2015 Hyundai Santa Fe ATF Question...

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I just acquired this vehicle from my brother and sold the 2005 Highlander we had owned since new.

There were no issues with the Highlander at 172k but I had an opportunity to acquire the Santa Fe for a really good price. Plus, at 32k miles, other than certain fluid changes, it's been well maintained.

I normally change the original ATF and gear lube at 10k miles using Amsoil products.

The Santa Fe still has the original fluids.

My question for Santa Fe owners is the ATF change for this six-speed auto tranny looks to be a fluid exchange. I cannot locate anything under the hood that remotely looks like a fill port for the ATF. If it had one, I'd be inclined to use an extractor for the ATF fluid replacement.

Does anyone have any experience with ATF replacement for this vehicle?
 
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Just did an atf fluid drain and fill on a 2014 santa fe a few days ago.

There are tons of videos online of people doing it, but I don't think they are doing it the way Hyundai intended it to be done:
http://www.hsfmanual.com/fluid_repair_procedures-273.html

The Kia sorento video posted here is pretty good, but while reading some forums i noticed the some people who followed his method has some issues. If you leave the fluid level port open while filling, some people had it start leaking out after 2 liters were poured in. Draining the transmission gets out about 4 liters of fluid, so you should be getting a lot more than 2 liters back in there.

How i did it:

** The car needs to be level for this procedure. Keep this in mind if your using ramps or jack stands.

1. Drain the atf from the bottom of the tranny. I Got about 4 liters
2. On top of the transmission there is a fill bolt, I filled in about 5 liters through that hole. It also vents air through that hole, you have to fill slowly or it will burp it back up and you will make a mess.
3. Turn the car on and let the atf get up to 50-60c. I used an infrared thermometer to roughly determine when its at that temperature. I also let it heat up at idle, which took a while.
4. Shift the car from park to drive and then back to park. Stopping at each position for 3 seconds. Do this twice.
5. With the car RUNNING and in park. Open the fluid level port and let the fluid drain until it becomes a thin steady stream

Here is a pretty good video i found of this being done on a Kia soul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cUUniBpMgk
 
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A couple of pennies to the above.

- Fill plug should be under air filter box, not battery
- you can remove ATF cooler line (marked with red paint) to allow air escape to speed up fill process
- if engine is cold you can fill same volume as you took out as long as fresh ATF is at same temp as the one that came out.
 
For what it's worth, I changed out the fluid at 91k kilometers (56k miles) and it was dirty. I'd say the car fell under the sever usage category. Mostly short distance city driving, with a couple long distance road trips thrown in there,

Here is what the fluid looks like AFTER the drain and fill:
[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]
 
Thanks, again.

What are your thoughts on using a fluid EXCHANGE to replace the original fluid?

NOT a flush, no cleaners or additives, just a T-Tec machine pushing out the old and leaving the new ATF.

Having performed that procedure my #1 question would be: is the ATF level correct, i.e., not over or under filled?
 
My local Hyundai dealerships offers transmission flushes, so I reckon just pushing out the old fluid with an exchange should be fine.

As for checking if the level is correct that seems simple enough. There is a procedure for it in the service manual I linked.

1. After your done with the exchange, add another half quart to the transmission.
2. Let it idle up to the correct temp (50-60 Celsius)
3. Do the shift from park to drive to park thing i mentioned above
4. With the car running, crack open the fluid level port on the side of the transmission. This transmission has 3 ports: drain, fill, and fluid level
Because you added that half quart, theoretically you should have a stream of atf coming out of the fluid level port. Wait for the stream thin out and become steady.
Think of draining your engine oil. That point right before a consistent stream breaks up and becomes drips. That's about what your looking for.

5. Close up the fluid level hole and your all set.

If you open the level port and you have nothing come out, your under filled.
If you open the port and get more than 900 ml (a quart) then it was overfilled.
 
Thanks, Speed...

And what fluid did you use for your ATF change?
 
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No problem,

I used genuine Hyundai SP-4M, it supersedes the SP-IV mentioned in the manual. Its quite pricey at 20$ (Canadian) per liter. If you choose to go the OEM route i'd recommend calling up a few Kia dealers to ask for type 4M fluid. It's the same fluid, but some people on the forums managed to snag it for half the price the Hyundai dealers were asking. I was not that lucky.
cry.gif


Good luck!
 
Originally Posted by dubber09
A couple of pennies to the above.

- Fill plug should be under air filter box, not battery
- you can remove ATF cooler line (marked with red paint) to allow air escape to speed up fill process
- if engine is cold you can fill same volume as you took out as long as fresh ATF is at same temp as the one that came out.



The mentioned video says to remove the air duct. At 9:43 he mentions the battery and the fill port is under and to the left of the battery. I have a 2019 Sorento. My set up is not the same as there's less room. I cut a small notch out of the battery tray to access the fill bolt. So yes, the fill bolt is under the battery, although you wouldn't need to remove it. I simply used it as an orientation.
 
I did my first ATF change (Sportage) at 30K km replacing all by doing drain and fill and then evacuating old ATF via cooler line a liter at a time and refilling same volume.
All in all it took a little more than 2 jugs before I started seeing clear fresh fluid coming out.
From then on I do drain and fill only every 30K km.
Forte got first full replacement same way at 50K km and getting D/F every 30K km since.
I use MaxLife.
 
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Sorry if this question is asnwered already... but what brand ATF did you use?
At work the Valvoline ATF IMPORT actually says Hyndia / KIA Genunie ATF.

Look at picture.

[Linked Image from i.ibb.co]
 
A couple of pennies to the above.

- Fill plug should be under air filter box, not battery
- you can remove ATF cooler line (marked with red paint) to allow air escape to speed up fill process
- if engine is cold you can fill same volume as you took out as long as fresh ATF is at same temp as the one that came out.
Thats a great tip about removing the atf cooler line! Filling up the transmission was the most annoying part of the entire job, messy and took forever. Do you know if the red painted line is a return line to the gearbox, or is it a sending line to the atf cooler?

On my next change I plan on replacing the entire 7 liters in the transmission, for some peace of mind.
Im going to:
-Drain 5 liters, then fill it back up.
-reroute the atf cooler line into a container
-Turn the car on and pump out a 1.5 liters. x2 times
-Check level and send it for another 60k
 
Red (hot) is the line from tranny to ATF cooler and yellow (warm) is the return line.
Sorry for misleading in the post above that I cannot edit to correct error.

When filling ATF via fill port - disconnect line with yellow paint mark to make it fast, spill free and painless.

I used graduated plastic pitcher from a dollar store to measure ATF. First drained into a pan, measured volume and dumped old ATF into a temp container, refilled with same volume. Drained 1L or so at a time via cooler line (red) and filled with same volume, repeat till drained ATF is like fresh one.
If you leave red line disconnected when filling you will get spit out of it so reconnect when filling and have yellow one disconnected instead.
 
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