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I have been working on an alternate method for changing the ATF on this car for a while, and believe I have most of the creases ironed out. This thread will serve to discuss the procedure being outlined and provide assistance with any steps that still need to be discussed. Note: This does not apply to the Cruze Diesel.
There are two reasons why I am working on this project.
1. The current ATF change method involves performing two drains and re-fills of ATF, which replaces approximately 70% of the old fluid, leaving 30% still in the transmission. It is far from ideal and wastes 25% of the new fluid. The ability to flush out 95-99% of the fluid will provide better results.
2. This is an economy car. It will have a significant following among people who will want to service their own transmissions, and they will need a procedure for flushing transmission fluid that doesn't involve paying their dealer $80-$120 (plus fluid) to do it for them. It also gives them the freedom to choose whichever fluid they wish to.
Before I begin, I need to note that this procedure should not be attempted by anyone who feels it is outside their comfort zone. It is a tad bit more complicated than a simple oil change. AutoGuide.com, CruzeTalk.com, myself, or AMSOIL take absolutely no responsibility or liability from any issues that may arise in your vehicle through following this procedure. The procedure is being posted first for discussion before it is published as a tutorial to iron out any potential issues. The truth is that it is a fairly straightforward procedure, but attention and care must be taken during specific steps. You can't start this procedure and walk out to take care of a crying baby while the car is running. Once you start, you have to finish. Plan accordingly, and proceed at your own risk.
For the purpose of this project, I need community participation in response to items marked in bold red. Since I do not own an automatic transmission Cruze (mine is manual), I'll need help with this. Some of these lines will need to be answered by someone technical enough to perform this procedure on their own.
Fluid required: 12-16 quarts DEX6-spec synthetic ATF. 12 Quarts is an absolute minimum. Using more than 12 quarts produces increasingly diminishing returns, but ensures a more complete fluid change.
Tools Required:
Preparation:
Fluid Exchange:
There are two reasons why I am working on this project.
1. The current ATF change method involves performing two drains and re-fills of ATF, which replaces approximately 70% of the old fluid, leaving 30% still in the transmission. It is far from ideal and wastes 25% of the new fluid. The ability to flush out 95-99% of the fluid will provide better results.
2. This is an economy car. It will have a significant following among people who will want to service their own transmissions, and they will need a procedure for flushing transmission fluid that doesn't involve paying their dealer $80-$120 (plus fluid) to do it for them. It also gives them the freedom to choose whichever fluid they wish to.
Before I begin, I need to note that this procedure should not be attempted by anyone who feels it is outside their comfort zone. It is a tad bit more complicated than a simple oil change. AutoGuide.com, CruzeTalk.com, myself, or AMSOIL take absolutely no responsibility or liability from any issues that may arise in your vehicle through following this procedure. The procedure is being posted first for discussion before it is published as a tutorial to iron out any potential issues. The truth is that it is a fairly straightforward procedure, but attention and care must be taken during specific steps. You can't start this procedure and walk out to take care of a crying baby while the car is running. Once you start, you have to finish. Plan accordingly, and proceed at your own risk.
For the purpose of this project, I need community participation in response to items marked in bold red. Since I do not own an automatic transmission Cruze (mine is manual), I'll need help with this. Some of these lines will need to be answered by someone technical enough to perform this procedure on their own.
Fluid required: 12-16 quarts DEX6-spec synthetic ATF. 12 Quarts is an absolute minimum. Using more than 12 quarts produces increasingly diminishing returns, but ensures a more complete fluid change.
Tools Required:
- 11mm and 13mm sockets for removal of drain plug and level plug
- 6+ feet of rubber hose and a c-clamp - refer to writeup to determine size.
- Piece of thick, steel wire, at least 16 gauge. Basically bailing wire.
- Flathead screwdriver
- 4-5 gallon bucket
- Sharpie
- Long neck funnel
- A human capable of following orders
- Clean oil pan
- Bluetooth capable ANDROID Device (phone or tablet) with Torque app installed, OR a scan tool capable of scanning transmission temp OR a ScanGuage that can monitor transmission temp OR a laser infrared thermometer.
- Bluetooth OBD2 adapter
- Torque Wrench
- Sockets/Bits (to be determined below)
- Optional: Replacement transmission line retainers. Anyone have the part number for these?
- Anything else?
Preparation:
- Take your bucket. Measure out and fill a quart of water. After you've done this, use your sharpie and mark the vertical level on the bucket. Write the quart level on the bucket.
- Add another quart of water. Repeat step 1. This will have "2 quarts" written next to it. You may nee to stagger the vertical line to the left or the right to make it easier to read.
- Repeat step two until you have a line that reads 16 quarts.
- Raise vehicle off the ground level as high as you can get it. Support the vehicle on all 4 corners with 4 jackstands. A lifting jack is NOT a jackstand and is not intended to support a vehicle. Use common sense; do not lift your vehicle on an incline.
- Connect your OBD2 bluetooth adapter.
- Start car and allow it to idle for a few minutes to bring the engine and transmission up to lukewarm temperature.
