I have a 1993 ford taurus 3.8L V6 automatic. I want to change the automatic transmission fluid in the car. I can drain about 4 quarts from the transmission pan under the car. How do you get the rest of the fluid out of the transmission? It holds about 12 quarts.
[b]If there is no drain plug on the torque converter, which by the way holds most of the fluid in the transmission, then a flush machine is required to remove 100% of the fluid.
Tester[/b]
I wouldn’t bother. It could take days to get the rest of the fluid back in, or at least hours of running the car down the road and back. You are in for less surprises by just draining the four.
If the fluid is changed on the 15K mile interval as it is supposed to be then there’s no need to get to all of it. The fact that only one third of the transmission fluid is accessible during pan drop and filter change is taken into account when the service interval is plotted.
If it will really make you feel better, you can do a pan drop and change the four quarts. Then drive about 500 miles and do another pan drop. At the point before you change it, 33% of the fluid will be new. After the change, approx. 50% of the fluid will be between NEW and 500 miles old, because the fluids will mix. After one more change 500 miles later, about 60% of the fluid will be NEW to 1000 miles old. Change the filter at that time.
If the transmission fluid has not been changed ever, or in a long time, or you don’t know, I’d suggest forking over the money to get the transmission flushed.
-Matt