Autozone sells these bulb/primer siphon pumps with 6' or so 3/8" clear tubing..Any way will this suck some tranny fluid out through the filler tube without the wintertime hassle of a pan drop?? Just to replenish some fresh fluid? Im at 89k -fluid looks mostly red with a tint of brown..no burnt smell or troubles-previous pampered owner may have done the service before..dont know

 

i would think that that would be used for syphoning gas. the converter holds a good amount of fluid so i dont know how well thats going to work for you if at all.

 

If you're replacing fluid, you really need to replace the filter too. Otherwise, the old fluid will be re-contaminated right away by the dirty filter.

 

I would just wait till spring, and drop the pan, change the filter, and refill the pan with fresh fluid!

The sucker tube will probably work, but not well. You won't even get all the pan fluid out, and you won't get the filter changed. So i'd say its really not worth it.

 

I just did the pan drop and fluid and filter change on my 2004 with 88,000 miles. My fluid looked like what you described. I used Valvoline Dextron VI. Initially everything seemed to work great but now the tranny seems to shift weird at times and the car doesn't seem to have the power it did. My luck its probably going out. I think the tranny fluid had never been changed prior to me doing it.

Wayne

 

think ill shelve the whole project..Take my chances it will go another 10-15k with no tranny attention..its like a damned if u do and damned if you dont maitanence issue..lol
Why dont they just put plugs in the pans? yeah, yeah cause you wont drain it all and the filter stays in but.. HEY..if you drained and refilled fluid every 15-20k with an easy to access plug you might not need a filter change or a complete drain...ever
Nah- thats to easy for GM engineers..make that bankrupt GM engineers

I really feel for auto techs these days..almost "everything is a hassle" to fix/repair the cars of today.
In my trade... plumbing & heating ..very little change is accepted by tradespeople like me..We dont buy or install as a rule new "cutting edge" equiptment unless spec'd by owner..cant be bothered as I know ill be back to fix it..if i can fix it..my .02

 

I would still do it if I were you, but maybe use Dextron III instead of the VI. I've never had good luck using synthetic tranny fluid. My 98 ECSB Z71 didn't like synthetic tranny fluid at all. It felt like it was always slipping.

I hear you on the drain plugs. I never understood it either. I guess they figured that if you had a drain plug, you would change the fluid but never the filter. I installed a later model factory pan on the 4L60E in my 98 truck that came with a drain plug and its a lot nicer changing fluid.

Wayne

 

The Valvoline Dexron VI is a Full synthetic tranny fluid!

I actually changed my tranny pan to a finned one for extra cooling capacity, and it has a drain plug! So much nicer for changing the fluid. But I still drop it competly to change the filter too. I love the pan, and think its worth every penny, but i'll be honest, it was not cheap.