How to Drain/Refill Automatic Transmission

Thanks for the answer, bro! The light came on for a few seconds and disappeared. I'm waiting for it to cool down so I can try again. But in some videos, when the light shows up and disappears, they tell you it's ready to check the amount of fluid. But you never see the solid light in their video. Should it be completely solid after the N-D sequences?

 

Not sure where you live but this procedure is really best done in the cooler months. When you do the shifter procedure, the AT TEMP light will appear once you have done the procedure correctly and then it disappears until the fluid is warm enough to then check the overflow plug. Once the fluid is too hot then the light blinks.

 

I suck at this

 

There are also magnets attached to the bottom of the pan for catching metal, which is another good reason to remove the pan occasionally (not necessarily every fluid change), so you can remove any metal shavings. Also, if you take off the pan and unscrew the filter, you will be able to remove more fluid since a certain amount remains in the filter housing, even after normal draining.

 

For those that did this, at the end when checking the overflow, are you seeing a small trickle or just drips?

Mine goes from a decent steady flow, to a smaller steady flow and then just drips. I’m not seeing a small trickle.

 

What you are seeing sounds about right. The purpose of the overflow is just that, to allow excess ATF to exit the transmission. As the level of the ATF in the pan decreases, the flow will decrease. Once the ATF gets to the same level as the overflow, the flow will slow down, drip, and eventually stop.

 

Thanks. My question is are the slow drips the point to which I need to stop or stop just before that, when there still is some flow? There really is no “small trickle” point.

 

A steady trickle to many drops is fine. No need to overthink.