Kia rio transmission oil change or flush ?

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We reached the point where we have to service the automatic transmission on my son,s Kia rio 2007.

The oil pan have a nice drain plug at the bottom, however I wonder if just draining and refilling the tranny a few times will be good enough ?

If so how many times should I drain and refill ? Should I run the tranny through all the lever position prior all the drain and refill sequence ? How long should I let it run ? Or better should I go for a ride? and for how long before draining and refilling ?

The garage charge $150.00 fro the drain flush and refill. I think its a lots of money for that.

BTW the tranny required a special oil that you can find only at the kia hyundai dealer ,it is true ? cant remember the name but I think its something like sp3 ....

Millions of thanks for your help guys
 
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I would definetely drive it so that you get the fluid through the torque converter. Get it up to 60 MPH and keep it there for a few minutes. Drain and fill again and then wait a few years and repeat.
 
KIA and Hyundai do take SPIII and its not really special oil persay its just spec rated....you can find Castrol Multi Import ROyal Purple and many others that can replace it, just look at the back of the bottle and it should say what the fluid is speced for and if SP III is on there you will be good. As far as drain and fills you can drain it and drive it until the next Oil change and then do it again. I think 2 dain and fills should be sufficient for it especially if its well taken care of.
 
How many miles?
The weakness of drain/fill or a flush is that the pan is not removed, meaning that you aren't cleaning wear debris out of the pan nor are you replacing the filter.
I think I'd drop the pan, clean it and replace the filter for the first drain, and then maybe do another short, oil change length drain/refill.
 
There used to be a chart that gave how many drain and fills left how much of the old oil in the tranny. Can not find it any more, but in my KIA Rio IIRC 4 drain and fills replaced 98% with new fluid.

Not sure about an 06 KIA but mine hase no filter to replace, yours may be different.

I now do a drain and fill every other oil change, may not be needed that often but its they way I do it.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
How many miles?
The weakness of drain/fill or a flush is that the pan is not removed, meaning that you aren't cleaning wear debris out of the pan nor are you replacing the filter.
I think I'd drop the pan, clean it and replace the filter for the first drain, and then maybe do another short, oil change length drain/refill.


+1
 
Kia Rio has no filter to change and I believe the pan on those is very hard to access which is why there is a convenient drain plug.
 
I was wondering about this. The way I understood it, the Rio and the Accent are mechanically identical.

My Accent has a pan, a filter, and no drain plug. The transaxle is sourced from Mitsubishi if I recall correctly.

I wonder if the Rio has a different transaxle.
 
Sounds like a transmission in need of a Magnefine inline filter. I would do 2 preferably 3 drain & fills. If you have the coin, your transmission will thank you if you use a high end synthetic ATF.
 
Thanks fo ther link JCWIT !!

Thanks to all for your information guys !!

We will not spend 150.00 for the flush despite the fact that we are probablty not changing all the oil 4 new liter is not going to hurt ,too many tranny flush horror story are steering me away from that procedure
 
Originally Posted By: Baveux
Thanks fo ther link JCWIT !!

Thanks to all for your information guys !!

We will not spend 150.00 for the flush despite the fact that we are probablty not changing all the oil 4 new liter is not going to hurt ,too many tranny flush horror story are steering me away from that procedure


There are no tranny flush horror stories where the transmission had its filter changed and flushed if the transmission was in good shape to start. Now some places will say that the cleaner they use along with a flush will clean the filter, it may clean it of some liquidy sludge but cannot clean the filter of the particles of crud it trapped.
 
both of my gf's 2001 and 2010 accents have drain plugs.
I thought that the filter was only accessible by removing the trans and splitting the case?
 
I think $150 is a fair price is they will drop them pan, change the filter and flush. I would do that and then preform a drain and fill of the atf using your drain plug once a year.
 
Originally Posted By: Baveux
We reached the point where we have to service the automatic transmission on my son,s Kia rio 2007.

The oil pan have a nice drain plug at the bottom, however I wonder if just draining and refilling the tranny a few times will be good enough ?

If so how many times should I drain and refill ? Should I run the tranny through all the lever position prior all the drain and refill sequence ? How long should I let it run ? Or better should I go for a ride? and for how long before draining and refilling ?

The garage charge $150.00 fro the drain flush and refill. I think its a lots of money for that.

BTW the tranny required a special oil that you can find only at the kia hyundai dealer ,it is true ? cant remember the name but I think its something like sp3 ....

Millions of thanks for your help guys


Unless you are handy at doing this job yourself, you will find $150 a lot more affordable than a new transmission at $3 or $4K.
 
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