I’ve been enjoying this forum for the past couple years and just now feel like I have the opportunity to give back a little. Well, maybe it’s mostly worthless blabber, but I know there are those of us that hunger for any and all data points regarding our cvt’s. So, here’s my experience with the 1st cvt fluid change on my 2017 ES with 30,000 miles.
Parts:
Mitsubishi J4 cvt fluid, 10 qts @ $18.50/qt
Main filter, aux filter/o-ring, and pan gasket from Cobra Transmission; $63 including shipping.
Procedure:
1. Raised car 5” front and back (so level), and drained 2 qts 12 oz from drain plug (cold engine).
2. Remove pan and collect additional fluid for a total of 4 qts 8 oz.
3. Cleaned metallic residue (for lack of a better term) from bottom of pan and magnets. It was fairly minimal in my opinion.
4. Re-install pan and add same amount of fluid that was drained, plus 2 oz to account for spillage etc.
5. Drive 27 miles, park, raise only front of car 5” (figured this would make it easier to drain fluid from rear of pan when removing it).
6. Remove front left wheel and inner fender liner (thanks for that bit of advice Fummins!).
7. Remove & replace aux cvt filter.
8. Drain 3 qts 5 oz from drain plug (somewhat hot engine).
--> Why did 9 oz additional fluid drain compared to 1st time? Should be less since front of car is angled
up and the drain plug is at the front of the pan. Possibly due to hot fluid (measured 115 deg F), or
maybe removing aux filter allowed more fluid to drain into bottom of transmission?
9. Remove pan and collect the additional fluid for a total of 5 qts 7 oz total.
I let the fluid cool before taking this volume measurement. So, nearly a quart more was drained the 2nd time. My best guess is that more fluid came out because it was hot. Other theories anyone?
10. Remove & replace main filter. I would guess around 2 oz drained from the filter during removal (included in the 5 qts 7 oz total).
11. Re-install pan (re-used original gasket even though I had bought a new one, so stupid) and add same amount of fluid that was drained, plus 2 oz to account for spillage etc.
Filter Inspection:
1. Cut apart both filters.
2. Main filter screen has minimal debris. I don’t think this filter needed to be replaced, and I’m not planning to ever replace it again.
3. Aux filter has some debris but nothing serious. Still I plan to replace this filter with each fluid change (every 30k miles). The last 2 pics below show the inside and outside, respectively, of the filter in a stretched condition (Hey, I warned early on there would be useless info here ).
Compare Old Fluid vs New:
Old fluid looks very dirty compared to new – pics say it all.
Shown is the fluid from the 1st drain compared to fresh fluid. Each jar is back-lit using identical Harbor Freight led lights (I just love their free crap).
For future fluid changes I’m leaning towards just one drain & fill. I will do it with the engine hot in hopes of repeating the large amount of fluid drain (5 qt 7 oz) I saw here.
With the cvt’s capacity of 7.4 qt, this results in 73% dilution (5.44/7.4), so I think I’m good with that.
Thanks to everyone who has posted cvt maintenance tips on this forum over the years, you have really been helpful!
Buzz
).
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