Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hey everyone, hope you are well. I have a 2007 Chevy Cobalt LT with a 2.2L
and the Automatic Trans. I'm gonna be showing an Automatic Trans Fluid
and Filter change, since I haven't really found another video showing this on YouTube.
Hey guys, before you get started, take a look in your owners manual.
You'll see that the Automatic Transaxle for a "Complete Drain and Refill", you'll want
7.0 quarts of fluid and if you look back here in the 'Recommended Fluids', it tells you,
"Automatic Transaxle: Dexron VI Automatic Transmission Fluid".
So have on hand at least 7 quarts. We used almost all seven and have your filter on hand
too. To get the fluid down into the trans, we used
one of these funnels and you can get them at your local store.
1/2" inner diameter hose, shove it on tight onto the funnel; 3/8" inner diameter hose
and that's like 5/8" outer diameter to go into the top fill of the transmission.
It works pretty well. Make sure it's in there tight so you don't
make a mess, if you have to maybe put a hose clamp or get something else that works.
I really recommend going with a quality filter and get a quality fluid.
Don't penny pinch, don't go cheap on the fluid. Don't get the stuff at the gas station shelf.
I really recommend a full synthetic. You'll really thank yourself after you did the job.
Alright, for starters, get a 3/8" drive ratchet, you can use an 8mm socket for the pan bolts.
You can use the 11mm socket for the oil level plug.
If you don't have metric, you can use 5/16" and 7/16" and to be fancy to get a little
faster we're gonna use an 8mm socket to zip off the pan bolts.
To begin you'll want to drive the car, get it warmed up.
You don't have to go screaming down the highway. By the coolant I've got it at 178 degrees.
To show you another thing just to be fancy, my 'Trans Fluid Temp' is above 100 degrees.
First of all to be safe, get the car on jack stands, jack it up safely, put it on jack
stands. On the front I've got it on the unibody...
and in the back, be safe chock your wheels front and back so the car doesn't roll anywhere.
Another thing to be safe about, put a fender cover down. It's easier to clean that off
and you won't scratch the paint.
Pop the hood, take off the cover and back down there is the vent cap.
Right there on top of the trans is cap so go ahead and take that off.
Put a clean rag over the hole so nothing gets in there.
Alright, get under here and loosen the 12 bolts, but don't take out the 4 in the back.
There's 4 in the back, turn those 4 about 4 turns. Then work on getting the fluid to
drain into your pan. You're gonna want a pretty large pan because
this trans pan is kind of an 'L' shape, so you need a wide big pan to catch it all.
Alright I've only taken out 5 bolts so far and tugged at the pan and already you've got
hot trans fluid coming out, so I really want to recommend to you, you
wear gloves. For one thing the fluid is hot and two, no
matter how tough you think you are, you're not uncool wearing gloves, it's gonna save
your skin, it's gonna save you from health problems, it's used fluid, so put some gloves
on.
Alright I'm gonna warn you when you take a 6th bolt out from the front it is really gonna
rain, so get ready and if you're wearing glasses or safety glasses rather, be glad you got
them on too.
Okay at this point you should still have 4 bolts in the back relatively loose. Even at
this point you're still gonna have more fluid draining out so watch yourself as you tip
that pan down. Try to drain it as much as possible into the pan instead of taking the
pan off with fluid in it.
Okay this is what it should look like once you've got your pan and your gasket off the
bottom. I've put my pan in here into my drain pan
and tip out the excess so you don't have a big mess, cuz trans fluid smells...and you
have the same shape gasket.
Alright here's the pan out in the daylight as pulled forward from underneath the car,
this is the front and that's the back of course. They put a little, sort of, magnet square,
so don't take that out leave that in there, that should be in there, in fact there's little
90 degree markings to show you where the square should be.
It's normal to have real fine wear material, but you shouldn't have like chunks and hamsters
and unicorns or anything else unusual, you probably got something wrong there.
Anyway, so the fluid color in this isn't too bad, [that's just the dirt from before.] The
fluid is still pretty red but we're changing it, we're just doing a drop and fill and a
filter change.
