Cars, circa 2004, many times don’t have a cover under the engine like newer cars. Less to remove but more dirt. I had to hit the bottom with a brake cleaner to remove oil and dirt. What I saw means next month will be busy, but today I’ll concentrate on the fluids and filters. The car is at 63,000 miles.
An oil change is as straightforward as one can get on most cars. Drain oil pan and remove filter. Interestingly I have three different size filter wrenches for removing recalcitrant filters and yet none fit this filter. Heavy-duty rubber gloves provided the grip to get things started. Add Valvoline 5W-30 synthetic and done. Next the GM 4t65e transmission found in many GM cars between 1997-07.
Oh for the days of the Ford C4 with the simple square transmission pan. This one is shaped like Africa and so I studied how I wanted to unbolt it. The driveway slanted back a little so I had that going for me and managed to get all the oil in the container. Draining took about 30 minutes as I released the bolts bit by bit so I didn’t get an uncontrollable cascade.
Here is what we see with the pan off. The filter in the back and the accumulator on the front right. The accumulator is coming out along with the filter.
With those two pieces out I have a pretty clean and drippy bottom for the next few hours. The filter alone must have held 1/2 quart of fluid so one needs to be aware of that so you don’t spill it on the pavement. Same for the accumulator which doesn’t release all its fluid despite tipping over.
Oil pan bolts went into a cleaner to soak. The accumulator bolts just sit. The filter goes in the trash and the accumulator body comes into the garage with me.
The top half here shows some of that crud that one sees in automatics and can contaminate the pressure control solenoid (ECP) leading to transmission problems in the GM 4t65e transmission. I actually had very little on the magnet in the pan while this was blown out with brake cleaner after this picture.
I’m using the Transgo kit here to firm up the 1-2 and 2-3 shift in the car. The new springs are laid out here. The large one replaces a similar sized one inside the accumulator but is clearly stiffer. The 2-3 shift side will get three springs to replace the original two. There are also three spacers two of which go inside.
The 1-2 on the right is done while the 2-3 side shows the springs inside with a spacer before placing the piston back in with a snap.
Last piston in place, spacer around rod, metal gasket in place and old large springs out. Now it is just a matter of bolting the two sides to each other and I am done with this portion of the job. Now the filter seal.
With the accumulator done it is time to deal with the filter. some say you can use the seal left after removing the filter. Others say change it out. There is a special tool for this which I don’t have but saw a way to get the seal out. A chisel placed right against the lip and then tapped gently with a small hammer deforms the edge and starts to push it in. Push it in enough, then I used a small slot screwdriver to push against the seal now that I created an entry point and then removed with needle nose pliers. New seal tapped in with the small hammer and a socket that matched the diameter of the seal lip.
With the seal in I can now put the accumulator back in and hand tighten the bolts. They weren’t tight to begin with and probably around 40 lbs. I also added the recommended bracket to attach the one loose fitting line to the middle line which is firmly pushed into the accumulator. Now this is mainly a safety measure as it may or may not ever come off but I am in here so do it.
With the filter gently tapped into the new seal I am ready to seal up the transmission. You might notice there is now a new magnet on the bottom of the filter as per a TSB from GM. The set purchased contains two magnets as the one in the pan is chintzy.
Those bolt heads were a dirty mess and I don’t tolerate dirty bolts when doing any job whether on my cars or on the USS Hornet. With them cleaned up, and the new magnet in place I am ready to bolt on. Ah, but note that is not the original pan but a Dorman pan because it has a drain plug and is highly recommended. No messy fluid changes in the future. I was pleased with the look. The bottom will need a steam bath later on. That after I tackle the oil leak which will be the next job. The struts were a moderate task, this job a minor task, but the next job is a major one as intake, gaskets, water pump, tensioner, thermostat, coolant, belt, and those plastic elbows all replaced. In the meantime the test drive was uneventful and all was good to go. One thing about this car and that is it will be still running fine after I am gone assuming you can get gas.
Just one more repair and maintenance article. As for this update, I had one full day of driving since it was hot and the AC works great in this car. The 1-2 shift which was always imperceptible under normal acceleration is now somewhat perceptible. When moving at 30 mph and then hitting the gas so the car down shifts the engagement is definitely firmer than before. Exactly what I want to maximize transmission life.
I installed a partial Trans-Go kit on my wife’s 2004 Impala as it crossed 100,000 miles. (I believe the 3-4 part of the kit was impossible to do with the transaxle in the car.) It had begun shifting very hard as the transmission warmed up, and according to my research at the time, the computer measures the timing of the shifts on the 4T65E. As age and wear lead to slower shifts, the line pressure is jacked up, causing some very noticeable harshness. The rationale behind using a shift kit (which seems counterintuitive at first) is that the shift kit speeds up the shifts to avoid the computer making those adjustments, and it worked! The car shifted fine until we traded it in at almost 140,000 miles.
