How to Clean a Transmission

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When it comes to cars, a lot of maintenance requirements can be handled by yourself. By foregoing a visit to your local mechanic and maintaining your car on your own, you can save yourself some cash. Even though some of the maintenance tasks can be difficult, especially for those people who are mechanically-challenged, learning how to clean a transmission can be a great step towards do-it-yourself car maintenance.

Steps

1. 1
   Warm up your car by driving it around for a few minutes at least. Working on a car that isn't at prime or optimal operating temperature can be troublesome, even dangerous. Warming up a vehicle can make it easier to remove and clean off sediment buildup.

   
   
2. 2
   Raise your car up on jackstands. Regular car jacks are not recommended for cleaning a transmission. Jackstands allow for much easier access to the relevant car parts and they are much more reliable.
3. 3
   Drain the transmission oil pan. Do this by removing the bolts from the sides of the pan and loosen (but do not remove) the bolts from the front of the pan. Prepare a drain pan to catch the runoff before pulling the transmission oil pan down slowly and allowing it to drain. Near the end, remove the front bolts and empty the transmission oil pan fully.
4. 4
   Examine the transmission oil that was drained. Look for anything that looks out of place, like sediment or even bits of metal. Transmission failure could result in pieces of metal in the transmission oil, so if you find any, contact a local auto expert immediately.
5. 5
   Clean out the transmission oil pan. There are a number of liquid solutions and solvents that you can use to clean the pan. If there are any debris particles on the pan, use a putty knife to scrape down the pan without damaging it.
6. 6
   Remove the transmission filter and install a new one. Be sure that the bolts have been put into the right place.
7. 7
   Apply gasket sealant to the mounting surface.
8. 8
   Lower and remove the jackstands as they will no longer be needed.
9. 9
   Open the hood of your car. Look for the transmission oil dipstick and remove it. Slowly pour transmission fluid into the opening, checking its level every once in a while with the dipstick.
10. 10
    Start your car engine when the dipstick shows some transmission fluid on it. Let the car engine idle for approximately 2 minutes. Check for any leaks while the car engine is idling.
11. 11
    Add more fluid to the transmission and continue to check for leaks. Once the transmission fluid dipstick shows that you're full, you're done.

    
    

Things You'll Need

• Jackstands
• Wrench
• Drain pan
• Transmission cleaning solvent
• Putty knife
• Replacement transmission filter
• Gasket sealant
• Transmission fluid
• Mechanic
• Oil

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