seanjordan20

Do not mix the fluid. Your level of fine. You can buy a liter and fill later if that is what you want to do but you're trans is not going to miss the little you're short. This is the first I've seen it take that much.

bronson75

Cool. I figured that with the level being where it is, I'd be safe.
I'll get it all reassembled and drop it off the stands in the next day or two.

tstiglich

"Any hotter than 45c you will not get any fluid to come out.". I assume that the fluid expands with temperature, no?

Redballs1

absolutly correct, any hotter than 45c and excess will come out. If it was me i would put a small amount of the old oil back in to top it off. There’s still about 3 litres of it in the convertor in any case.

bronson75

Not a bad idea.
Would it be worth my time (and money) to run it for a few hundred miles and do a simple drain and fluid replacement?

bronson75

On another note, I replaced the solenoids as well, I was getting the dreaded transmission failure warning and felt with the number of miles on the car and the unknown condition the seals, fluid and solenoids, it would be wise to do everything while I was in there. Is there a way to test the old solenoids to determine their condition, should I keep them for any reason, is there market for known-good solenoids, and if they're bad, are they rebuildable/serviceable?

bronson75

I'm full of questions.
I found this document on how to relearn the transmission, and it seems pretty involved. How critical is it to follow these steps?
The instructions that came with the ZF kit says to expect somewhat poorer gear changes for a while until the adaptations have been reset, but nothing specific as far as a relearn procedure.

Redballs1

follow the last three lines of your previous post, the adaptations are intended to make minor adjustments to solenoid times and pressures to compensate for wear in the mechanical parts in your transmission, clutches etc. These adaptations are learned and stored by the egs module, clearing the adaptations in a transmission with known defects can in some cases make the situation worse. So what have you changed in your transmissin than can affect the learned values? Based on your information i would guess you had probably one bad solenoid but changed them all, and maybe viscosity of the oil is now slightly different. This will have a minor effect on the transmissin behavior until it relearns through normal use. Hence follow the last three lines of your previous post. Some times its better to let it happen as opposed to make it happen.

scottalexander

You mentioned, should you do a drain and fill after a few hundred miles.

If you have the time, sure try to get the fluid as clean as possible.

When I do a transmission drain and fill each summer (that's right each summer), I'm only able to pump 3.6 liters of new fluid in the transmission.

One year I decided to do the drain and fill in March (in colder weather). That year the transmission took 4.2 liters.

gman6262

I second the advice about not mixing different fluids, and if you're just a bit below the fill hole following the fluid change, you're probably okay. Based on how expensive the fluid is, I wouldn't be inclined to change it again, just run it for a year and change it next year (or the year after that). Perform the adaptation routines according to ZF recommendations and top it up with the same fluid the next chance you get. Watch for leaks.