ATF 3x Drain & Fill

[Gebo]

Find you one of those "ATF Drain and Fill Calculator" programs. It will show you how much % you are replacing with each
Drain and Fill. I have one but cannot attach it. It's an XLSX file.

 

[paulo57509]

There used to be a dilution calculator that was posted here a long time ago. I haven't seen it in years.

 

[RoyFJ]

Full fluid exchange is the way to go for fresh fluid in the transmission and specifically the torque converter.

 

[dubber09]

The only thing I'd suggest if one has more than 100k miles on original ATF - D/F is a better idea than full volume exchange.

 

[TiGeo]

Before everyone starts bashing me, I'm not here to ask opinions on whether or not I should be "flushing" the transmission fluid. I am only asking how it should be done when I do it.
I bought enough fluid to flush out all the old fluid by doing a 3x drain & fill.
How would you go about changing it this way?
Do I need to plug the drain hole every single time I add more fluid into the top?
I don't believe I would be driving the van in between changing either. The goal is to avoid mixing the new fluid with the old fluid, right?

I had an '06 Ody. Did this several times. Drain. Fill from top. Drive for a day. Repeat. I only replaced the drain plug crush washer on last drain. You need to drive it to get the fluid sufficiently mixed each time which increases the ratio of new to old.

 

[thastinger]

If the goal is to avoid mixing new and old fluids (as much as possible) then you do a drain and fill, then remove ATF cooler line going into ATF cooler from transmission and with a longer hose attached and running into a bucket you start car and let a quart of ATF out, stop the engine, measure ATF volume that came out and add same volume, repeat till only fresh fluid starts coming out.

I do this on our Escape because it doesn't have a pan or a filter you can access to change. Has made it 146K so far

 

[mrbreezeet1]

Before everyone starts bashing me, I'm not here to ask opinions on whether or not I should be "flushing" the transmission fluid. I am only asking how it should be done when I do it.
I bought enough fluid to flush out all the old fluid by doing a 3x drain & fill.
How would you go about changing it this way?
Do I need to plug the drain hole every single time I add more fluid into the top?
I don't believe I would be driving the van in between changing either. The goal is to avoid mixing the new fluid with the old fluid, right?

If you drain it, and leave the plug out, and add say 6 quarts, all you will be doing is draining 6 fresh quarts.

 

[VK56VD]

I’ve done back to back drains (maybe 10 miles in between each) before without much harm on transmissions of vehicles that I know history of. Knowing what I know now, I’d probably space out the drains and put some miles in between. This is to allow new atf fluid, which is an excellent cleaner, to clean up and pick up debris if any, and then flush it down the drain. Doing it 3-4 times as you’re intending, would allow the maximum amount of debris to be flushed out with a simple drain and refill each time, while allowing new fluid to use its cleaning ability in between each drain and pick up debris. I’d do several thousand miles in between each which comes out to one drain, every two months for the average driver.

I may have missed it, but what type of vehicle, miles, transmission service history and the type of fluid are your planning on using?

 

[TiGeo]

I’ve done back to back drains (maybe 10 miles in between each) before without much harm on transmissions of vehicles that I know history of. Knowing what I know now, I’d probably space out the drains and put some miles in between. This is to allow new atf fluid, which is an excellent cleaner, to clean up and pick up debris if any, and then flush it down the drain. Doing it 3-4 times as you’re intending, would allow the maximum amount of debris to be flushed out with a simple drain and refill each time, while allowing new fluid to use its cleaning ability in between each drain and pick up debris. I’d do several thousand miles in between each which comes out to one drain, every two months for the average driver.

I may have missed it, but what type of vehicle, miles, transmission service history and the type of fluid are your planning on using?

Much info on BITOG countering the notion that modern ATF has any real cleaning abilities.