Just did 4.8is transmission oil pan drop and filter.

[SlickGT1]

So yea just as the title states, I just finished the trans filter, oil pan, and refill, on my 4.8is. Here are my thoughts and opinions so far.

Thanks to other members on here for giving advice about this, it wasn't bad.

Well, catching all that oil is such a bitch.

1. I should have opened up the Fill hole first. You need a 17mm hex. I didn't, and when I did, a lot more oil came out. I was ready, by my arm got caught.
2. So yea, second, you should open drain bolt, waiting for drip a bit. 14mm hex.
3. Start dropping the pan. I took off all the bolts toward the rear of the car.
Loosened the front of the car ones, but left in place still in contact with pan. Then take out alternating side screws, and the pan will drop a bit down in the rear. A LOT more oil comes out. I mean a lot. Be ready with a bucket. I was on two pairs of ramps, so a compound bucket fit underneath. T27 Torx socket needed.
4. Take out pan. Pull down filter. Oh look, that gasket that is supposed to be on the filter housing, its still stuck up in the trans. I get out my pic, 30 min later there is still gasket in there. I am trying to be careful not to flick shavings anywhere.
5. Shit is still dripping on you, so you will need rags.
6. Putting in the new filter was tricky too. Almost seems like the pan holds it up. I can tell because there are worn metal marks on the pan where the filter legs shit. But it goes in tight.
7. Bake cleaner on contact surfaces. It stinks, I forget this from time to time, but it is pungent, so ventilated area is preferred. Cleaned out the pan, and removed magnets. I was shocked, to find nothing on my magnets. No fuzzy metal shavings nothing. There seemed to see be some sludge on magnets. I bit dirtier oil really. I was able to wipe it off with a finger. Yea no shavings at all. 77.5K miles. Strange.
8. Dropped one magnet against my tile floor. It broke in to 2pc, and a small wedge. I put back in the two bigger parts, and I guess, I will be dropping the pan again sometime soon. Yay to me.
9. Gasket, some bolts, an 18V screw driver, everything back in place. Torque specks are 9 N-m, so make sure you are equipped with one that goes that low.
10. Clean up some, and pump in some oil. I picked up a cheapo $15 buck one from Amazon, but I won't give you the link because it sucks. It like 2ml per pump, the cap didn't screw on, and it didn't reach bottom. Might work on of the shelf bottles though. I used ZF LIve 6.
11. Fill it up. I noticed that you need to get your finger in there, and feed the tube in deeper. If not deep enough, it will leak out early when pumping.
12. Car took about 3.5 Liters. Started leaking out.
13. Started it up, ran through gears and killed it. Took out fill bolt again, put in about another 1L.
14. Ran car with for a bit, like 10 min trying out gears, ac on. Car running, friend at GT1, (I would get instructions how to do this, and I will later, but I was all in oil, and didn't want to touch someone else's pc at all. So my time was on the floor most of the time). Reached temp reached 40C. I was about done topping off, it started leaking out, hot by the way, so wear gloves and don't touch the exhaust.
15. Put fill hole plug back and done.
16. Going to do this later when I get a new magnet, so at least it will be a decent amount off oil swapped out by the two fills.

So I took it for a drive, seems to drive still, so that's. Seems a lot smoother 1 to 2 shift. Performance wise, it seems to stay the same as far as the speed of the shifts and all that. Tore the shit out of the car to the point, my mileage now reads. 11.5mpg. That's 12.7. It also seems to be shifting in reverse quicker. After abusing the car, aka: having shit ton of fun, it used to take a solid 2 seconds to go into reverse, very quick now.

We will see how it goes. I'll update later. Got some errands to run.

Pictures
Car on two sets of ramps.

[bbultman]

That's sweet....and funny. It's good to have a true assessment of how a job like that really goes. "Drain the pan and remove" usually means lots more than it sounds. That's sweet that it improved some of you issues like reverse delay and shifts. I don't have any reverse delay or unusual shifting, except the typical 2-1 downshift and of course my throttle oscillation/TC locking unlocking deal. For now, just running sport mode and cruise - no issues!

