Well, I decided to try the BG ATF transfer machine at a local auto shop. It hooks up to the oil cooler lines and tranfers the new fluid into the tranny as old fluid comes out (similar to the T-Tech but uses a bladder instead of a piston). Unfortunately, the owner (who knows how to use the machine) gave verbal instructions to an employee on how to do the job and said to train another guy they just hired while he was doing the job. Well, I guess you get the picture...there were several mistakes made while the owner sat in his air-conditioned office.
#1 The new fluid reservoir in the machine needs to be filled (up to 15 qts) with the exact amount required to do the job (13 qts?). They only put 10 qts in because they did not see a gallon jug still sitting in the box I brought with me. They were holding 2 qts in one jug for top-off after the transfer.
#2 The return line fitting on the machine was not fitting correctly so old fluid was spewing on the floor for several minutes. Instead of transferring new fluid into the tranny via the bladder, it was going on the floor. They were not even looking for this to be a problem until I told them to look under the truck.
#3 When they told me the job was finished, I asked them why they didn't use the last gallon jug? Ooops! Well, they didn't see it, but they had to empty the old reservoir because it was full. Now, they pour the last gallon into the machine, but there's not enough old oil to push the bladder into the new fluid. So they tell me the job is finished again and start to check the dipstick. No reading, so they pour the 2 qts saved for top-off into the dipstick hole. Still no reading. So now what?
#4 The employee goes to talk to the owner about the problem. He has poured 14 qts into the machine, and 2 qts into the tranny via the dipstick. 16 qts to do a 13 qt job and there's still no reading on the dipstick! Unfortunately, he only mentioned the oil spill in the beginning of the procedure from the bad fitting.
#5 The owner now has to make good on the oil shortage and tries to satisfy my wishes. Unfortunately for him I'm pretty disturbed about spending $160+ on 4 gallons of AMSOIL ATD, and neither he nor I know how much of that ever got into my tranny! Since ordering more from AMSOIL was not an option, I suggested he find some Castrol Transynd at a GM dealer or auto parts store. No luck, in fact no one had ever heard of this Castrol product, including a Castrol salesrep across the street at Auto Zone. So we settled on 3 qts of Valvoline full synthetic DEX VI to top off the tranny.
This was quite an ordeal that I still get ____ about. I was very excited to get the AMSOIL ATD into my Tundra tranny, and did quite a bit of homework as far as cost and which procedure to use. I obviously didn't take into account the gross incompetence part of the equation enough. Even though I'm not sure of the exact fill in my tranny, I can report that it is very smooth and the torque converter seems much more consistent now (no hard lock-ups).
