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2015 CVT drain and refill


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I decided to do a drain and refill on my 2015 with the CVT and i only got 24 ounces to come out when i pulled the plug.I did this with the car level.I expected much more.Has anyone done this? It shows to be at the correct level on the dipstick.

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What dipstick are you checking because there is no dipstick for the transmission. I did find it odd that fluid capacities for the CVT are not listed in the manual. This is straight out of the manual:

 

How to Check Automatic Transmission Fluid: It is not necessary to check the transmission fluid level. A transmission fluid leak is the only reason for fluid loss. If a leak occurs, take the vehicle to your dealer and have it repaired as soon as possible. The vehicle is not equipped with a transmission fluid level dipstick. There is a special procedure for checking and changing the transmission fluid. Because this procedure is difficult, this should be done at the dealer. Contact the dealer for additional information.

Edited by Ray Dockrey
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Hi!  I believe I can take the mystery out of this situation.  I have just completed a fluid and filter change in my 2014 Chevy Spark LT.  The dipstick is located

underneath the air cleaner (which you have to remove) in front of the battery tray.  It is well below so that the air filter can be located.  It has a little black cap with a slot on the filler tube, which can be accessed by depressing the clip inside the slot with a small flat blade screwdriver.  Pull up on the black dip stick cap and the dip stick comes up with the cap.  Very straight forward.  The reason why you only got 24 oz out is because the drain plug is screwed into the overflow tube inside the trans, which will only allow a small portion of the fluid to be drained.  If you have 45,000 miles on your car, you should probably change the fluid and filter.  That is what I did as it was beginning to display signs of belt/pulley slippage.  The gasket on the drain plug is a one time affair, since it is a crush gasket and if you are reusing it you are darn lucky its not leaking!  If it is in and not leaking, LEAVE IT THERE!   You will notice that the oil pan is deeper beyond where the drain plug is.  You are never going to get anymore out of the drain plug because it is higher than the fluid level inside the oil pan you wish to drain.  To get more fluid out, you have to take down the whole oil pan.  This is not too difficult because all of the oil pan bolts are accessible from the bottom.

 

The Full Monty:  Parts for your Spark have to be ordered by the VIN.  The last 8 digits of the VIN will tell the parts man which series trans you have.  The parts are dealer only items, since I tried every place I could think of before going to them.  For the trans with dip stick, there is also a filter required.  The parts include Pan Gasket at $49.50(!), Fluid Filter at $24.00(!) and an "O" Ring Gasket for the filter housing at nearly $19.00(!).  The prices are INSANE, especially the "O" Ring Gasket, because it is just a little skinny thing that looks like it cost $.03 to make! 

 

Job Preparation:  Remove the air cleaner, taking care with the clip that holds the MAF sensor in.  It is a little white jobbie that you slide off while depressing the little tab in the middle.  Once the white clip is off, push down on the tab on top the plug and pull the plug off.  Disconnect everything else that hold the air cleaner in place.  Not hard but takes a little time.  Be careful and patient.  Below, to your right (actually driver's side) you will see the filler tube.  It is not necessary to move shift lever selector brackets or anything else.  It is out there in plain sight.  Release the clip and remove the dip stick from the filler tube as I described above.  Jack up the car and remove the left front wheel.  You will see a black plastic trim piece with round plastic clips holding it in and which

tucks up and inside the plastic fender liner.  There is one 10mm bolt which holds this piece to the car frame on the bottom side of the trim piece, which is easily removed.  You will have to manipulate this piece in and out, as it is a bit of a bind. 

 

The Job:  Once removed you can see the round Transmission Oil Filter Housing.  There is only one 10mm bolt holding the filter housing the the transmission case.  Remove it, twist the housing to the left and pull the housing straight off.  Notice, that there is an "ear" on the housing that slides behind a tab on the trans, to help secure it in place. Some fluid is going to drain out.  The filter is right in front of you:  Grab it and pull straight out.  Put the new one in by pushing gently but firmly until the filter snaps into place and won't go any further into the trans.  Replace the "O" Ring Gasket on the housing and put a LIGHT film of oil on the gasket.  Then push the housing into the trans case gently but firmly until it snaps into place.  Turn the housing to the right, making sure the "ear" slips in behind the tab on the trans case, put the 10mm bolt in to secure the housing and tighten to about 7lb. ft.  Don't "chin" yourself on it!  Filter is now changed.