I will post if I decide to drop my trans pan and do a filter change. I'm curious if I have any shavings at 141k!

[SlickGT1]

Oh yea the lurch. Fingers crossed, didn't happen even once yet. I completely forgot to mention that.

I'll keep you updated on the oscillations. Yesterday I got a bad case of it too. I don't know what causes it, but it went away instantly after I made a sweeping turn. WTF? I also don't have cruise, one PDF sensor is on order. Apparently they are tied in. Adaptive cruise? So can't comment on that yet.

Garage smells like ZF 6, brake cleaner, tires, and cooked brakes.

Still want to measure how much came out, gonna do that tonight. Letting it air out, cause I'm either hungry, or a bit high lol.

[Ghost-Flame]

slickGt1. Thanks for the write up. it doesn't surprise me that there are no fuuzzy metal bits on your magnets. Just means your ATF did it's job and everything fits the way it's supposed to... unless someone else drained it and cleaned the magnets before you got it... unlikely. Mine had some at 90K+ but nothing to worry about.

If you don't feel like taking the pan down again, those magnets aren't goin anywhere and if you have 2 big pieces making up close to one, I would just leave them in there. Like you said no fuzzies and not likely to have much anyway. Just drain through the drain hole and fill a couple more times... unless you like taking the pan down.

Good Job.

[SlickGT1]

Thanks Ghost.

Yea I don't know. I kind of feel bad leaving the damn broken magnet in there.

As long as I don't have to screw around with the filter, and the O-ring that was stuck in there, I think this will be a much faster process. What made the first time extremely nasty is that I was trying to get the original filter O-ring out, while the whole time the trans was dripping on me. I don't have to screw with it this time.

But wasting $25 on another gasket sucks though.

Oh yea, I love taking the pan down. Must be my favorite job so far. I can't wait to do it again and swim in ZF6.

[Pisendar]

Subscribe. Interesting information

[jbond007]

Just did my own 4.8is transmission fluid, oil pan drop, and filter...and consequences...


So I thought I'd post my own story/saga... haha . I just finished the trans filter, oil pan, and refill, on my 2005 4.8is at 72,000miles. I had a few twists and turns in getting the right parts and fixing my resulting "lurch issue". My 4.8is was born in April of 2005 which made the difference of a metal pan with integrated fill hole and no transmission side fill option. My ZF trans also has a flat paper-like gasket. Ordering online got me the wrong plastic pan with no fill hole and an o-ring type gasket. Visit to the dealer got me the same thing until they looked it up by VIN# and so I got the gasket and filter from them - about $100. I found out later I could have gotten the correct entire kit here. Yours may differ or have a plastic pan and different seal. Check the numbers by crawling under and looking at the pan.

I ordered (6) L of the ZF LifeGuard 6 online. I wanted to have extra just in case since supposedly only (4) L comes out. I used all but about .5L to refill!

Very Important! Download and read about your transmission and the specific fill instructions within!

