ZF Transmission Flush Question

[Bee8point5]

Been thinking about doing my tranny service given the stay at home thing. I'm only at 55k miles so a bit early. My car's shift quality is still quite good though some mornings it can be boggy. Not sure if that's a result of the car sitting for several days at a time. Question is has anyone noticed a SIGNIFICANT improvement in shift quality following the replacement of the filter and transmission fluid in their 8 speed ZF unit? Gonna go with ECS kit for our cars. I have the hours so even if it takes 2-3 hours I really don't care. Again question pertains to transmission performance following the flush.

[jfo]

Been thinking about doing my tranny service given the stay at home thing. I'm only at 55k miles so a bit early. My car's shift quality is still quite good though some mornings it can be boggy. Not sure if that's a result of the car sitting for several days at a time. Question is has anyone noticed a SIGNIFICANT improvement in shift quality following the replacement of the filter and transmission fluid in their 8 speed ZF unit? Gonna go with ECS kit for our cars. I have the hours so even if it takes 2-3 hours I really don't care. Again question pertains to transmission performance following the flush.

I did the filter and fluid at about your mileage, followed by another drain and fill a few weeks later to increase the volume of fresh fluid. There was no change at all in performance and none was expected at that mileage. Since I will keep the car for awhile, I view it as just preventive maintenance.
Only some (not all) of those who have changed at much higher mileage have reported a difference.

[MyDimeIsUp]

Yeah even me at 136k miles mine feels fine. Smac700 (I think) is at > 210k and has original tranny fluid (though I'm sure he would advise against not doing fluid change). Don't flush it though, I see no reason to do so. Even more so you're only at 55k. A drain and refill with 5 liters should be plenty enough. Flushing can cause problems.

[Nano909]

I changed mine at 80k-90k and it felt brand new. Also you drain and fill, don't flush.

[Bee8point5]

Right so those are some good points. So to be clear, the procedure I was going to follow was jack up the car on 4 stands of equal height. Remove the covers. Use a second jack to 'support' the transmission before I remove the subframe. Then crack the fill bolt. Then crack the drain bolt. Then unbolt the (12 I think) bolts holding the pan to the transmission. Then remove the pan (believe the filter is part of the pan for this unit). Then use the ESC tuning kit to re-install a new gasket. Bolt back using cross bolting pattern. Replace drain bolt. Refill transmission by pumping fresh fluid in until it starts dripping out of the fill bolt. Repace fill bolt. Replacing rest of the bits and pieces...lower car.

The only think I am NOT clear on is temperatures and the procedure prior to driving???

Reason why is when my dad use to do his transmission fluid jobs [this was 30 years ago mind you] I think there was a step where you turn on the car and cycle back and forth between D/R/N/S a few times.

Frankly, I find transmissions MORE complicated that the easier stuff like Oil changes, coolant, rear diffs.

I find those jobs easy but transmissions I find complicated actually much more complicated.

[Chillaxin]

Right so those are some good points. So to be clear, the procedure I was going to follow was jack up the car on 4 stands of equal height. Remove the covers. Use a second jack to 'support' the transmission before I remove the subframe. Then crack the fill bolt. Then crack the drain bolt. Then unbolt the (12 I think) bolts holding the pan to the transmission. Then remove the pan (believe the filter is part of the pan for this unit). Then use the ESC tuning kit to re-install a new gasket. Bolt back using cross bolting pattern. Replace drain bolt. Refill transmission by pumping fresh fluid in until it starts dripping out of the fill bolt. Repace fill bolt. Replacing rest of the bits and pieces...lower car.

The only think I am NOT clear on is temperatures and the procedure prior to driving???

Reason why is when my dad use to do his transmission fluid jobs [this was 30 years ago mind you] I think there was a step where you turn on the car and cycle back and forth between D/R/N/S a few times.

Frankly, I find transmissions MORE complicated that the easier stuff like Oil changes, coolant, rear diffs.

I find those jobs easy but transmissions I find complicated actually much more complicated.

I did the drain/refill with no filter change at 70k miles. I'll likely do a filter change around 130-140k miles. You need a vcds or obdeleven to read the ATF fluid temp to ensure you have the proper fill level.

After drain, fill the transmission until fluid weeps out of fill hole.

Start engine and continue to fill transmission.

Shift through P,R,N,D holding each one for 10 seconds.

Top off transmission again.

Monitor Transmission temp and put plug back in when ATF temp is between 35 and 45 C and ATF is weeping out of the fill hole. If ATF didn't weep out of the hole by the time it gets to 45C, the level is low. You can now turn off the engine.

Drop car back to ground and reset transmission adaptations if possible.

Log job in vehicle log book.

[Depthcharge]

Yep, no flush just a drain and fill and shift through the gears. Might as well do your differential fluids while you're there. Should take about 5-6 quarts.

[jfo]

If you include a filter change, the X brace must also come off. There will be about 1L of fluid sitting in the pan, so be prepared for spillage. The X brace bolts are TTY and should be replaced.

[FourRingsC6]

I actually just did mine today and everything went smooth except for two trans mount bolts that were corroded and broke off. After seeing how everything came out I realized i didnt need to remove them.
Ordered another trans mount on ebay.

I drained roughly 5qts. Filter came off easy and some more fluid came out. My car is at 126k and no record of it ever being done. Car shifts a lot smoother now. I have 2qts left from the kit so I’m going to buy 3 more and do another drain and fill next week.


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