Hello everybody.
I got about 80000 mile on my bonneville and like to do the transmission oil replacement. What you guys recommend. Is this something we can do at home or we have to take it to shop ? If we can do at home, can some body explain how to do this. If I dont want to replace filter is there any easy way to do this or you have to drop the pan and flush it. Any input will be greatly appriciated. thank you
By the way my car is 2000 bonneville SE

Wow, It should have been done quite a while ago.

You can do it at home, it really is not that hard, but since you have gone over the normal change interval I would recommend getting it flushed with a hydraulic heater shock flusher at some shop and have the filter changed as well. If you want to save money by doing it yourself I would recommend draining it twice.

Drain fluid, refill, go for a good sprited drive and get the trans warm and then come back home and do it again this time changing the filter and gasket and replacing the fluid with something high quality. You also mentioned, what if I don't want to replace the filter...you have to replace the filter if you want it done right. It would be completely pointless to do it any other way.

Its all a matter of money, flushing is always recommended by anyone who knows anything, but I don't think there is anything wrong with just draining it twice, but just draining it once leaves all the old fluid in the torque converter, when you drain twice you are diluting that bad fluid a heck of alot more than it was before. But make sure to get a good trans filter and make sure to use a torque wrench on those trans pan bolts, I didn't and over tightened and my trans leaks now. That is very important.

good luck!

Wjcollier..

I don't think he'* that much over or in that bad of a place. Yes the recommended service at most shops is 30,000 miles. No biggie though.

Personally at 133K when I bought my car, I dropped the pan and changed the filter and fluid. No flush.

I used standard fluid that met the specifications for the car. A year later I did the filter and fluid again.

However a flush will not hurt a transmission that is in good shape.

Yeah, you're not in that dire of straits. Either option (doing it yourself or having it flushed) is fine. The gasket is reusable, and if it is in good shape, use that. It'* likely better than anything aftermarket that you will buy. The worst part of doing it yourself is that it is messy. Find or purchase a large bin to catch the fluid.

Not changing the filter does not make changing the fluid pointless. The flilter is there to keep any large chunks of debris from entering the tansmission. It does not "clean" the fluid in the same manner as an oil filter. Changing the filter is definately prefered. It is not the end of the world if it is not. If you're going to go through the trouble of dropping the pan...do it right and change the filter too.

can you please tell me how to drain and fill if I do not want to drop the pan. since I like to drain twice before I drop the pan and change the filter. Is there any drain bolt and fill plug some where. If there is fill plug, where it is. and if there is no fill plug can I just use the fill tube for this ??Anyway I kind of ok to use the tool and I do have torque wrench handy so should not be a problem. Which fluid is recommended for our tranny. Anybody know the torque specs on those screws for the pan. Sorry to ask you guys all this questions and thank you for all of you guys time to share this valuable information with me.

At 80K I'd drop the pan. But if you insist on draining it I used vinyl tubing and did a siphon drain job on my 93 long ago. I had the fluid very warm after a long drive and just inserted the tube gently and started a siphon and check the buck once in a while. It took a long time.

I'd recommend the pan drop. Change the 55% of fluid. Drive 10K miles. Repeat. Change filter when you do the first one. You don't need a filter with an included gasket. PepBoys ahd a Purolator IIRC without the gasket.

There is no drain plug, which makes this a messy job. All I did was loosen the bolts a little more on one side until it started draining out. When it stopped dripping, I removed the pan the rest of the way. It takes a little while. Then when you do drop the pan, be careful as there will still be fluid in it. The filter was a pain in the A$$ to get off for me, but after a lot of pulling, prying, and swearing I got it down. Hopefully that helps.

This is not like an oil change, this is nowhere near the same. The filter sits inside the transmission pan. To change it just undo the bolts (starting on what ever side you have the drain pan under), then completely remove the pan, take a shop rag and clean all the debris off the magnet and from the pan. Then remove the filter by pulling it straight down, you can wiggle it if needed, most likely after 80k it will be seated in there pretty well. Then put the new filter back in, rebolt the pan, and fill with fluid through the trans dipstick.

Now like Bill said, it is not nessisary to re drain it right away. You should be fine for quite a while. And then you're done! It is a very simple thing to do, the only real annoying thing is that it can get messy, and removing and replacing all the trans pan bolts can be time consuming.

Hope that helps.

I've used a siphon type pump to pump out about 5 quarts of tranny fluid for various reasons. One of them to make it a bit less messy dropping the pan. You could do that, replace the what you pumped out, run it for a while, and then drop the pan to change it and the filter if that is they way you wish to do it. It only took a couple of minutes using a hand pump.

The torque for the pan bolts is 10 ft lbs.

Interestingly enough, GM went away from having a drain plug many years ago, and one of the reasons was so the pan would have to dropped, and it would be more likely that the filter would be replaced.

Thanks for mentioning the trq for the bolts...I was just trying to look it up, and not having much luck, but then again, thats why you're a gearhead! You just KNOW.