V6 Manual Transmission Fluid Change and Speedometer Gear

[neumann]

I am a newbie, so please....mercy.

I am trying to change the manual tranmission fluid on my 3 week old (to me) 1994 GS. I believe the current fill is about 2 years old. Shifts are a little rough and I figure that I will do a bunch of stuff that I would do in the next couple of years anyhow. I plan to keep this car for at least 3 or 4 years so I would rather put the work in at the beginning to enjoy the results

I value this board as it led me to my MX-3 and I have found a valuable thread on the subject at:
http://www.mx-3.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.ph ... ear+filter

which saved me some potential heartache. but I have a couple of questions.

My major issues are that as an Ontario car the corrosion from road salt locks everything into place, and the fact that my car is so low I car barely get a jack underneath and when I do, it can barely get high enough to slip jackstands under.

I lack a 23 MM socket (Darn it i have a 22 and 24 mm!) so I guess I will have to buy one to get the drain plug out. However from experience, I always try to figure out how i will fill the thing before I drain it. Don't ask, but it involves draining oil out of a sump and then discovering that the (plastic) oil filller cap had melted itself shut.

I was intrigued by the speedometer gear suggestion as a fill point. My fluid level check thingy is on extra tight and even if I can get it off, the top down method of filling through the speedo gear tube seems cleaner. Thanks to atlantamx3's posts I beleive I have successfully located it as the only thing in the vicinity of the fuel filter just below the and in front of the battery. It has a heavily iinsulated wire coming from the rear and a smaller stiffer wire going up front, but mine has a 12mm bolt. Is this the right thing?

How difficult is it to remove and replace this? does the speedo gear just slide back in or does it need to be adjusted to mesh with gears?

The stock airbox is gone, replaced by a K&N. I could remove it if necessary to get access, but I am a little concerned about the brittleness of old plastic in the cold. There is enough room for me to reach around with a socket wrench to remove the bolt, and enough room from the top to fee a hose down to fill it, but if I was reuired to make fine adjustments in re-seating the speedo gear I would need to disassemble the air intake.

Sorry for the newbie-ness of my post but while I find the online manual very helpful, the way the data is presented is not always the most comprehensible

Pointers?

Many thanks.

[atlantamx3]

Yep it sounds like you have found the speedo gear hole.

it IS easier to access with your intake off, so go head and remove that.. it doesnt take long.

I think the bolt is a 10mm, but it may be a 12.


Just undo the bolt and pull the speedo gear out, straight up. It goes in the same way (except push down! LOL) no adjusting necessary.


Glad my pictures provided some assistance!

This should help too... straight from the Factory Service Manual...





Also- to help get your car up on a jack- you can drive up onto a 2x4 or make a set of stepped ramps out of 2x4s to get your car up a few inches more in order to get that jack under it.
Good luck!

[JM1EC-V6]

On the V6, you don't need to remove the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor, not cable like the picture above).

All you need is get off the 23mm drain plug. After that, when about a half liter of oil is in the oil pan, remove the other 23mm bolt (Filler hole bolt). This will allow the oil to get out of the transmission better (Atmospheric pressure will allow the oil to flow normally, not inconstantly).

Get all the fluid out (2.8-3 Liters). Once this is done, put on the drain plug with a new Aluminum (Al) crush washer. Fill the tranny using a piston pump (or if you have a bottle like motul ones, just pull out the plastic pour neck). (3L +-200ml). When the level is ok, some oil get out a little bit from the filling/level check hole (the one that you removed before to allow air in the tranny, this bolt is perpendicular to the car (almost-horizontally mounted bolt) ).

Put on the filling/level check bolt with a new Al crush washer.

75w90 GL4/GL-5 is required for normal weathers.

Good luck !

P.S: You can fill the tranny by the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor, similar to the one showed above) but you're giving you pain, because this is not necessary.

[jschrauwen]

It goes without saying that if there is a certain amount of angle to the car because of ramps or jack-stands than the fluid fill line marking will have to be fudged to account for the cars angle. But then you knew that anyways.
BTW, I used the traditional fill hole in the front using clear tubing from the bottle to the tranny fill hole. 23mm is the socket for the drain as well as the fill hole. Had to get one at Canadian Tire too since my sets didn't cover that one either. I didn't find them difficult to break free. I might try the speedo fill route myself next year and try that tranny fluid someone posted last summer. Don't recall it's name but it was non-sulpher based. It wasn't a common brand name product that you usually hear - syncro ...something .. something ... something.

[Grants]

This may help too:

http://www.mx3er.com/howtos/gearoilchange/index.html

[ikarus1]

It goes without saying that if there is a certain amount of angle to the car because of ramps or jack-stands than the fluid fill line marking will have to be fudged to account for the cars angle. But then you knew that anyways.
BTW, I used the traditional fill hole in the front using clear tubing from the bottle to the tranny fill hole. 23mm is the socket for the drain as well as the fill hole. Had to get one at Canadian Tire too since my sets didn't cover that one either. I didn't find them difficult to break free. I might try the speedo fill route myself next year and try that tranny fluid someone posted last summer. Don't recall it's name but it was non-sulpher based. It wasn't a common brand name product that you usually hear - syncro ...something .. something ... something.

Syncromesh? If so, that's what I use on anything with bronze/brass synchros. Synthetic is overrated IMO but Pennz Synchromesh is sweet!

[lakersfan1]

You're going to go through all that trouble to get to that back plug why??? First off, in my V6, I can get a whole bottle tilted in the fill hole with no contortionism, and without removing a damned thing. Second, if you use the fill hole, you know when it's full as it'll start overflowing out of that hole when it's full.

[neumann]

Thanks to everybody who suggested various bits of help.

I successfully got in through the fill hole. After tossing a 5/8 sheet of plywood under my jack I was able to jack the car up enough to get the jackstands in proper position. I bought a 23mm Socket, but the bolt was overtorqued and rusted. I have found on my other cars that this is common, but a combination wrench and a sharp hammer tap do the trick. looking at my set of combo wrenches i find everything between 5mm and 19mm, plus 21mm, 22mm, 24mm.

I tried two CDN tire stores and a Home depot and no luck. My favourite place for this stuff, Atlas tool on Queen Street in Toronto is not open Sundays, but i went in today and picked up the wrench for an unbelieveably great price. And unlike the other stores I was not greeted with blank stares.

As soon as I got back it took me about 5 seconds to get the fill plug out. The rest was easy.

Thanks again