hurst2001

Well i guess it time to change the trans fluid on my hhr she has 165000 on her and i know i should of change it at 100.000 .So im doing it myself my question is the air vent cap were you fill it is twist off or just pull up on it ?Also i read in the forums that the gasket is reusable.what is the best brand of trans fluid to use? thanks for any info on this

jay loukakis

Do not use the old gasket you can buy from NAPA a new gasket and new pan with a drain plug for about $67.00 that what I paid.

Oldblue

Hurst2001 the vent cap is threaded on mine, ad it is the fill hole, I reused the gasket, just took care to wipe it clean, I shampooed the engine and trans the day before to give time for the water to stop dripping on me, I jacked it up level and put it on 4 jack stands ramps will do fine, undid and removed the rear bolts firat and worked to the front from side to side let the fluid drain and dropped the pan, wiped it out and cleaned it with brake cleaner , a degreaser cleaner will work, I buttoned it all back together, poured in 6 1/2 quarts I found a long trans funnel worked great for this, I used Mobil synthetic trans fluid, took about an hour and a half, retighten the bolts after a 5 mile drive, I did this again after a day just to be sure, no issues and not much mess, somebody on here suggested the use of an under the bed sized storage tray, but I used my regular oil drain pan and it worked fine, but next time I will use the bigger tray

donbrew

When I bought a new gasket, it cost me about $20, I sold my used pan and gasket on EBay for $15.

jay loukakis

When I had a transmission shop install the new pan and gasket drove home was leaking and took it back ha said I had a problem with the transmission so I bought another gasket and they installed the new gasket no leaks, and this was an mech. of many years doing transmissions, so if he had a problem with a new gasket I would never use the old gasket THEY ARE CHEAP just get a new one.

hurst2001

ok thanks for everyone input ,i was going to buy a kit with the filter and gasket what do you think about that? thanks for this website

donbrew

If you are going to make a habit of changing the fluid get a new pan with a drain. But put teflon tape on the drain plug.

oldracer

In the case of the "sealed transmission" we have I think the fluid would probably last forever or close to it. What I found when I did mine at 118K miles and had never been done was solids after the fluid finished draining and letting the fluid drain out of the pan. There were no big pieces like I used to find in my vintage Porsche race car transmissions and no "gold" colored solids due to bearing race wear. The solids were black and a lot of it was magnetic, probably regular carbon steel. That is the stuff that will cause a transmission to fail and generate a lot of heat.

Remember to use a torque wrench and tighten the pan bolts correctly.

For example, when I was stationed on the USS Enterprise, CVN-65, the oil we had in the main engines was the original from when the ship was commissioned but we had machines to remove solids and water from the oil that were run 12 hours a day.

hurst2001

Ok i found the vent cap it is black color in middle of the trans with some writing on it ,so i need some input on what brand of trans fluid to use ,i seen Valvoline max life said it good for 75000 miles and compatible with dexron 6 and i will need to put in 6 half quarts .So i would like to know what does everyone use?thanks for any input

oldracer

I would guess the fluid leakage is due to poor tightening of the gasket? The torque spec is 120 inch pounds which equates to 10 foot pounds and that is much more than most people will think. If you use a 1/4 inch drive socket, it will be very hard to get the right torque as you will think you are tightening the bolts too much.

Additionally, start in one corner and tighten every other one as you go around the pan and when doing the final torque do one after the other. After a day or so then jack the car up and recheck the torque and generally 25 to 30% of the bolts will move.