 

Remove the trans. oil pan by removing all of the bolts and taking the pan down.  This can be messy so make sure your drain pan is properly placed to catch

the fluid which at some point in the process, will pour out!  I suggest that the rear most pan bolts be completely removed and just loosening the bolts on the other end of the oil pan.  This will allow the rear of the pan to drop down enough to drain the fluid, but not allow it drop completely off into the drain pan, which will create a mess and a half!  When most all of the fluid has drained out, take out the remaining bolts and take the oil pan down.  Pretty simple.

 

Going Back Together:  Since the Pan Gasket is $50.00 you are going to take more than reasonable care with re-assembly.  The Gasket already has gasket cement added in manufacture (speaking about the Dealer supplied gasket, not some other aftermarket part), so DO NOT use any more sealer.  When removing the old gasket from the trans, it should come off fairly cleanly.  If any gasket material is stuck to the trans or the oil pan, it must be removed to affect a good seal on reassembly.  Be very gentle in removal of the stuck material, so as not to gouge the soft alloy mating face of the trans.  When thoroughly cleaned, it will be ready to receive the new gasket.  Make sure the oil pan itself is very clean and the two magnets which sit inside the pan are also cleaned and put back in place.  Put the oil pan and gasket back onto the trans taking care not to bend or damage the gasket.  Start two bolts at first, one on either side of the oil pan, then get the oil pan situated onto the trans.  HAND TIGHTEN the two bolts until the pan is up in place against the trans.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  All the pan bolts MUST be hand tightened before putting any force behind it.  If any of the bolts are corroded and were difficult to remove, the threads will have to be cleaned sufficiently to allow you to hand tighten them because bolts that are too tight are going to affect the final torque

sequence.  I had two stiff ones with corroded threads, which I had to clean with a wire brush before I could screw them by hand into place.

 

TORQUE SEQUENCE AND TORQUE WRENCH SETTING:  The torque wrench setting is 60 INCH POUNDS.  If you don't have an Inch Pound torque wrench, go to Autozone and borrow one.  You can't accurately finish the job without it!  Torque the bolts alternately on opposite sides of the pan, working from the middle of the pan out to the ends.  After all of the bolts are torqued, go around them all again, to insure you got them all done.  The pan is up and ready.  Put the tire back on and lower to the ground.  Don't put the plastic trim piece back on as you need to check for fluid leaks at the filter housing.  The car must be level for the following step.

 

RE-FILLING THE TRANSMISSION:  No mystery here.  Since it is completely empty, pour three and a half quarts of CVT Fluid in through the filler tube.  You will need a long, skinny funnel to do this.  Pour SLOWLY!  You don't want to be loosing any trans fluid as you pour.  The amount of fluid drained out will most likely be the amount you are going to pour back in.  This will vary from four to four and a half quarts depending.  Put the dip stick in 180 DEGREES FROM THE WAY IT WAS REMOVED.  This allow you to push the dip stick all the way to its seat, without re-engaging the clip.  Pull the dip stick out and notice the level on the stick.  There are two notches on the stick, the lower one being "minimum" and the upper notch being "maximum."  At 3 1/2 quarts, the level should be at least up to the lower "minimum" notch.  If not, pour enough fluid in to bring it up to "minimum".  Replace the dip stick.  Put the air cleaner back in place.  Start the engine and let it run while you check for leaks.  If you did the Oil Pan Gasket as suggested, it should be dry as a bone.  Before moving the car, move the gear lever through each range, i.e. from P to R (count to five) from R to N (count to five) N to D (count to five) and D to 1 (count to five).  Same procedure back up to "P".  Take the car for a short drive, enough to get the engine warmed up.  Back to the garage, engine off, remove air cleaner again.

Check the level on the dip stick.  The final level showing must be BETWEEN the upper notch and the lower notch.  If already there, add no more fluid and if lower, then add enough to bring it up to between the two notches.  When the level is right, put the dip stick in the right way around and re attach the clip.

