transmission pan

[jscollins]

My camrys in the shop having a new transmission put into today i went up there to get a few items out the car and i asked to see the old one so they showed me but what i seen scared me lol. the guy then showed me my transmission pan and this is what we saw....

the magnet covered in shards of metal:


the magnet after we wiped it off with a rag:



the whole transmission pan with the fluid below:


people take care of what u need i didn't and its costing me 1450$

[Jimnist]

Yeah.....the strainer definitely needs to be cleaned/ replaced whenever you do a change IMO. Touching the inside is brutal; you get little shards of metal stuck in your hands of you're not careful - they're really small.

[ITTRay]

Yup, thats what they put the magnet there for. Its not a problem to have some of that on your magnet. I have a 1999 C5 corvette and did a tranny fluid change. When I dropped the pan it had a little less than what you have on your magnet, and the car only had 60,000 miles on it. It now has about 85,000 and no problems.

[ckyalliance222]

so this is late, i know, but would i be able to take off my tranny pan by myself like that? i've been wanting to swap out some of the fluid since they say a complete drain on an old car can ruin the seals and all that so i figured if i i drain the pan i could at least get some out with out doing damage, but how hard is it to just take the pan off?

[ITTRay]

Originally Posted by ckyalliance222

so this is late, i know, but would i be able to take off my tranny pan by myself like that? i've been wanting to swap out some of the fluid since they say a complete drain on an old car can ruin the seals and all that so i figured if i i drain the pan i could at least get some out with out doing damage, but how hard is it to just take the pan off?

Anybody with a rachet can take off there transmission pan. On the 1mz-fe auto trans there are 18 little bolts holding the pan on. Do yourself a favor, go to your local parts store and buy a transmission filter kit. It includes the pan gasket and transmission filter. I wouldn't listen to whoever told you that doing a transmission fluid drain on an old car ruins all the seals. The old "seal" that will need to be replaced is the pan gasket. Thats as easy as 1-2-3. Take the old gasket off the pan. Clean the pan really good, and make sure ALL of the old gasket is removed. spread a thin layer of rtv sealant on the pan and lay the new gasket on the pan, now spread another layer of rtv on the other side of the gasket. A very thin layer is all you need, if you put to much on it there is the possibility that it can break off and clog the transmission passages and completly srew something up. So just a thin layer. The filter will have only three bolts, maybe four. After that is replaced and your pan is ready just put it all back together. Fill her up with about four or five quarts of fluid and drive her around a little. Drain it again, but this time just through the drain plug. Replace the fluid one more time and you are good to go.

[Jimnist]

Little heads up, you may or may not need to buy torx bits (funny star shape inside head) to remove the tranny pan.

Also, i think your friend may have heard/interpreted incorrectly. Maybe they were getting at the engine; not tranny. In an engine application if you switched to a fully synthetic, it may clean away oil deposits around sealing surfaces and may cause oil leaks. It does not harm or damage the gaskets in any way.

[wtftoy]

ckyalliance222, if you haven't had transmission service in the past, you would have to do a drain and refill a couple of times before the entire transmission system is clean. You can do a search on here, there's been a bunch of threads on this.