Mazda Tribute atf service

[urrlord]

Yesterday I did a partial atf change on the wifes vehicle(Mazda Tribute 160 k).A few weeks back I was driving the vehicle and noticed the shifts and torque converter lockup were not very smooth.

So I got a gallon of Mercon-Supertech brand and waited till I had a pretty day.That day was yesterday.I opened the drain plug and let it drain about 20 minutes.The fluid drained was pretty dark and appeared somewhat thicker than ATF usually is.Tightened it back up.Thank the lord for whatever engineer put in that drain plug.AFAIK the tranny has not been touched we bought the vehicle at 80k and it has been a darn good purchase.

I also changed the oil filter while I was under there as this was the mid point of the extended o/c.

I cranked the vehicle and backed it down the ramps and let it idle a bit,checked for leaks and took it for a drive.The shifts and converter lockup was much improved,very smooth.
A good bit of improvement for not much money or time.

I just hope all the old tales of fluid changes in an auto tranny causing problems don't pan out in this case.Esp since I only changed out a third of the fluid capacity.

Keeping the fingers crossed.LOL

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Changing the transmission fluid doesn't cause it to fail. If the transmission fails after a fluid change, it's likely it was going to fail anyway.

If you have a drain plug, change early and often!

 

[147_Grain]

Wouldn't hurt to change the fluid again or even a total of 3 times this summer.

FYI - I change the ATF in all my auto transmissions every spring (lucky they all have drain plugs in the pan). It's cheap insurance; after-all, prevention is much better than redemption.

 

[urrlord]

Just a follow up.

The wife said she had not noticed any rough shifting or torque converter bumps before the fluid change.I guess she was used to it and it did not register with her.

Now she says the vehicle is "quicker".That it seems shift faster and accelerates better.

I guess thats something.

 

[GoStumpy]

For those that don't have a drain plug and have to remove the pan, how do you catch all the fluid coming out? In my mind it would be coming out all sides of the pan, no?

You can tell I've never removed an oil pan or tranny pan

 

[urrlord]

Usually when I do a pan I pick the lowest corner.Then I loosen all the bolts a few turns.As I approach the chosen corner I loosen each bolt a few extra turns and soon you can pull down the chosen corner and drain out the fluid.

Then drop the pan,clean it and replace the filter if it has one.

good luck.

 

[901Memphis]

There's not much risk using a mineral fluid in these situations, it's the top synthetics that have the better additive packages that can remove varnish too fast.

I would continue doing what you did with about 1,000 miles in between then do one drain and fill every 15k thereafter.