Alright, I've cleaned up my pan. You can also take a razor blade if it was a rubber gasket
or sealant and gently clean that up, clean the pan out good, make sure that magnet goes
back in. We've got a new WIX filter # 58611 and yes,
I want you to replace seal that comes with it. It also comes with a new gasket, the original
was a rigid one but this will be fine.
Okay here at the front of the trans is the seal that we're gonna replace right there
in the hole.
Alright I have here special tool J23129, if somebody could show me how a tech is supposed
to use that dull piece of crap, I don't know. So anyway you're gonna replace the seal everytime
and I didn't show you but it's not pretty, so that's why I couldn't show you, it's not
'Disney friendly'. Just take a (flat) screwdriver from the side,
punch the seal a little bit, it will deform and you can gently pull it out.
You're gonna put a new seal in.
So that's what it looks like with the seal pressed in, just start it in evenly first.
That's what the seal should look like flush with the body..that's what she said..and use
a nylon soft mallet and hammer that even until it's flush. Put a new seal in.
Alright you should be able to figure out which way the filter goes and you can apply a little
bit of spit or a little bit of petroleum jelly onto the neck of the filter. What you wanna
do is gently, maybe with your fist or soft hammer and I mean gently, rap it up until
it just won't travel any further. There's not really any locking pins in the
back, there's nothing on the top of this filter to let you know you've got it in the exact
precise location. So I think this is kind of a dumb design that it just hangs in here,
but if this is tight and it's not falling out, you've done it right.
So before you go and put the pan up with the new gasket, go around and wipe your mating
surface, make sure it's clean, make sure whether you had a gasket or sealant all around here,
make sure it's clean and dry.
Alright so with a clean, dry pan and clean gasket (a new gasket), what you can do to
help yourself is put a bolt on either end and hold it, support it, cause that bolt's
gonna fall out. Hold it up through there so that way you can
start it and you'll have it generally aligned. They also make a can of semi adhesive spray
that you can put and it doesn't act like a gasket, but it acts as a semi adhesive to
help hold the gasket in place, so that maybe you can find at a local parts store.
Alright so you should have '1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11..12!' bolts.
Just go ahead and run these up finger tight, this is set at a really low torque, so it's
pretty much only gonna put them at finger tight for now.
In a little bit we're gonna torque it to 89 inch lbs.
89 inch lbs comes out to about 7.4 foot lbs but you're probably gonna have an inch pound
torque wrench so use this.
You should have your pan finger tight and flush. Go ahead and start from the center
out and do a criss-cross kind of pattern until you've done all 12.
One more thing when you're putting the tube down into the fill is you only need to put
about that much into there cause you're gonna be adding fluid while the trans is running.
We've had some delays here but whatever you deal with it.
What I made up here is was the funnel with two extensions of rubber hose, make sure those
are tight or you're gonna leak. Get that end of the hose just into the top
of the fill hole. We've put about 6 quarts of fluid in so far
and now we're gonna let it idle for 3 to 5 minutes and then check it.
Alright so get in your car, it should be running by now.
Put your foot on the brake. Shift slowly through the gears.
Keep your foot on the brake. Just let it stay in the gear for a couple seconds.
Go to Neutral..go to Drive..go to the next one..wait a couple seconds in between,
go to Low..wait a couple seconds. You want the fluid in the transmission to
circulate through the circuits. Do this again, go back up through the gears,
just repeat this twice or so.
Alright get under the car, it should be in Park, the engine should still be running.
This is the passenger side, the right side of the transmission and there is the plug
you want to access. So get your 3/8" ratchet, the 11mm socket
or the 7/16" socket and open that.
When you take the bolt out and you have no fluid coming out you know it's not overfull,
but you can put a little extra until it just starts to dribble out.
It should be level with the bottom, in there, of the hole.
Okay up top I've had my assistant pour fluid in until it started coming out and I told
him to stop when it comes out. So at this point you can take the plug and
put it back in and tighten it gently. You don't have to go Donkey Kong on it.
Tighten it with your socket and then you'll be good.
Okay after you're done, make sure your fill cap goes back on, put your cover back on,
wipe up any drips, test drive your car and you should be good.
If you want you can get back under, put the vehicle in Park, put the brake on, do the
check procedure again and you should have the proper amount of fluid in by now.
If you like these videos and would like me to make more, please Like, Subscribe and Share
and ask any questions. Thanks!