Re-install the air cleaner for the last time, making sure of all your connections.  Restart the engine and check for leaks.  Make sure that the Filter Housing is dry.  You can do this by looking past the left front tire into the engine bay.  It should be dry.  If everything above and below is dry, shut the car off and jack it up.  Remove the tire and re-install the black plastic trim piece that covers the access to the Transmission Oil Filter Housing.  With that in place, put the tire back on and let the car down.  You are ready to roll!

 

If this is too much for you or you don't have enough room to work, you may want to consider having the Dealer do the whole thing for about $260.00.

After a lot of research, I decided to use AMSoil Synthetic CVT fluid.  I was impressed by what I read as well as receiving positive advice about AMSoil

products.  In any case, I ordered 5 quarts.  You will use four or possibly 4 1/2 quarts depending on what came out.

 

I hope this helped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Awesome.Thank you Rudy.I will be attempting this in the next couple of weeks.I already had the Amsoil CVT fluid and drain plug gaskets and i just got the filter,pan gasket,and filter o ring at OReilly Auto Parts.It was 92.22 tax and all.All delco parts.

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Hi!

 

I am very glad that my post was helpful.  I feel that once the mystery is removed, a lot of anxiety goes away with it.  For tcbnfl:  The only thing that I saw

was the bottom of the valve body.  If we are talking about the same thing, it looks square and like where a conventional filter would go.  But, according to what info I have, it is the valve body.  The dealer said that the little tube filter is the only filter listed.  Anyway, you are good for another 45,000 miles!

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Hello!

 

If someone is interested, I found an article about the CVT-7 from Jatco, it's quite an interesting read (attached to this post). Also, you can find that the transmission contains 6.21 US Quarts (or 5.88L) of fluid. This was confirmed to me by my dealer, which I called to have a quote for the job.

 

I've also attached the schematics of the transmission system on the 2016 Spark, if someone is interested.

 

The transmission fluid on my 2016 Spark will be due to be changed in the next year or so. I live in Quebec, Canada and the total price came to 650$ CAD (including about 3 hours of labor). I also called a couple of local shops, and the lowest I could find was 500$ CAD, but they did not flush the transmission fluid from the torque converter.

 

As for the cost of doing it myself, I calculated it thusly:

The shipping from amazon is free, but there are taxes (15%).

The shipping from rockauto is about 45$ CAD, but I have to calculate 23% import fees (15% tax + 8% import fee).

 

The total cost of doing the change by myself would then be around 300$ CAD, which is a lot cheaper than going to the dealer or my local mechanic, and I know that it will be done correctly.

 

Anyways, I hope this will help if there are other people who want to change the transmission fluid by themselves!

Alexandre

1 Disassembled Views_Document ID_4109175.pdf

CVT-7 specs.pdf

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On 9/22/2018 at 4:48 PM, Rudy said:

The Job:  Once removed you can see the round Transmission Oil Filter Housing.  There is only one 10mm bolt holding the filter housing the the transmission case.  Remove it, twist the housing to the left and pull the housing straight off. 

What round oil filter housing? Not showing on the parts diagram for 2016 models. 1 Disassembled Views_Document ID_4109175.pdf  And isn't the pan gasket reusable at that price?

Edited by atikovi
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Hi

New to this forum. I just want to clarify about what was posted about doing the fluid change on the Spark. The filter that some are talking about is not the Trans filter. That is the Case Vent Filter. They are not the same. The Trans filter is in the pan and is part AC Delco TF 923. its bolted in and you will see it when you remove your pan. The Drain plug is how you set the level of the fluid while the car is in park on a level surface and running. When the oil starts to trickle out your level is set.  Here is a good vid to watch   Cheers 

 

Edited by Tony M
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On 9/22/2018 at 1:48 PM, Rudy said:

Hi!  I believe I can take the mystery out of this situation.  I have just completed a fluid and filter change in my 2014 Chevy Spark LT.  The dipstick is located

underneath the air cleaner (which you have to remove) in front of the battery tray.  It is well below so that the air filter can be located.  It has a little black cap with a slot on the filler tube, which can be accessed by depressing the clip inside the slot with a small flat blade screwdriver.  Pull up on the black dip stick cap and the dip stick comes up with the cap.  Very straight forward.  The reason why you only got 24 oz out is because the drain plug is screwed into the overflow tube inside the trans, which will only allow a small portion of the fluid to be drained.  If you have 45,000 miles on your car, you should probably change the fluid and filter.  That is what I did as it was beginning to display signs of belt/pulley slippage.  The gasket on the drain plug is a one time affair, since it is a crush gasket and if you are reusing it you are darn lucky its not leaking!  If it is in and not leaking, LEAVE IT THERE!   You will notice that the oil pan is deeper beyond where the drain plug is.  You are never going to get anymore out of the drain plug because it is higher than the fluid level inside the oil pan you wish to drain.  To get more fluid out, you have to take down the whole oil pan.  This is not too difficult because all of the oil pan bolts are accessible from the bottom.

 

The Full Monty:  Parts for your Spark have to be ordered by the VIN.  The last 8 digits of the VIN will tell the parts man which series trans you have.  The parts are dealer only items, since I tried every place I could think of before going to them.  For the trans with dip stick, there is also a filter required.  The parts include Pan Gasket at $49.50(!), Fluid Filter at $24.00(!) and an "O" Ring Gasket for the filter housing at nearly $19.00(!).  The prices are INSANE, especially the "O" Ring Gasket, because it is just a little skinny thing that looks like it cost $.03 to make! 

 

Job Preparation:  Remove the air cleaner, taking care with the clip that holds the MAF sensor in.  It is a little white jobbie that you slide off while depressing the little tab in the middle.  Once the white clip is off, push down on the tab on top the plug and pull the plug off.  Disconnect everything else that hold the air cleaner in place.  Not hard but takes a little time.  Be careful and patient.  Below, to your right (actually driver's side) you will see the filler tube.  It is not necessary to move shift lever selector brackets or anything else.  It is out there in plain sight.  Release the clip and remove the dip stick from the filler tube as I described above.  Jack up the car and remove the left front wheel.  You will see a black plastic trim piece with round plastic clips holding it in and which

tucks up and inside the plastic fender liner.  There is one 10mm bolt which holds this piece to the car frame on the bottom side of the trim piece, which is easily removed.  You will have to manipulate this piece in and out, as it is a bit of a bind. 

 

The Job:  Once removed you can see the round Transmission Oil Filter Housing.  There is only one 10mm bolt holding the filter housing the the transmission case.  Remove it, twist the housing to the left and pull the housing straight off.  Notice, that there is an "ear" on the housing that slides behind a tab on the trans, to help secure it in place. Some fluid is going to drain out.  The filter is right in front of you:  Grab it and pull straight out.  Put the new one in by pushing gently but firmly until the filter snaps into place and won't go any further into the trans.  Replace the "O" Ring Gasket on the housing and put a LIGHT film of oil on the gasket.  Then push the housing into the trans case gently but firmly until it snaps into place.  Turn the housing to the right, making sure the "ear" slips in behind the tab on the trans case, put the 10mm bolt in to secure the housing and tighten to about 7lb. ft.  Don't "chin" yourself on it!  Filter is now changed.

 

Remove the trans. oil pan by removing all of the bolts and taking the pan down.  This can be messy so make sure your drain pan is properly placed to catch

the fluid which at some point in the process, will pour out!  I suggest that the rear most pan bolts be completely removed and just loosening the bolts on the other end of the oil pan.  This will allow the rear of the pan to drop down enough to drain the fluid, but not allow it drop completely off into the drain pan, which will create a mess and a half!  When most all of the fluid has drained out, take out the remaining bolts and take the oil pan down.  Pretty simple.

 

Going Back Together:  Since the Pan Gasket is $50.00 you are going to take more than reasonable care with re-assembly.  The Gasket already has gasket cement added in manufacture (speaking about the Dealer supplied gasket, not some other aftermarket part), so DO NOT use any more sealer.  When removing the old gasket from the trans, it should come off fairly cleanly.  If any gasket material is stuck to the trans or the oil pan, it must be removed to affect a good seal on reassembly.  Be very gentle in removal of the stuck material, so as not to gouge the soft alloy mating face of the trans.  When thoroughly cleaned, it will be ready to receive the new gasket.  Make sure the oil pan itself is very clean and the two magnets which sit inside the pan are also cleaned and put back in place.  Put the oil pan and gasket back onto the trans taking care not to bend or damage the gasket.  Start two bolts at first, one on either side of the oil pan, then get the oil pan situated onto the trans.  HAND TIGHTEN the two bolts until the pan is up in place against the trans.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  All the pan bolts MUST be hand tightened before putting any force behind it.  If any of the bolts are corroded and were difficult to remove, the threads will have to be cleaned sufficiently to allow you to hand tighten them because bolts that are too tight are going to affect the final torque

sequence.  I had two stiff ones with corroded threads, which I had to clean with a wire brush before I could screw them by hand into place.

