Transmission Oil change on a 98' Festiva

[Road Games]

Greetings, one of the most ignored service intervals on our little buzz boxes is the auto trans fluid !



And this is a shame as the servicing is quite cheap , rarely needs doing and prevents you paying almost as much as the car is worth for a new transmission when it inevitably fails from NOT being serviced correctly...

Here is a guide as to how easy it actually is ... i was performing an engine oil change at the same time so i only needed to make one lot of mess LOL

What you need >>>> a great song by INXS by the way , is a pair of ramps/10mm socket and ratchet/ Drain tin/Funnel/New oil and a Filter kit



Ok so put it up on the ramps and secure the handbrake.



First thing to do is size up the possible spill zone so grab some rags and some degreaser, if you havn't done this before, because depending on which way the wind blows oil can get a bit everywhere...

Now starting from the back loosen off all the 10mm bolts until you only have 3 left in the front that are tight, now you can loosen them off and the pan should drop down making an almighty mess (unless your algebra was spot on with the drain pan replacement) if not a gentle pry with a blade screwdriver will get things happening...



YUMMY



When it has all drained and you can now slide the sump off and this is what we have ?



Now to remove the filter as well as the old sump gasket and renew and re-install .. simple's ??









You will notice a magnet in the bottom of the pan that has been doing a great job of keeping the nasties away from the solenoids and bearings..





Give this a good clean as well as the sump edge to ensure a good seal when applying the new cork gasket...







Ok looking good ?



Pop the new filter in ...



Pop the Pan back on .. i don't use a torque wrench i just make sure the bolts are firm and tight !



Excellant, now we can grab our oil and a funnel and start pouring down the dipstick tube









Now as you may have noticed above i misplaced my small funnel so i needed to make do with a temporary one that costs about $2 and in this case it paid for itself !

I cannot stress enough that this is the part you need to pay particular attention too ... the rest was just a bit of manual labour now comes the patience required part !!

Small dipstick means no airflow.. which in turn means pour it in fast and as per Isaac Newtons theory well i guess you get the idea ?

If you don't want the best part of 3L of transmission oil fighting you and burping the whole way then trust me when i say fill it up slooooooooooowwlllyyyy ...

After you have at least 2L in there start up the engine and move through the gears P-D-R etc then back it off the ramps and park it fundamentaly stable and level.

Check the oil level and top up as required, too much can be as bad as not enough so do not overfill it !

Congratulations for around $80 in parts and an Hour of your time you have just doubled the expected life of your trans..

These pic's were taken from my 214K old Festiva that i bought for $300 and the trans was very hard on the upshift when cold.

Straight away the shift was softer and the car felt happier, i know it's a guy thing right ??

But these transmissions are NOT cheap to rebuild so if you know yours hasn't been done in a while please consider it, as it will save some heartache and your back pocket later on..

Cheers Daz..x..

[pickme]

Aw Buddy, thank you so much for this post.I'm a new old guy, but after seeing this I am going to have a go at it myself. Again thanks

[Road Games]

Pleasure is all mine