Tranny fluid change?

[withac]

You don't need to pry on the center electrode to open a gap. Slide the side electrode through the hole and pry down/away from the plug. The pressure is on the outer edge of the side electrode not the center electrode, although before I figured out I didn't need to regap the TR55's I tried and the side electrode was so stiff I couldn't move it, but I've been able to open the gap on standard plugs that way.

 

[05TahoeZ71]

Sorry to drag this back out. I'm new so let me know if I'm F'd up. Jason hopefully you haven't done your tranny drain and fill, cause I'll let you in on a couple of gotchas. Take a look at your tranny pan, if it is multi leveled, i.e. it has a deeper portion and a shallo portion to it, it's the deep pan if it's uniformly level across the bottom, it's the shallow pan. This only makes a big difference if you have the deep pan and get the shallow filter, it won't be sitting down in the fluid.

The drain and fill is really easy especially since you have a drain plug, mine didn't. After you drain it, pull of the tranny pan. This will be particularly difficult with the shift cable bracket on the driver's side. It takes a T-40, but mine was impossible to get at even with a stubby wrench, so I just bent it out of the way. With the pan off, clean it and the magnet, I use carb cleaner.

Now this is the biggest gotcha I wish I woulda known. You just pull the filter out of the valve body. There is a rubber and metal gasket up in the filter port on the valve body. If you can't pull it out with your finger, leave it in and just slap the new filter in. I almost ended up f-ing up my valve body trying to get that thing out. Slap your pan back on with a new gasket, bend the shift cable bracket back in place, and fill her up from the tranny tube under the hood. For your '06, Dexron VI is recommended and will take somewhere around 4.5 to 5 quarts.

As far as the flush goes, I would echo what everyone else has said. Also my buddies at the local GM dealership straight up told me the chemicals they flush with are really funky and tend to F up engines more than help them, so stay away. If you're looking to swap out RP, do a drain and fill, you'll only replace about 1/3 of the fluid, drive for 5k miles and do another one, then another. I would stay away from the technique of draining, filling, and turning your engine on and shifting to flush it. Yikes. Hope that helps.

 

[jasper10101010]

Thanks for the insight!

Man, I have been putting this off, but intend to change it this weekend. I really appreciate the insight you have given here. I'll have to get back under and check the trans pan. I believe, if memory serves, that the pan is uniform across the bottom, with only an indentation around the drain plug. It sounds simple enough once I figure out exactly which pan I have.

On a side note, I have an '03, not an '06, and it's not a Denali. Is the Dexron 6 still good to use? I assume so, as it should be an improvement over the old type, correct? Again, thanks for you input man, it should make things a bit easier!

Now, I just have to pull those plugs back out and re-gap them back to .040!

 

[BOSS]

Sorry to drag this back out. I'm new so let me know if I'm F'd up. Jason hopefully you haven't done your tranny drain and fill, cause I'll let you in on a couple of gotchas. Take a look at your tranny pan, if it is multi leveled, i.e. it has a deeper portion and a shallo portion to it, it's the deep pan if it's uniformly level across the bottom, it's the shallow pan. This only makes a big difference if you have the deep pan and get the shallow filter, it won't be sitting down in the fluid.

The drain and fill is really easy especially since you have a drain plug, mine didn't. After you drain it, pull of the tranny pan. This will be particularly difficult with the shift cable bracket on the driver's side. It takes a T-40, but mine was impossible to get at even with a stubby wrench, so I just bent it out of the way. With the pan off, clean it and the magnet, I use carb cleaner.

Now this is the biggest gotcha I wish I woulda known. You just pull the filter out of the valve body. There is a rubber and metal gasket up in the filter port on the valve body. If you can't pull it out with your finger, leave it in and just slap the new filter in. I almost ended up f-ing up my valve body trying to get that thing out. Slap your pan back on with a new gasket, bend the shift cable bracket back in place, and fill her up from the tranny tube under the hood. For your '06, Dexron VI is recommended and will take somewhere around 4.5 to 5 quarts.