All my automatics have shift kits in them and I am a firm believer in changing out fluid. The transmission in my 68 Cougar went out at 30,000 miles back in 1970. After diagnosing the problem I had it fixed and I remember the mechanic telling me to change the fluid every 30,000 miles in the car. So far so good now at 103,000 miles. I change all the cars on either a mileage or age basis just like coolant and brake fluid.
By the way you asked what that car I wanted to get a look at was. I couldn’t get to it fast enough, my work schedule, so it got bought. It was a dark Augusta Green 1967 Parklane convertible. Oh well, if between a convertible or the 2 dr. fastback I’d choose the fastback. All is not lost as I am leaving right now to drive to Napa to look at another car for sale the last 3 months. Call it an orphan but this orphan is in great condition so unless something is amiss there are many $100 bills in an envelope. I’ll tease you with this photo…
’71 or ’72 Ambassador?
It is now mine
Congratulations!
Oh, you would have loved what I saw today. The seller has been in the restoration business for 50 years. The property has somewhere bewteen 50-60 cars waiting. Apparently a privately owned museum in Austria contracts him to find cars for them. I gather he has sent several hundred to them. This place was like walking into Willie Wonka’s car factory. OMG! Cars, parts, and memorabilia. Turns out he has a youtube channel and web site as I didn’t take any pictures as I was concerned with privacy. Got the complete tour along with Mercury 6768 who met me there. This car is still there, now back in the garage, till next week. I won’t be the first to drive it as that honor will go to Mercury 6768 to ferry it to my house 37 miles away.
http://www.rodsofthevalley.com/
http://www.youtube.com@rodneyracer
And a nice, clean, unmolested original Ambassador Brougham wagon it is! The interior is in amazing shape, the only wear being very minor carpet fading. It runs great, too. I think it’s good looking and will be easy to work on — lots of room around that 360 (2V) engine. I’m sure I’ll have a very comfortable trip driving it home for tbm3fan. And… note in the photo, the gauge face has matching “wood” to match that on the dash! Well bought.
I changed the fluid and filter on my 2001 LeSabre (42,000 miles) this summer due to the leak at the pan gasket. Bottom of the pan was always wet and there were multiple spots on the garage floor from the pan leak. All is now well after the degreasing and oil change. I didn’t realize there was a special tool for the filter tube remnant, just used some simple hand tools to get it out.
I had more fun trying to diagnose the battery drain problem, which turned out to be the alternator diode.
At first I read the Transgo specs “no lockup or 4th” to mean the kit disables the lockup torque converter and 4th gear; that wouldn’t be good. But now I realize it just doesn’t include the parts for the 3-4 gearchange and you reuse the existing parts, or at least I think that’s what it means.
Why can’t GM (or several other manufacturers) provide a drain bolt on the transmission fluid pan? They can’t be that expensive.
Omfg. I have an 04 lesabre. Sold to me for a dollar from the children of my lovely neighbors who passed away. They just wanted to junk it because they said it had steering problems and brake problems, etc. 103,000 miles and everything works after a PS hose It’s really our winter beater/kids when they come home car. Also works as a sandbag hauler to stave off a flood.
I’ve changed every kind of automotive fluid but never ATF. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever paid someone to do it either. Oops, I realize that’s not true, I had the fluid changed when I bought my Toyota T100 at 170K miles. My Tacoma has 90K and it’s really time to do it or get it done. I’ve read that if you wait too long, shift quality will deteriorate due to the mix of fresh fluid and residual worn material left in the trans. Is that true or urban myth? The only other high mileage AT car I’ve owned was the Land Cruiser and it shifted fine at 140K when I sold it. I’m religious on motor oil changes, OK on coolant and brake fluid as well as diffs and transfer cases, but AT’s are a mysterious black box to me.
I’ve heard that warning repeated often. It doesn’t sound logical to me, as I would think that the fresh fluid would dilute any contaminants present in the old fluid. I mean, you can’t drain all the oil out of the engine with an oil change, and there’s no problem there. Of course, it might be like that nonsense about “lifetime fluid” in any mechanism. It all depends on how long the manufacturer predicts that the unit is supposed to live. That’s an interesting looking oil pan on the engine. I haven’t crawled under my ’97 Riviera yet, I wonder if it has that same cool looking pan?
This is how I think the urban myth came about.
Drive car, never check trans fluid level, never service trans until there is a noticeable problem. Then cross fingers and change fluid and filter and hope that fixes it. When that doesn’t fix it add some magic elixir and drive it some more. Then the trans finally fails and the story is told that the trans was fine until I had the fluid changed.
I serviced hundreds of transmission in my career.
Unfortunately many of the newer transmissions have no dipstick and that complicates things. VW DSG is a whole nother pain.
