2014 Dodge Grand Caravan transmission fluid check/change questions.
Sooo, moms van has about 13k miles on it and I want to do pan drains every 15k. I found Dorman makes a trans pan with a drain plug built in for $25, so I bought one. However, looking into the procedure, it appears the procedure is a pain in the rear., and there's no dipstick. I see that I can essentially 'build' a dipstick and measure the depth of fluid, and compare that to the temp chart to verify fluid level.
Couple questions on that:
1, how often is the factory fill even at the correct level?
2, how should I go about checking trans fluid temp? Ideally, since it's a steel pan, logic would tell me that pan temp should be darn close to fluid temp, so should an infrared thermometer tell me close enough trans temp? I haven't tried yet, but I don't think Torque Pro has the correct PID yet for Chrysler trans temp.
Anything else I need to know?
Sooo, moms van has about 13k miles on it and I want to do pan drains every 15k. I found Dorman makes a trans pan with a drain plug built in for $25, so I bought one. However, looking into the procedure, it appears the procedure is a pain in the rear., and there's no dipstick. I see that I can essentially 'build' a dipstick and measure the depth of fluid, and compare that to the temp chart to verify fluid level.
Couple questions on that:
1, how often is the factory fill even at the correct level?
2, how should I go about checking trans fluid temp? Ideally, since it's a steel pan, logic would tell me that pan temp should be darn close to fluid temp, so should an infrared thermometer tell me close enough trans temp? I haven't tried yet, but I don't think Torque Pro has the correct PID yet for Chrysler trans temp.
Anything else I need to know?