As far as the flush goes, I would echo what everyone else has said. Also my buddies at the local GM dealership straight up told me the chemicals they flush with are really funky and tend to F up engines more than help them, so stay away. If you're looking to swap out RP, do a drain and fill, you'll only replace about 1/3 of the fluid, drive for 5k miles and do another one, then another. I would stay away from the technique of draining, filling, and turning your engine on and shifting to flush it. Yikes. Hope that helps.

Great post, thanks!

BOSS

 

[Dahlar]

I am also curious of this subject as my 02 yukon just hit 190 and I don't think the fluid has been changed since 75K or so. It sounds like I should just do a drain and filter and put in 5 quarts if Dexron VI?

 

[05TahoeZ71]

As far as I know 06 was the first year Dexron VI was recommended. I could be wrong though. I put it in my 05 at 65k miles (I've been towing quite a bit). Can't see how it can be any worse. So far the shifts have been a little stiffer, but I've also been playing around with the shift pressures on my programmer when I'm not towing. I initially put in 4 quarts and kept doing hot tranny fluid checks for a week and it took just under 5 quarts.

Jason, how many miles are on your 03? If you have over a hundred k and haven't changed the tranny fluid I would drain, swap the filter, and fill it up. If not you could just get away with a drain and fill, much easier and quicker. GM only recommends a drain and fill at 100k (as long as you aren't towing) and some of them don't even put a new filter in.

Let me know if you want more details.

 

[jasper10101010]

I'm at 100k, a little over. I bought it with around 80k, not had any issues with it, just want to keep it that way! I think I will go at it this weekend and see how it turns out. I still can't get past the refill method through the damn dipstick tube! That seems so inefficient, can't imagine not having a refill plug somewhere! Oh well, no big deal. I'll let you guys know how it turns out this weekend.

 

[OmarR]

To further add, you guys can do a flush yourself in your own garage. All you need is some clear line tubing and a large bucket from Home Depot. Flush it out through the lower line at the radiator, one/two quarts at a time.

I bought my Tahoe with 41K, I did my own flush at 50K and switched over to synthetic. Will probably do it again at 90K. Still running strong!

 

[05TahoeZ71]

Did you turn it on and run it through the gears while somebody else poured tranny fluid in? I read about something similar in another forum or a click and clack type website. I was a little wary of trying it out. Do you tow a lot to flush that often or just being safe? I'm just curious.

 

[withac]

The problems with some flushes is that they can stir up stuff that can lead to problems. I read of a way to do it so that's not an issue but I can't find where I saved it. If I recall, you take the hoses off your tranny cooler, you put the one that feeds back into the tranny in your bucket or bottles of new fluid. You put the hose feeding into the cooler into your collection bucket. You let it suck in clean fluid and the clean fluid supposedly pushed the old dirty stuff out ahead of it. You keep letting it suck in new fluid until the stuf running into your bucket runs clean. Then you know you have new, clean fluid all the way through your tranny. The article said this was better than a traditional flush because it didn't stir things up, the fluid just flowed through the tranny in the same path and direction that it always did. You may not get any sediment or whatever cleaned out this way, but you should get a complete fluid change without worrying about stirring stuff up.

FWIW.

 

[OmarR]

Did you turn it on and run it through the gears while somebody else poured tranny fluid in? Do you tow a lot to flush that often or just being safe?

You do not have to run it through the gears. The tranny pump is going, even in park. I do not tow at all, I am just being safe.

Withac, the method you describe is pretty much what the home flush entails. You are just routing out old fluid, and routing in new fluid. But the way most do it is:

1. Turn on the truck for about 20 seconds to dump out about 1-2 quarts in big bucket, then turn truck off
2. Pour in 1-2 new quarts through dipstick with funnel.
3. Repeat

You just do those steps until you have cycled through the entire capacity of the truck. The only (probable) issue is when your big bucket starts getting full and you get worried about whether you poured too much in versus siphoned too much out, or vice-versa. So what you can do is take the empty quart bottles and start filling them from the bucket. Label those "USED" and you can easily see where you stand. It also makes it easier for recycling purposes.

Or...the way I did it...I put my bucket on my digital scale and just did it by weight. I forgot how much each quart weighs, but I can look it up. I wrote it down somewhere.

Either way, if you take your time, will work out with no problems.