- Connect your Torque app to the bluetooth OBD2 adapter and verify that the app is reading correctly. If using any other device, connect that instead and skip to step 9.
- Install the GM PID set in the Torque app (goto settings/ manage special PIDs/ hit menu in that section and touch add predefined set. Should have a GM set there, and create a gauge to monitor transmission temp.)
- Verify that transmission temp is reporting correctly. Refer to Figure C in the next post. DO NOT PROCEED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE MEANS TO SCAN FOR TRANSMISSION TEMPERATURE. If using the infrared thermometer, simply point it at the metal cooler line fitting.
- Turn the car off.
Fluid Exchange:
- Verify that you can remove the fill plug and the level plug. If one is stuck and cannot be at least loosened, find a way to loosen them. Usually, a good whack of a hammer on a center punch dead in the plug will loosen it up, if you have enough space to get the leverage.
- Place a the oil pan underneath the drain plug for the transmission. Do not confuse this with the engine oil drain plug. Need a picture of this so people don't get confused.
- Remove drain plug and allow fluid to drain out into the pan using the 13mm socket.
- Once the fluid stops draining, re-insert drain plug. Tighten to 12 N-m or 106 lb-in.
- Pour the transmission fluid from the oil pan into the bucket. Using the measurement marks, fill ~0.50-1.0 quart more than that amount back into the transmission. You should have drained approximately 4.25-4.5 quarts.
- Remove retaining cover from transmission cooler lines. Refer to Figure A in following post.
- Position oil pan below oil feed return line.
- Disconnect feed line (the lower one) and allow the transmission oil cooler to drain into the oil pan. - Need to confirm that the lower line is the feed line from the transmission. This is CRITICAL. This can be performed by removing the retaining clip pictured in Figure B using a flathead screwdriver. The retaining clip as it is under tension and may go flying somewhere, so wrap the clip in a cloth rag as it is being removed. A strong magnet may also be a good option.
- Do any engine shields need to be removed prior to step 8?
- Allow the transmission oil cooler to drain into the oil pan.
- Once the cooler has finished draining, empty oil pan into 5-gallon gradiated bucket.
- Slide rubber hose over end of the feed line and secure with c-clamp.
- Place the other end of the hose into the bucket and secure to bucket edge or handle using steel wire. You want to make sure that the hose has no chance of sliding out of the bucket. If the rubber hose is firm enough, a hand clamp may work as well.
- Remove fill plug and place in a safe place.
- Place long necked funnel into fill port.
- Have your enlisted human turn the car on while you stand in the engine bay. The bucket should be positioned outside of the car, and you should be able to access the engine bay at this point. Once the car starts, the transmission's internal pump will start pumping out fluid through the hose. That is, assuming you tapped into the correct transmission line. The transmission's pump operates at about 15-30psi, with 15psi being likely at idle. However, the flow rate should be manageable. In other words, it won't drain the entire transmission in a second.
- The moment the car starts and you have confirmed fluid is being pumped into the bucket, begin filling new fluid into the transmission. Here's the critical part of this procedure. At idle, the transmission will function just fine with one more or less quart than it needs to. Keep track of how quickly you are re-filling the transmission and how quickly the bucket is being filled. Ideally, you will fill the transmission at the same rate as it is emptying itself.
- If you cannot keep up with the transmission and have fallen one quart behind, have your enlisted human turn the car off. This will stop the transmission from pumping and allow you to catch up. At this point, it is OK to add an extra quart to get ahead of the transmission when you start the car again. Expect to have to shut the car on and off several times.
- After you've gone through ~8 quarts or so and have ensured that your transmission is NOT more than one quart low (review how many bottles you have filled and how much fluid there is in the bucket) have your enlisted human place their foot firmly on the brake pedal and shift into drive, neutral, reverse, and back into park, and hold each gear for a few seconds. This will get new fluid moving through the valve body.
- Continue this process until you have 2 quarts left. By this point, the transmission should be pumping much cleaner fluid. Have your enlisted human turn the car off. If you've done this correctly, you will have filled about as many quarts of fluid as the transmission pumped out, give or take up to 1/2 a quart.
- Re-connect the transmission feed line into the transmission cooler, securing the line with the retaining clip, and reinstalling the retaining clip cover.
- Position oil pan underneath transmission level plug. The level plug is on the driver's side by the CV shaft. The level plug is located at approximately 4-5 o'clock from the driver CV shaft. Refer to Exhibit D.
- Instruct enlisted human to start the car.
- With the engine running and the transmission in PARK, remove the level plug with the vehicle running.This should be an 11mm bolt.
- Any excess fluid will drain out of the transmission. If nothing drains out of the transmission, add more fluid to the transmission until it does.
- While scanning transmission temp with your Torque app, allow transmission to rise in temperature until it begins to stabilize. Once transmission temperature has stabilized as high as it can during idle and fluid has stopped draining out of the level hole, re-insert the level plug. Tighten to 12 N-m or 106 lb-in.
- Remove the funnel and re-install the fill plug. Since this is plastic, just make sure it is hand-tight. Do not over-tighten.
- Turn car off and lower it off of the jackstands.
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