Hello, I'm debating on whether or not to replace the transmission fluid on my car. I hear mixed ideas on this topic. My car is a 1995 850 GLT NA with the automatic transmission. My questions are as follows,
Should I replace the fluid?
What type of transmission fluid do I need?
How much transmission fluid do I need?
And what is the procedure to completing this task?

Thanks, Dean

 

as to the fluid type, check the owners manual but I'm pretty sure the 4 speed Aisin's use Dex3. (the 5 speeds use JWS3309). The car holds something like 8 quarts but if you drain via the pan you will only get about 4-5 quarts out. There's a couple different procedures you can use here but here's what I'd suggest:

1) start by doing a smell/color check by pulling the dipstick and wiping it on a white cloth or paper towel. If its black and smells burnt, you probably have bigger issues than aged fluid. I'd expect it to be brown or reddish brown.
2) consider dropping the pan to inspect for debris and clean the pick up etc if you think the fluid is really dark, otherwise you can do a drain-fill or a flush and simply freshen the fluld.

Drain-fill is exact what it sounds like. Start by draining out a measured amount (say 2 quarts). replace the plug and add 2 quarts via the fill. Start the car and engage in gear to circulate the fluid. Stop and repeat (drain 2 more quart, fill 2, circulate). You can also do this with bigger amounts ie 3 or 4 quarts. If you buy a case of 12 quarts and do enough drain/fills to use most of that, you will get up to about 90% clean fluid.

Option 2 is to do a true flush. you would do this by disconnecting the transmission lines from the cooler and run one into a drain bucket and use the other line to suck fresh fluid into the transmission. You'd run the engine to use the transmission to pump in the new fluid and pump out the old. If you use clear tubing you simply run this process until you see clean fluid being pumped out. Check Youtube - pretty sure there's a RobertDIY vid and others on how to do this. Option 2 gets you cleaner better but seems like a bigger hassle - I've only done drain fills personally.

As to "should I do this" question - there are lots who swear by fresh tranny fluid every 50K or 100K miles even though there is no factory service interval. There are also some who suggest fresh fluid will cause a worn transmission to slip but my personal take is, that is when a transmission is already in trouble and has burnt the clutches. (no fluid change will fix that).

One other thing - this is an Aisin transmission, same as you'd find in a Toyota and are generally very reliable and you can also find the Aisin fluid number with cross references to Toyota and Volvo part numbers (Toyota fluid being generally less expensive even though both are from Aisin)

 

Thank you for the information, I think I'm definitely going to go with the transmission drain and fill as the fuild is a brown-ish red color and not black yet. The transmission shifts fine but it's better to be safe then sorry. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction 👍