 

[BOSS]

I am also curious of this subject as my 02 yukon just hit 190 and I don't think the fluid has been changed since 75K or so. It sounds like I should just do a drain and filter and put in 5 quarts if Dexron VI?

x2...anybody?

 

[YNOT]

for me every 30,000 i do front and rear diffs, transfer case, transmission fluid/filter, fuel filter. just drain and fill yourself in the garage every 30,000 and drive the thing.

i just did it all this weekend, tons of fun laying on the garage floor.....lol. i don't trust most people to work on my stuff.

---------- Post added at 02:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:28 PM ----------

As far as I know 06 was the first year Dexron VI was recommended. I could be wrong though.

yeah on the bottom it says it's compatible with the older Dexron II and III call outs, i just put it in my 2001.

---------- Post added at 02:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:31 PM ----------

Sorry to drag this back out. I'm new so let me know if I'm F'd up. Jason hopefully you haven't done your tranny drain and fill, cause I'll let you in on a couple of gotchas. Take a look at your tranny pan, if it is multi leveled, i.e. it has a deeper portion and a shallo portion to it, it's the deep pan if it's uniformly level across the bottom, it's the shallow pan. This only makes a big difference if you have the deep pan and get the shallow filter, it won't be sitting down in the fluid.

The drain and fill is really easy especially since you have a drain plug, mine didn't. After you drain it, pull of the tranny pan. This will be particularly difficult with the shift cable bracket on the driver's side. It takes a T-40, but mine was impossible to get at even with a stubby wrench, so I just bent it out of the way. With the pan off, clean it and the magnet, I use carb cleaner.

Now this is the biggest gotcha I wish I woulda known. You just pull the filter out of the valve body. There is a rubber and metal gasket up in the filter port on the valve body. If you can't pull it out with your finger, leave it in and just slap the new filter in. I almost ended up f-ing up my valve body trying to get that thing out. Slap your pan back on with a new gasket, bend the shift cable bracket back in place, and fill her up from the tranny tube under the hood. For your '06, Dexron VI is recommended and will take somewhere around 4.5 to 5 quarts.

As far as the flush goes, I would echo what everyone else has said. Also my buddies at the local GM dealership straight up told me the chemicals they flush with are really funky and tend to F up engines more than help them, so stay away. If you're looking to swap out RP, do a drain and fill, you'll only replace about 1/3 of the fluid, drive for 5k miles and do another one, then another. I would stay away from the technique of draining, filling, and turning your engine on and shifting to flush it. Yikes. Hope that helps.

i've never heard of anyone getting those drain bolts out, gm screwed up on those. if you do get it out, i guess they make a steel replacement.
yeah i bent that shifter cable bracket out of the way because i couldn't get those t40's out.
i left the old trans filter seal in because the new filter fit nice and tight in there. (both on my tahoe and silverado)
i have the deep pan so i had to add 5 1/8 quarts.

 

[WickedGoat]

My shop uses a machine to do trans fluid exchanges. It is not a flush, but an exchange. We stick the tube down the trans dipstick and it sucks everything out of the pan. Then it adds back in about 5 quarts. The machine then tells you to start the car and row thru the gears about 5 times or so. Then we just leave it in neutral with the engine running and the machine just keeps sucking out the old and replacing it with new stuff. You can see the color of the old fluid coming out and new red fluid going in. The machine does a good job, and supposedly doing it this way, you never have to change the filter which obviously eliminates dropping the pan. We charge $100 for it and we use Dex6 because it is compatible with almost everything out there. This is probably the best way to go because it is not messy at all and can be done in less than 45 mins. Also, as far as when to change it..... We don't change it if the vehicle has 100K or more, unless it has been done at least once before or if manufacturer scheduled maintenance says to do so at 100K. The reason why is because over time, the bands and clutches break down and the contaminates flow with the trans fluid and stick to other parts of the trans. When you pull out the old fluid and put in the new fluid, it will cause the gritty pieces to come loose and flow with new fluid..... this is what kills the transmission and why most shops will say, "Just leave it alone and only top it off if it gets low". They don't want to be on the hook for a new trans for a measly $100 maintenance job. One last thing..... My neighbor just had her Hyundai trans fluid exchanged at 125K miles ...... Trans took a dump a week later..... I told her why and she was beside herself after that.