I love DIY projects, & I want to do a transmission flush at home. I read on the net somewhere that after you drop the pan & drain as much as you can, you can use your comprressor & put a bit of air down the trans dip tube to get some extra tranny oil out. Is this O.K to do? it sounds good but i dont want to damage anything.

Thank you

 

I doubt it'd get much out, but if the drain hole is open there should be no pressure buildup to do anything harmful. If you want to flush it, just drain, fill, drive, re-drain. I doubt a flush is really necessary unless there were particles in the fluid you initially drain.
Then if it's horribly dirty just change it and see if it turns to a nasty color again - a sign some junk was built up that's getting 'washed' off, and either change it again or start praying that it's not grinding itself apart.

 

It's always a good idea to flush the trans cooler that way. They even make pressurized flush cans for that purpose.

 

t24U can you explain that a alittle more, do you mean they way Im talking about. just palce the compressor nosel in tran oil intake tube & blow the air in ?

 

Here check this out, don't drop the pan unless you want to fix a leak or something. Also, when you just do a drain/refill, you are really not getting all the fluid in the transmission oil cooler/lines (the cooler is part of the radiator), and you are also not getting the fluid in the torque converter. So basically when you do a drain/refill you are only changing about half of the fluid, hardly a flush.

Short of using an actual flush machine which I am sure you don't have at home, there is only one other method that I have tried and it works well. Here's what you do. Find the line where the fluid EXITS the transmission cooler. Disconnect that, and stick the end of the hose into an empty container. Now pull the dipstick out, and insert a transmission funnel into the opening. Dump a few extra quarts of ATF into it. Now start the car, and make sure that the fluid is coming out into the container. Once a good amount comes out shut the car off and add a few more quarts, don't let the tranny run dry! Do this until the fluid coming out looks bright red, then you are done. Finally connect the line back onto the transmission cooler and fill the transmission with it RUNNING in PARK, and only to the minimum line. Tranny fluid expands when it is warmed up, you don't want it over the full mark when it's hot, that can cause shifting problems. Same as if it were low.

Finally, use a FULL SYNTHETIC ATF! Your 3 doesnt take standard ATF, might work for a while, but will shorten the life of your transmission. You might need a good 10-15 quarts on hand to fully flush it all out.

If this makes any sense go for it, don't ruin your transmission.

If it sounds too difficult, take it to a shop that has a transmission flush machine, tell them you don't want a drain/fill, you want an actual FLUSH. And tell them you want FULL SYNTH.

 

On the (2006) Mazda 3, the dealer's seem to have the only synth tranny fluid for that model. is this a scam or can we use any type of synthetic ATF fluid for the CVT shifting tranny? The dealers want, like, $10 a quart!!!

Thanks,

Fuzzbutt
holtrx@gmail.com

 

i used mobil1 full synthetic atf mercon v..... and the way described above is the best way to flush, i did it on mine and it worked great, i also dropped the pan to change the tranny filter which was disgusting at around 40k miles.... i have a link to a write up on another forum i dont know if ill get in trouble fo posting it but here it is http://www.mazda3forums.com/index.php?topic=66369.0

 

I would either go with the Mazda fluid, or UNIVERSAL synthetic. Mercon 5 is not compatible with the Mazda 3. You may be thinking of Type M5, there is a difference, and a lot of confusion with that. M5 is not Mercon 5. Mercon 5 will damage your transmission, eventually.

Take my word for this, I am a Mazda technician.

We use the Mazda fluid, or if they want synthetic, we use BG Universal Synthetic - really good stuff, very expensive though (over 100 bucks a box). If you use BG fluids you will also get the BG warranty which covers your transmission if it fails after the warranty period.