 

TORQUE SEQUENCE AND TORQUE WRENCH SETTING:  The torque wrench setting is 60 INCH POUNDS.  If you don't have an Inch Pound torque wrench, go to Autozone and borrow one.  You can't accurately finish the job without it!  Torque the bolts alternately on opposite sides of the pan, working from the middle of the pan out to the ends.  After all of the bolts are torqued, go around them all again, to insure you got them all done.  The pan is up and ready.  Put the tire back on and lower to the ground.  Don't put the plastic trim piece back on as you need to check for fluid leaks at the filter housing.  The car must be level for the following step.

 

RE-FILLING THE TRANSMISSION:  No mystery here.  Since it is completely empty, pour three and a half quarts of CVT Fluid in through the filler tube.  You will need a long, skinny funnel to do this.  Pour SLOWLY!  You don't want to be loosing any trans fluid as you pour.  The amount of fluid drained out will most likely be the amount you are going to pour back in.  This will vary from four to four and a half quarts depending.  Put the dip stick in 180 DEGREES FROM THE WAY IT WAS REMOVED.  This allow you to push the dip stick all the way to its seat, without re-engaging the clip.  Pull the dip stick out and notice the level on the stick.  There are two notches on the stick, the lower one being "minimum" and the upper notch being "maximum."  At 3 1/2 quarts, the level should be at least up to the lower "minimum" notch.  If not, pour enough fluid in to bring it up to "minimum".  Replace the dip stick.  Put the air cleaner back in place.  Start the engine and let it run while you check for leaks.  If you did the Oil Pan Gasket as suggested, it should be dry as a bone.  Before moving the car, move the gear lever through each range, i.e. from P to R (count to five) from R to N (count to five) N to D (count to five) and D to 1 (count to five).  Same procedure back up to "P".  Take the car for a short drive, enough to get the engine warmed up.  Back to the garage, engine off, remove air cleaner again.

Check the level on the dip stick.  The final level showing must be BETWEEN the upper notch and the lower notch.  If already there, add no more fluid and if lower, then add enough to bring it up to between the two notches.  When the level is right, put the dip stick in the right way around and re attach the clip.

Re-install the air cleaner for the last time, making sure of all your connections.  Restart the engine and check for leaks.  Make sure that the Filter Housing is dry.  You can do this by looking past the left front tire into the engine bay.  It should be dry.  If everything above and below is dry, shut the car off and jack it up.  Remove the tire and re-install the black plastic trim piece that covers the access to the Transmission Oil Filter Housing.  With that in place, put the tire back on and let the car down.  You are ready to roll!

 

If this is too much for you or you don't have enough room to work, you may want to consider having the Dealer do the whole thing for about $260.00.

After a lot of research, I decided to use AMSoil Synthetic CVT fluid.  I was impressed by what I read as well as receiving positive advice about AMSoil

products.  In any case, I ordered 5 quarts.  You will use four or possibly 4 1/2 quarts depending on what came out.

 

I hope this helped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hello! I hope someone sees this. I'm needing to drain/refill the CVT fluid on my 2014 chevy spark. Am I dropping the transmission pan from which the ATF comes from or is there a second transmission pan I should be looking for? Also, if I am dropping the only transmission pan, will I need to refill the ATF as well? Thanks in advance! 

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On 2/8/2020 at 9:54 PM, pharrari said:

Hello! I hope someone sees this. I'm needing to drain/refill the CVT fluid on my 2014 chevy spark. Am I dropping the transmission pan from which the ATF comes from or is there a second transmission pan I should be looking for? Also, if I am dropping the only transmission pan, will I need to refill the ATF as well? Thanks in advance! 

