I have a fairly new Chrysler 62T3 transmission. There is no dipstick as they don't want the average owner to mess with it.
I'm not keen on removing the pan to drain the fluid as it's messy. And I'd like to not introduce any new chance of leakage (say I put the pan back poorly).
I'd like to take advantage of the new fluid in there and also that the factory fill level is correct.
Question: Could I simply suck out what I can out of the dipstick, not particularly caring whether it's fully drained or not, and then put back the exact amount of fluid removed? Any issues with this?
I would be using an extractor pump, the same one I've been using to change the engine oil for years on a variety of cars.
I would do this with the engine cold and the new ATF at the same temperature as the engine (both would have sat in the garage overnight).
By "take advantage of the new fluid in there", I mean the fluid in there now is fairly fresh. If I do this procedure every time I change my engine oil (since I have the pump out), I'm thinking that the transmission fluid will continue to be fairly fresh. Since I'm only removing part of the old fluid (can I estimate 20%?) and then adding only that same amount of new fluid, the fluid will never be "new". But on the other hand, with me doing this every engine oil change, the ATF will never be fully "old" either.
The only downside I see is that I can't inspect the pan and see if there are any metal bits.
I've seen this method talked about only rarely. I'm not sure why most shadetree mechanics don't do it this way.
Frankly, I don't know why ALL mechanics don't do it this way. Seems a lot easier and less messy. Perhaps with pro mechanics, the car could have come in smoking hot and now the outgoing fluid temps aren't exactly the same (but I can't see the volume difference being that much). Or maybe there's no way of knowing what the fluid level of the transmission is when it came into the shop (e.g. it could have been low and if you replace only what was sucked out with the same amount of new, the resultant fill is still "low".) --but that's not my case; the trans is fairly new and presumably the factory fill was done correctly.
I'm not keen on removing the pan to drain the fluid as it's messy. And I'd like to not introduce any new chance of leakage (say I put the pan back poorly).
I'd like to take advantage of the new fluid in there and also that the factory fill level is correct.
Question: Could I simply suck out what I can out of the dipstick, not particularly caring whether it's fully drained or not, and then put back the exact amount of fluid removed? Any issues with this?
I would be using an extractor pump, the same one I've been using to change the engine oil for years on a variety of cars.
I would do this with the engine cold and the new ATF at the same temperature as the engine (both would have sat in the garage overnight).
By "take advantage of the new fluid in there", I mean the fluid in there now is fairly fresh. If I do this procedure every time I change my engine oil (since I have the pump out), I'm thinking that the transmission fluid will continue to be fairly fresh. Since I'm only removing part of the old fluid (can I estimate 20%?) and then adding only that same amount of new fluid, the fluid will never be "new". But on the other hand, with me doing this every engine oil change, the ATF will never be fully "old" either.
The only downside I see is that I can't inspect the pan and see if there are any metal bits.
I've seen this method talked about only rarely. I'm not sure why most shadetree mechanics don't do it this way.
Frankly, I don't know why ALL mechanics don't do it this way. Seems a lot easier and less messy. Perhaps with pro mechanics, the car could have come in smoking hot and now the outgoing fluid temps aren't exactly the same (but I can't see the volume difference being that much). Or maybe there's no way of knowing what the fluid level of the transmission is when it came into the shop (e.g. it could have been low and if you replace only what was sucked out with the same amount of new, the resultant fill is still "low".) --but that's not my case; the trans is fairly new and presumably the factory fill was done correctly.