I'll be changing the oil in my transmission soon. Going with Mobil 1 full synthetic ATF oil. I have never changed the oil before MYSELF. Is the easiest way to put the oil in the tranny through the shifter opening? Is there any section of the shifter opening the oil only suppose to go through? tips? Thanks. I have a 02 gt

 

pop drain plug out, let it drain fully, take shifter off and toss 3qts in the hole...your done

 

It's been a while since I did that on the 99 (for this procedure, T45/3650 should be similar), but I'm pretty sure I just poured the trans fluid right on in. I tried filling it with the fill hole but that was a huge pain in the ***. If you have a badass pump though then that would be quicker.

Pulling off the shifter is tough. What I ended up doing was I got underneath the car with a hammer and a long screwdriver and tapped at the edges of the shifer plate. Make sure you clean off the old gasket gunk left behind too (do not let any of it get inside the transmission).

 

Take out the drain plug and let it drain. Then on the side of the transmission there's a fill plug that looks like the drain plug. You can run a hose and pump it back into the transmission, you can buy one at any parts store for about $8-10. Or like they are saying pull out the shifter and pour the fluid in, then get some gasket maker to put the shifter back.

 

Ok. Because I want all the fluid to drain out. Which side of the car should be jacked up? The front or the rear?

Edit: n/m clearly the front should b jacked up not the rear.

 

Passenger side (while draining anyway)
Between my car being low and me being on the bigger side, I put all 4 wheels up on ramps. I may be wrong, but I am thinking the plugs are on the driver's side (they are both on the same side anyway). The drain plug is at the bottom side and the fill/check plug is 1/2 to 2/3 up above that. Contrary to what your book may say, it takes 3 qts of fluid from empty. (technically 3.18 or real close to that, but 3 qts works). This was changed in a TSB in '02 I believe, so your book would still have the old value in it (which was closer to 4 qts).

 

You want to jack the driver side up. The drain plug and fill plug are on the passenger side of the car. You wont get 100% of the fluid out... Spec is like 3.21qts... Drain until nothing else comes out and fill with 3qts. Never failed me yet

 

I will be changing my cars tranny oil while he cars front end is up on ramps. My concern I guess is will all the oil drain out with the car up at that angle? The front wheels will be up on race ramps.... I just wanna make sure all the fluid gets out. Has anyone else changed their transmission oil this way.? Thoughts? Thx

 

It will drain about 85% of the fluid that way...thats why when u fill it you only toss 3 qts back in... and youre done

 

If you have a jack and jack stands, you can raise the rear to better level the car if you really want a better drain.

It is not really all that tough to get access and remove the shifter for filling purposes, but you can also fill it from the engine bay. Get about 4 feet of tubing from the parts store or home improvement center to fit over the tip of a funnel. Feed it down beside your exhaust manifold on the driver side and into the fill hole. It is easy and as long as you don't have any loops in the tubing, the fluid will all go into the trans from the funnel.

You will probably notice a small improvement in the smoothness of shifts with new fluid at the revised fill level.