Found this doing a quick search on this site:

 

Hi!  I believe I can take the mystery out of this situation.  I have just completed a fluid and filter change in my 2014 Chevy Spark LT.  The dipstick is located

underneath the air cleaner (which you have to remove) in front of the battery tray.  It is well below so that the air filter can be located.  It has a little black cap with a slot on the filler tube, which can be accessed by depressing the clip inside the slot with a small flat blade screwdriver.  Pull up on the black dip stick cap and the dip stick comes up with the cap.  Very straight forward.  The reason why you only got 24 oz out is because the drain plug is screwed into the overflow tube inside the trans, which will only allow a small portion of the fluid to be drained.  If you have 45,000 miles on your car, you should probably change the fluid and filter.  That is what I did as it was beginning to display signs of belt/pulley slippage.  The gasket on the drain plug is a one time affair, since it is a crush gasket and if you are reusing it you are darn lucky its not leaking!  If it is in and not leaking, LEAVE IT THERE!   You will notice that the oil pan is deeper beyond where the drain plug is.  You are never going to get anymore out of the drain plug because it is higher than the fluid level inside the oil pan you wish to drain.  To get more fluid out, you have to take down the whole oil pan.  This is not too difficult because all of the oil pan bolts are accessible from the bottom.

 

The Full Monty:  Parts for your Spark have to be ordered by the VIN.  The last 8 digits of the VIN will tell the parts man which series trans you have.  The parts are dealer only items, since I tried every place I could think of before going to them.  For the trans with dip stick, there is also a filter required.  The parts include Pan Gasket at $49.50(!), Fluid Filter at $24.00(!) and an "O" Ring Gasket for the filter housing at nearly $19.00(!).  The prices are INSANE, especially the "O" Ring Gasket, because it is just a little skinny thing that looks like it cost $.03 to make! 

 

Job Preparation:  Remove the air cleaner, taking care with the clip that holds the MAF sensor in.  It is a little white jobbie that you slide off while depressing the little tab in the middle.  Once the white clip is off, push down on the tab on top the plug and pull the plug off.  Disconnect everything else that hold the air cleaner in place.  Not hard but takes a little time.  Be careful and patient.  Below, to your right (actually driver's side) you will see the filler tube.  It is not necessary to move shift lever selector brackets or anything else.  It is out there in plain sight.  Release the clip and remove the dip stick from the filler tube as I described above.  Jack up the car and remove the left front wheel.  You will see a black plastic trim piece with round plastic clips holding it in and which

tucks up and inside the plastic fender liner.  There is one 10mm bolt which holds this piece to the car frame on the bottom side of the trim piece, which is easily removed.  You will have to manipulate this piece in and out, as it is a bit of a bind. 

 

The Job:  Once removed you can see the round Transmission Oil Filter Housing.  There is only one 10mm bolt holding the filter housing the the transmission case.  Remove it, twist the housing to the left and pull the housing straight off.  Notice, that there is an "ear" on the housing that slides behind a tab on the trans, to help secure it in place. Some fluid is going to drain out.  The filter is right in front of you:  Grab it and pull straight out.  Put the new one in by pushing gently but firmly until the filter snaps into place and won't go any further into the trans.  Replace the "O" Ring Gasket on the housing and put a LIGHT film of oil on the gasket.  Then push the housing into the trans case gently but firmly until it snaps into place.  Turn the housing to the right, making sure the "ear" slips in behind the tab on the trans case, put the 10mm bolt in to secure the housing and tighten to about 7lb. ft.  Don't "chin" yourself on it!  Filter is now changed.

 

Remove the trans. oil pan by removing all of the bolts and taking the pan down.  This can be messy so make sure your drain pan is properly placed to catch

the fluid which at some point in the process, will pour out!  I suggest that the rear most pan bolts be completely removed and just loosening the bolts on the other end of the oil pan.  This will allow the rear of the pan to drop down enough to drain the fluid, but not allow it drop completely off into the drain pan, which will create a mess and a half!  When most all of the fluid has drained out, take out the remaining bolts and take the oil pan down.  Pretty simple.