1. I drove up on two pairs of rhino ramps and had the X's air ride set to the highest setting for good level clearance.
2. Opened up the Fill hole first. I call this insurance! Make sure you are able to refill. Then the drain. I have the metal pan version so... 17mm hex. Small hex (5mm) for my own drain plug. My oil of black - time to change. This is went I realized that more oil comes out when warm than cold AND it's freakin hot! Remember that when filling! If you fill with the trans too warm your result will be underfilling! You'll see from the .pdf link above.
3. T25 Torx socket needed to start dropping the pan. I loosened everything so it's basically hanging down on the bolt heads. Be ready with a catch pan like mentioned in start of this thread. I dropped the pan from back to forward to get the left over oil (quite a bit) in the pan poured back in the catch pan.
4. Take down pan. Pull down filter. I didn't realize that there was a little multi-ribbed gasket that is supposed to be on the filter housing until I tried to install the new filter and couldn't get it to fit. Then I realized the old gasket was still stuck up in the trans. I was able to get it out with my pinky finger finally while getting rained on by old fluid. New filter seems to barely "hang on". I bet, like mentioned earlier, the pan holds it up in the end.
5. Clean the pan. I used BraKleen cleaner on the entire pan and wiped the periphery of the mating trans interface as well. Cleaned out the pan but left the magnets in. I noticed a light metallic sludge on the magnets but no shavings, etc. I was able to wipe it off with a finger to start. When I was done cleaning with brake cleaner, I would have eaten off of it. I didn't want any foreign crap going back into the system.
6. Prepped gasket with some gasket prep sealant. My pan had been leaking prior so I wanted to make sure it would be sealed. If you have a rubber seal you may not need to do this.
7. Placed gasket on pan then carefully placed up on transmission while putting screws back in. You really need three hands for this! Bolts get tightened in an alternating sequence. Torque specs are 9 N-m.
8. I let the gasket seal sit for an hour to set. Tightened the drain plug. Then, time to pump in the fluid. I used a fluid hand pump that fits both small and large mouthed bottles. Other than it made my arm cramp, I loved it! I used ZF LifeGuard 6 fluid. Started dribbling out. Finger tighten the fill.
9. Get in the car and start. Run through the gears in Tiptronic mode. Wait about 3 secs in each gear including reverse. About the highest gear you can reach this way is 3rd. LEAVE THE CAR RUNNING with AC and Heat on full!
10. Get under the car and open fill. Pump a boatload more in until it starts leaking out again. Careful of the exhaust!
11. By this time the trans fluid is probably too hot. Wait until the car cools down and follow the instruction in the above linked filling procedure or linked here again on page 5! Too warm = under-fill.
12. Drove for a bit, like 10 min trying out gears, etc.
13. Clean up! You may be done and happy or...

PART 2! The Lurch!

After a week my car started shifting down from 2-1 with a lurch or a feeling like I was getting rear ended whenever I came to a stop. Very harsh. Upshifts were harsh too.

My 2 cents is that the transmission didn't "know" it had new fluid and was operating on settings it "learned" or adapted to.

Took to my mechanic who reset the "Adaptations" in the transmission and then updated the software to the latest for the ZF. It was the best $180 I've spent! It shifts better now than before I even did the fluid change! Do these two things first if you have issues after flushing your fluid or with the "lurch" or harsh shifting in general.

Happy motoring! Hope this was helpful.

[SlickGT1]

Wow yea, great idea on the reset of the adaptations. I deff did not do that. Oh and my lurch is back, so this is a good idea right now.

Anywhoooo, I am waiting for my other gasket and a magnet. I get to do it again soon, yay.

[ard]

Bond-

Well done. I'd also ran across 'the Califoria transmission supply company' or thectsc.com which you linked to.

Definitely a site to keep in mind, makes it REALLY easy to get what you need. More than just parts, seems to give you info and details too. (And major parts if things go really poorly.)

A

[SlickGT1]

Does anyone have the adaptations reset instructions link handy (non GT1, not all of us have it). I would like to put it here. If not I am going to go search for it shortly. Thanks.

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Found it one post. Next post seems to be more on point.
Do a trany reset. Leave the car on position 2 the one before the engine start (were all the dash lights come on) hold the accelerator down all the way for 30 sec and you should hear a noise… that's the result of a successful reset.

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posted by NOVAX5

Use 30 secs reset method. It will solve the problem.
-Turn key to position 2. But dont start the engine.
-Floor the gas pedal for 30-40 secs.
-Release the gas pedal, step on brake and start the engine.
-Drive FORWARD (Not reverse, so make sure you are out of your garage before you attempt to do the transmission reset)

Do this every other month or when the transmission start slamming again.

Going to confirm this by searching more.

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Keywords
reset adaptations trany trans transmission tcu software