ALL of the old fluid at once, you may just cause more problems with it by removing all the gunk held up on the internal components that it has gotten used to.

Hopefully that makes sense, I think I'm kinda failing at explaining

hollywood953 · Post by **hollywood953** » 12 May 2010, 17:55

I agree, I will drain and flush after a couple of weeks. It makes sense to me that if I took out 3.6 quarts and put back 3.6 quarts and there is no leak it should be ok?

Post by **jblackburn** » 12 May 2010, 18:47

Sounds about right. Unless it was overfilled in the first place. Like I said, the cold mark is almost always off - you did the right thing by measuring it and refilling.

hollywood953 · Post by **hollywood953** » 12 May 2010, 19:25

thanks, I will check it warm tomorrow.