 

Going Back Together:  Since the Pan Gasket is $50.00 you are going to take more than reasonable care with re-assembly.  The Gasket already has gasket cement added in manufacture (speaking about the Dealer supplied gasket, not some other aftermarket part), so DO NOT use any more sealer.  When removing the old gasket from the trans, it should come off fairly cleanly.  If any gasket material is stuck to the trans or the oil pan, it must be removed to affect a good seal on reassembly.  Be very gentle in removal of the stuck material, so as not to gouge the soft alloy mating face of the trans.  When thoroughly cleaned, it will be ready to receive the new gasket.  Make sure the oil pan itself is very clean and the two magnets which sit inside the pan are also cleaned and put back in place.  Put the oil pan and gasket back onto the trans taking care not to bend or damage the gasket.  Start two bolts at first, one on either side of the oil pan, then get the oil pan situated onto the trans.  HAND TIGHTEN the two bolts until the pan is up in place against the trans.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  All the pan bolts MUST be hand tightened before putting any force behind it.  If any of the bolts are corroded and were difficult to remove, the threads will have to be cleaned sufficiently to allow you to hand tighten them because bolts that are too tight are going to affect the final torque

sequence.  I had two stiff ones with corroded threads, which I had to clean with a wire brush before I could screw them by hand into place.

 

TORQUE SEQUENCE AND TORQUE WRENCH SETTING:  The torque wrench setting is 60 INCH POUNDS.  If you don't have an Inch Pound torque wrench, go to Autozone and borrow one.  You can't accurately finish the job without it!  Torque the bolts alternately on opposite sides of the pan, working from the middle of the pan out to the ends.  After all of the bolts are torqued, go around them all again, to insure you got them all done.  The pan is up and ready.  Put the tire back on and lower to the ground.  Don't put the plastic trim piece back on as you need to check for fluid leaks at the filter housing.  The car must be level for the following step.

 

RE-FILLING THE TRANSMISSION:  No mystery here.  Since it is completely empty, pour three and a half quarts of CVT Fluid in through the filler tube.  You will need a long, skinny funnel to do this.  Pour SLOWLY!  You don't want to be loosing any trans fluid as you pour.  The amount of fluid drained out will most likely be the amount you are going to pour back in.  This will vary from four to four and a half quarts depending.  Put the dip stick in 180 DEGREES FROM THE WAY IT WAS REMOVED.  This allow you to push the dip stick all the way to its seat, without re-engaging the clip.  Pull the dip stick out and notice the level on the stick.  There are two notches on the stick, the lower one being "minimum" and the upper notch being "maximum."  At 3 1/2 quarts, the level should be at least up to the lower "minimum" notch.  If not, pour enough fluid in to bring it up to "minimum".  Replace the dip stick.  Put the air cleaner back in place.  Start the engine and let it run while you check for leaks.  If you did the Oil Pan Gasket as suggested, it should be dry as a bone.  Before moving the car, move the gear lever through each range, i.e. from P to R (count to five) from R to N (count to five) N to D (count to five) and D to 1 (count to five).  Same procedure back up to "P".  Take the car for a short drive, enough to get the engine warmed up.  Back to the garage, engine off, remove air cleaner again.

Check the level on the dip stick.  The final level showing must be BETWEEN the upper notch and the lower notch.  If already there, add no more fluid and if lower, then add enough to bring it up to between the two notches.  When the level is right, put the dip stick in the right way around and re attach the clip.

Re-install the air cleaner for the last time, making sure of all your connections.  Restart the engine and check for leaks.  Make sure that the Filter Housing is dry.  You can do this by looking past the left front tire into the engine bay.  It should be dry.  If everything above and below is dry, shut the car off and jack it up.  Remove the tire and re-install the black plastic trim piece that covers the access to the Transmission Oil Filter Housing.  With that in place, put the tire back on and let the car down.  You are ready to roll!

 

If this is too much for you or you don't have enough room to work, you may want to consider having the Dealer do the whole thing for about $260.00.

After a lot of research, I decided to use AMSoil Synthetic CVT fluid.  I was impressed by what I read as well as receiving positive advice about AMSoil

products.  In any case, I ordered 5 quarts.  You will use four or possibly 4 1/2 quarts depending on what came out.

 

I hope this helped.

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