Dont forget cleaning the magnet, and yes its probably doable. Steve, if you want to try it yourself the way ive done it is to loosen the bolts on the passenger side first then let the fluid leak out into a large catch pan, as the fluid flow starts to slow, loosen the rest of the bolts work your way to the driver side of the car. fluid should continue to drain until the pan is empty. At that point you can take the pan off wipe out the bottom and clean the square magnet off and reattach it to the pan. Change your filter, wipe down your gaskets and replace the pan. Not sure on your tranny but on mine the torque is 10 ft/lbs on the bolts. Get them all started hand tight then torque em down, start at one end and work your way to the other.

Refill with fluid (its about 8 quarts for mine, 10 in the system but 8 sits in the pan) then start the car, check for leaks, check your fluid level and add as needed.

As Bela Karolyi says "You can do it!"

See the step by step instructions in Tech Info.

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/techinfo/?article=37

Or here...

http://www.grandprix.net/upgrades/tranfluid.html

No, you're not wrong, but sometimes it'* a better use of your time and energy to just pay somebody else to do it. You're right about capabilities, and oil changes vs. trans-fluid changes, but a trans-fluid project is a lot messier and time-consuming, and requires a little more time (and skill) to _properly_ re-seal the pan without, say, going berserk and over-torquing the pan bolts (even going hand-tight with too big of a socket handle can do it).

I wish they'd put a drain plug in the trans pan. I know the pan has to come off to replace the filter anyway, but at least a drain plug would allow you to get the fluid out first, and eliminate that big *gooosh* of fluid going everywhere as soon as the pan is loosened up.

That would cost GM big bucks to redesign the oil pan Plus cost them another $.50 for the drain plug. Plus it'* too logical an idea. And speaking of logical, have you heard about the next big thing some manufactureres are doing with automatic transmissions?

Here'* an article written by Doug Flint;


Another dumb idea is making its way through the auto industry. The automatic transmission dipstick, which serves as an underhood point to both check and add transmission fluid, is being eliminated on more and more models.

The first vehicle I saw this on was the mid-nineties Isuzu Rodeo and its sister, the Honda Passport. Instead of having a dipstick, the transmission pan has two plugs on the pan underneath. You have to pump fluid in one plug and wait until it just trickles out the other plug, of course being sure that the vehicle is warmed up, level, and that the moon is in the correct phase - more on this later. Although it was a bother, this new method was pretty straightforward, with the plugs clearly marked and identified and a simple understandable procedure. But you, the consumer, were now effectively locked out of your transmission.

The next vehicle I saw this on was a VW Jetta, where the fluid-check procedure was something like 63 steps and involved the use of a multi-thousand dollar scan tool to verify the transmission'* mode and temperature before checking the level. If fluid is needed, a plastic cap must be broken off the "add" tube and replaced with a new one. Hope you live near a VW dealer. Up to that point I wasn't too concerned, because Isuzu had had issues with their transmission prior to eliminating the dipstick (there was a metal tag on their dipstick cautioning against overfilling), and VW'* fluid was so unique (made from the pressed bladders of rare Siberian yaks I believe), that they might have thought this was for the best. But when GM did away with the dipstick on some of their standard sedans and I found no dipstick on an '02 Ford Explorer, I knew the fungus was spreading out of control.

You broke it!

The official industry argument for this trend will be as follows: "Our research has indicated that X percentage of transmission failures are caused by incorrect filling procedures and incorrect fluid. By precisely controlling the fluid in our transmission we can ensure superior life and performance."

Translation: "The problem isn't that we built crappy transmissions, poorly engineered, with low-quality parts. The problem is that you put fluid in them!" This argument is easily refuted by the fact that fluid stored in the freely sloshing pan of a machine (your car or truck'* transmission) changes levels dramatically with each start, stop, or turn of the vehicle. And let'* not forget about hills changing the fluid level. And yes, the phases of the moon will create a "high tide" and "low tide" within the transmission pan.

Catch-22
So if precision engineering is not behind the disappearing dipstick, what is? I have two theories. Premature transmission failures on American cars and trucks are reaching epic proportions. By making it impossible for consumers to check the fluid, they can then be blamed for not checking the fluid. If they produce records indicating the fluid was checked (outside of the dealer, of course), well, it couldn't possibly have been checked correctly, with all 63 steps followed and special adapters used. Kind of like filling out a tax form. So the manufacturers are off the hook again. This may sound a little cynical, but it is well-deserved cynicism.

The other, more likely, theory is that by eliminating the dipstick, tube and all, a savings in production costs is achieved. The same basic transmission may be used in several different vehicles, or "platforms," as the industry calls them, but for each different vehicle the dipstick tube engineering is a little different. It might be on the right side or the left side, higher or lower, all depending on the contours of the vehicle it'* going in. By making the transmission fluid check-and-fill procedures part of the transmission itself, less re-engineering has to be done to make the transmission fit different platforms. It may even open up the possibility of outsourcing the automatic transmission.

On deaf ears
This is the part where I make the heartfelt appeal to the manufacturers to reconsider this bit of engineering by considering the real-world effects. Do you really think the world would be better off if no one can check or add transmission fluid to a car or truck?

What about the middle-class family with four kids, two of them in college? They've got a fleet of three- to ten-year-old cars they have to keep on the road. Yeah, the old truck leaks a little trans fluid, but they put a quart in every two months and it does fine. Do you really want to make that impossible to do? Do you think the consumer will marvel at how clever you are? More than likely they'll say, "I'm never buying one of these again!"


Doug Flint owns and operates Tune-Up Technology, a garage in Alexandria, VA

Oh my damn.............................................. .....................

Not to hard to braze weld a bung onto the pan, On my saturn I had to braze a bung for the oil return line so the oil could dain into the pan.[/quote]

....and don't use any RTV!! Just use the rubber gasket.

Hey Don, come bring your *** up here and change my trans fluid.

damn, only catch pan i have is the oil drain. Guess I'll try it. Going to murrays.