Sealed for life transmissions...

H

Haakon

Well-known member
1000+ Posts
Fellow Frogger
Joined
May 12, 2002
Messages
11,183
Location
Hobart
We all know its a daft idea, but today I dropped the transmission fluid on my friend's TS Astra - 2002 model with 145,000km on it.

Wow. Completely black fluid, no transparency at all! Clearly the original - on a car that's clearly never seen a garage and has lived a hard city life.

My respect for Aisen Warner transmissions has gone up again though - it still shifts quite well and shows no signs of wear beyond a small delay grabbing drive when cold.

We all know better, but for those who have forgotten - dont believe the sealed for life nonsense! Hopefully this extends the life on this poor little Astra...
 
Sealed for a short life !!

Hi:rolleyes::rolleyes:,
Just for interest what is the procedure for filling that transmission. :clown:

God it must be hard to put drains and dip sticks on things. If you bought them as mass produced parts they would cost ??? a dollar ???:joker:

We were born into the wrong decade:crazy:

:cheers:Jaahn
 
Yup - an Allen key drain plug and a dipstick with two levels marked on it for for 20 and 80 degrees.

About as easy as it gets! Certainly set up for regular changes, just "low costs servicing" marketing to make it sealed for life I think.
 
Sealed for a short life !!

Hi:rolleyes::rolleyes:,
Just for interest what is the procedure for filling that transmission. :clown:

God it must be hard to put drains and dip sticks on things. If you bought them as mass produced parts they would cost ??? a dollar ???:joker:

We were born into the wrong decade:crazy:

:cheers:Jaahn
 
kind of funny when you think about it.
if it is sealed, and it dies for lack of a timely fluid change, then it really was 'sealed for life'.
 
Good you looked Haakon.

Pretty well what we were told at the RCCV visit to the transmission specialists in Thomastown. And as you would recall Haakon the number of failures spread accross all types of such transmissions was eye opening, especially the cost of replacing some failed components. They were recommending 20,000 km service changes of fluid. At my last Laguna transmission chnage recently Paul kept a sample of the fluid and that was pretty black too as it was somewhat over my usual 40,000 preferred transmission fluid change.

Cheap insurance to change the fluid and not follow the extended life or sealed for life recommendations, unless you are leasing the car and have changeover of the vehicle factored in.

Regards

ken.:)
 
The fluid in this poor thing is still black.... 2.5 came out, so I put 1.5 out of 4 litres of fresh fluid back in, ran it around the block, drained again and put the remaining 2.5 in.

Think I should do it again...
 
Haakon said:
The fluid in this poor thing is still black.... 2.5 came out, so I put 1.5 out of 4 litres of fresh fluid back in, ran it around the block, drained again and put the remaining 2.5 in.

Think I should do it again...
Click to expand...

If it's an Aisin Warner made after 2000 there may be special trans fluid required?
Dex 3 is a poor substitute apparently.

I've been researching for a Toyota and that needs oem Toyota t-iv or Mobil ATF 3309. $239 for 20L!
Toyota use an Aisin Warner trans.

Forgive me if you already know. :)
 
Replaced the fluid in my "sealed for life" Falcon auto at 72 000. Came out like it was put in the day before. It has been filled with just "normal" fluid and has now done 121 000 at which point soon I will change it again. No problems so far, but also no dipstick to make filling easy, so if you had a leak you would be forced to fix it sooner rather than later.

The auto trans people I talked to do recommend 20K changes, but they are also looking for work, and so perhaps a little biased toward the safe side.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top