This is my method for my own vehicles. I started doing this at the dealership to speed things along.
Check fluid level warm to establish if the fluid is at the correct level.
Use a small diameter tube down the dipstick tube and suck out as much fluid as possible collecting it in a calibrated container.
Now remove pan and filter and collect the fluid in the calibrated bucket. Should be a fairly clean affair IF you were able to pull enough fluid out the dipstick tube.
Clean everything up and examine for unusual debris.
Put everything back together.
Your calibrated bucket will show you how much fluid was removed and your original fluid level check will tell you if you need to add or subtract from that amount.
Pour the fluid it in. Road test recheck and adjust fluid level if necessary.
On my own vehicles I will follow this up by evacuating the pan two more times in the following days. I usually will pullout 4 qts of fluid on these two follow up evacs.
Simply suck out 4 qts and power in 4 fresh qts.
So now I have pretty close to a full load of fresh trans fluid in the vehicle.
Regular usage I do it at 4 years, towing, every two years.
My Tacoma has no dipstick 😀
Neither does my Promaster and many other newer cars. I decided to change the ATF at 50k miles this past summer. A dipstick that fits into the filler tube is available cheap on Amazon, and for pretty much any car without one, I assume. But one can also make one’s own with a long 3′ zip tie.
The dipstick also came with the procedure to determine the correct fluid level, which varies quite a bit depending on the temperature. I didn’t have a temp fluid reader so I got it close, then drove it up a couple of steep hills and topped it up to the hot temp level.
The Dorman pan with the drain plug hanging straight down to me says “I dare you to hit something and ruin the pan. Be the pan been deep enough to put the plug on the side out of harms way, different story.
Remember, when working on a car, or anything for that matter, nothing is easy.
Pretty sad that these car companies can’t put a drain plug and a dipstick in a transmission. Ford has the lame plastic plug in the plastic engine oil pan. Trouble with the pans sealing to the block. Your supposed to use a new drain plug every service interval. On the F150’s the plug is in the rear face of the pan, it comes out at about a 1/4 turn and the oil gushed everywhere. Luckily my 2018 F150 was built when Ford was having an issue with the plastic oil pan supplier so mine has an aluminum pan. Trans has a plastic pan and a minuscule dipstick in the side of the pan that is only accessible from UNDER the truck.
The diff has the usual fill plug and no drain plug that’s been the norm for ages.
I put a cast iron rear cover on that has two fill plugs and a drain plug. Would have preferred an aluminum rear cover but must are poorly designed and way over priced.
If you want to see some interesting testing on aftermarket diff covers Gale Banks has 3 good videos with testing vs BS. Unfortunately they haven’t offered a rear cover for the F150’s. Only about a million F150’s sold every year.
Saturn actually did the right thing on the S series. The transmission pan had a drain plug and an external spin on filter. This made transmission drain and fill way easier, which was important because that was the initial fix for “Saturn Reverse Slam”
Interesting post. Not typical for CC, but I like it, I’m a hardcore DIY’er. And one absolutely convinced that regular fluid changes are essential for A/T life. Feel old fluid, it’s gritty, not smooth and slippery, like new fluid is. If you’ve ever been inside one, it’s clear. For the basics there are clutches, friction and steel. But it’s oil, how does it work? Well it does, but if you have grit between them it doesn’t work after a while. It’s actually a little more forgiving than an M/T where once a clutch starts slipping it’s done, sometimes you can rescue them with several fluid changes, not always, but sometimes. 30K to 50K, no more. Yeah, they don’t always make it easy, my favored BMWs omitted a dipstick years ago, but they do have a drain plug, but easy or hard, it is good for their life and maximizing it.
Of course there used to be what, 3 different fluids and now there are at least 30, and they all claim non interchangeability, so they don’t make it easy, but it’s cheap insurance. Especially where there’s a plug you can use. Overpriced ATF, facepalm. New/rebuilt tranny? Don’t even think about it.
Having deliberately bought an automatic for the first time ever, I have been doing tranny services on it very simple compared to this GM tranny just drain refill get the trans up to operating temp then drain to the correct level, thats it. the filter cannot be replaced without separating the trans from the bellhousing, Its the same trans as my mates 3.5 Toyota Aurion and pretty much bullet proof.
Thanks for the excellent reference for my future project. At 215.000 miles our 2003 LeSabre is throwing a transmission shift code and needs at least fluid and filters.
These cars did come with an underbody cover but they were often removed. Moby Dick came to us in 2017 minus the top engine cover and lost the belly cover on Mary’s Peak in the winter of 2018. We’ve replaced the front cylinder head (low compression on #3) the front control arms, the rear shocks, and the ABS “Brain” (actually removed, repaired by Module Master and reinstalled).
While they are big and floaty those early oughts G bodies with the 3800 Series II are durable, comfortable and cheap.