Will do. I'll also check the grounding kit wire that goes to the transmission.

What antioxidant grease you recommend to buy? Is it the same as the dielectric grease?

 

dielectric is for spark plugs, that for BLOCKING voltage around your spark plug so it doesn't "leak out" essentially.

Dielectric is literally the opposite, it's electrically conductive grease that you put between two mating surfaces to keep them electrically conductive but prevent oxygen from penetrating the bond and corroding the surfaces.

At work (electrician) we typically use Ilsco De-Ox. Home Depot usually carries the Ideal brand Noalox, or Gardner Bender Ox Gard. Call down to your local auto parts house, they will typically have small packets of both dielectric and anti-oxidant grease in small packets right near the counter. It doesn't take much to work, just a very thin layer.

If you can't find any for some reason then you can use dielectric, the metal surfaces will crush into each other with enough force to just squish the dielectric out of the way, not ideal but better than nothing.

 

I'm going to use Cleric's procedure to check the AT level. (Check while hot, go through gears, pull dipstick 10 times.)

But as background, I've performed 2 drain and fills in the last 6 months. I'll change the filter and clean any magnets on the third drain and fill in a month or so.

I have measured exactly the amount of fluid drained on both occasions (I think it was 4.75 quarts the first time, and it was exactly 4.0 quarts the second time). And refilled exactly the same amount.

When cold, the AT dipstick indicates that I am way overfilled. If the AT is overfilled, it has been that way before I bought the car. The transmission was serviced professionally from time to time before I bought the car.

I'm going to run Cleric's procedure and post the resulting photo.

 

UPDATE:

I ran some errands, and drove the car 20 minutes there and back, with 45 minutes between trips. I then parked in the garage and performed Cleric's protocol (see his posts above).

Results are in. My conclusion is that I need to drain a quart or more out of the transmission because it is overfilled. The photo shows the level SIGNIFICANTLY below the level taken when the car was cold, but nonetheless high. It's a few ticks above the acceptable level for a cold car.

If I'm correct, this AT has been overfilled for possibly years. I bought the car in October 2020. It had 5 previous owners, so who knows how the transmission was maintained.

The photo of the bucket shows that about 3.7 quarts drained. I took the 4.0 measurement when the fluid was just out of the car, so it was still very hot. I suppose the level dropped when the fluid cooled down.





Advice, admonitions, or observations welcome, thanks.

 

UPDATE!

The AT fluid measurement is very finicky. I removed about a quart of fluid last night. At first, I tried a siphon tool inserted through the dipstick sleeve, but the siphon tubing never reached fluid. I had to jack up the car and drain from the bottom. After doing so, my hot dipstick reading indicated a low fluid level:




I knew I had 1.25 quarts of new fluid still in the containers, so I felt safe draining 1.0 quarts of hot fluid.

My plan was to add fluid bit by bit until I reached the top of the HOT level on the dipstick. I started with 200 ML (or .25 quarts). Turns out, that was enough!

Check out this photo:






I waited for the car to cool down and took a cold reading. Again, the cold reading showed a shockingly high amount of fluid. (No photo of the cold reading.) The fluid went just past the curved part of the dipstick.

MY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Per Cleric, take readings when the car is hot and after you've cycled through the gears.

2. Only .25 quarts caused the level to go a few ticks below empty in the HOT range to a few ticks above the HOT range. So if you think adding a quart will take you from the bottom of the HOT range to the TOP, you will be in for an unpleasant surprise. You will be way overfilled.

3. After you have drained the fluid, wait for it to cool down. My initial 4.0 quarts measurement dropped down to 3.5 quarts after the fluid cooled down. You are pouring room temperature fluid into the car, so add back the amount of room temperature fluid drained.

4. Cold readings show levels absurdly high. I'm not sure if this is normal, but I will not trust cold level readings in the future.

5. If your mechanic fills the fluid to the hashed portion of the dipstick (the cold reading) when the car is hot, your AT will be way overfilled.

6. Dipstick readings taken when the car is cold are dramatically different to readings taken when the car is warm and running.

This ends my input on AT transmission level readings. I am going to drop the pan and replace the AT filter on my next drain and fill (in about a month) so I will share my experience with the process.

 

I always park my car on an even surface the night before I plan on checking my engine oil. Then I let
the car fully cool down overnight and then check the level in the morning.

I used a file to make a mark on my dipstick indicating one quart shy of full. That way I knew exactly how much oil to add. I kept checking it over a period of time and figured that my car burns a quart of
oil every 3000 miles. So every 3000 miles I just top it off
by adding another quart of oil.

 

ANOTHER UPDATE:

I may have been misreading my dipstick. My dipstick has two notches with the word HOT in between. Then there is a hash marked area that I assumed to be for cold readings. However, the youtuber Motordyne G35 has a video indicating that there is a HOT side of the dipstick and a COLD side. The owner's manual doesn't address this, and I don't have a service manual. The dipstick shown in the service manual does not look like my dipstick.



Just to be safe, until I hear from one of you who knows, I'm going to add another .25 quarts (200 ml).

 

For future reference the distance between the top and bottom of the hashed mark area of a transmission dipstick is exactly 1 PINT of fluid. The distance between the top and bottom of the hashed mark on an engine oil dipstick is exactly 1 QUART of fluid.