Wife’s Suburban is a night mare to change the fluid in, my Tundra is a bit of a pain but cake compared to the Suburban.
I don’t care what manufacturers say transmission fluid IS NOT a lifetime fluid. It needs to be changed. They should not make it so ridiculously difficult.

Borrowed my Mother’s 2013 Explorer for a bit so I am doing all the service for her.
Transmission fluid change was an absolute breeze!!!!
Don’t even need to raise that vehicle.
Slid a 5 quart bucket under the drain plug drained 4.5 quarts of fluid, put the drain plug back in, went to the engine bay and unscrewed the fill cap.
Poured 4.5 quarts back in to the transmission. Started the vehicle, ran through the gears a few times, checked the fluid with the dipstick, attached to the fill cap.
Easy peasy even easier than changing the engine oil.

Just give me a simple drain plug on the transmission pan and a fill port in the engine bay.
Way do they not so this anymore?

In my experience, even the older Chevy transmissions (4L60, 4L80, 700R4, Turbo 350/400) required dropping the pan to change the filter. Of all the ones I've owned, only one (the 4L80 in my truck) has had a drain plug, but it's totally unusable because galvanic corrosion has seized it in place and it can't be removed without damaging the pan. As such, it's lying on my back, removing like 20 bolts, and getting a transmission fluid bath every 30,000 miles when I do a fluid and filter change.

It sucks. But it's not new.

As a retired formulator at the company that created molecules, selected components and base oils then tested the atf extensively, I can share that the atf team works tirelessly to ensure lifetime performance.

If you’ve ever listened eight hours a day to the GM cycling test (as one example) for days on end you too would understand how challenging the OEM requirements are.

Dropping the pan is a better way to service the transmission as you can wipe out the residual friction material and clean the magnet.

Like you I wish the pan had a drain plug.

Gale Banks among others makes pans with drains.

Drop the pan. (always)

A: Clean the pan, install a drain plug, put the pan back on.

B: Toss the (OEM) pan under the bench, install a deep sump cast aluminum pan with drain plug, extended filter pickup tube, screen filter, not media type(and maybe temp sender and pressure gauges, stacked plate cooler and Magnafine filter before the cooler).

Drain plug makes it easier to drain fluid before (always) dropping the pan.


Always drop the pan.

If there is a pan to drop.
There is no pan to drop on this Explorer. The trans is simply mounted to the engine.

As for dropping pans, I am fine with that just give me a drain plug and don’t make me what to loosen crossmemebers and drop exhausts.
Especially all while the pan is full of fluid.

DCTs for me. No hydraulic fluid.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
I don’t care what manufacturers say transmission fluid IS NOT a lifetime fluid.

Of course it is. Just it's the lifetime of the transmission, not the lifetime of possible car ownership!

Lifetime of the transmission warranty...

I have a 4L60E in my '08 Silverado. Changed fluid/filter at 36k and 75k miles, has round 100k miles on it now. Not going to bother changing it any more, planetary and gear set shell are going to fail at 150k miles anyway. I'm going to set aside some cash for that and a fuel pump.
Certain things are going to fail no matter what you do.

My Cayman is dead simple. pull fill plug, then pull drain plug, drain transaxle fluid, install drain plug, fill till fluid comes out the fill hole, install fill plug.

My wife's mercedes sucks. After removing all the crap thats in the way of the pan,
1) remove drain plug,
2) install special tool into drain tube and set to position 3 to drain fluid.
3) remove pan and discard (thats right, the filters are built into the pan),
4) remove and install filter,
5) install NEW pan with NEW bolts. (dont forget to install the drain tube and measurement tube
6) put special tool into drain tube and place in position 2.
7)Connect special adapter to drain.
8) Pour new fluid into fluid transfer vessel.
9) Connect fluid tranfer vessel to pan adapter
10) pressurise fluid transfer vessell and fill transmission.
11) remove pressure from fluid transfer vessel. Excess fluid will flow back to vessel.
12) start car and allow transmission to warm up to a specific temperature (did I mention that you'll need a computer to read the trans temp)
13)with trans at specific temperature, add more fluid to transmission.
13a) overfill transmission then remove connections and allow excess to drain. When no more fluid comes out, use special tool to place drain tube in position 1, or
13b) use special ultrasonic tool to accurately measure the proper level and adjust as needed either filling or using special tool to allow fluid to drain.
14) install drain plug
15) put all the crap back that you had to remove just to start the job.

I was told that it was absolutely necessary to drop the headers on my 2018 Silverado in order to drop the transmission pan. It was completely unnecessary. I put some hose down the transmission fill neck and using a hand pump, got the majority of the fluid out. I removed the bolts from the pan and with a slight twisting got the pan off. No loosening or removal of any other part and I didn’t spill a drop of fluid.
I was shocked at how quick and easy it was. YouTube made it look like a pain in the ass 3 hour job.

^^^^^^^^^^
I took an absolute bath on the wife’s 2015 Suburban. I did not have enough hose on my fluid pump to go through the dipstick that is crazy long.
I dropped the back of the pan let most flow out then did the wiggle worm for like 25 minutes while pushing the exhaust cross pipe down a bit. Got it and got a bath in all the fluid left in the pan.

My Silverado is the same, Royal pain in the ass. Lower Y pipe, remove shift linkage, if you take out the lower nuts on the mount and jack up the tail shaft with a floor jack and 2x4 it helps.

You don’t have to do any of that. You just drop the front of the pan, move it forward and slightly twist it and it comes right out. I’ve done it, I promise it works.

I have the 4L60E the y pipe is directly under the front of the pan, my truck is also 10yrs older than yours different design.

The trans pan on my Wrangler needed to be replaced due to rust.

Trans for it was made by Mercedes Benz. M-B trans pans have a drain plug but not Jeep. Hence, I have a Mercedes pan on my Wrangler.

Rust? what's this?
oil pans don't rust
I guess I'm in a different world or sumthin.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
^^^^^^^^^^
I took an absolute bath on the wife’s 2015 Suburban. I did not have enough hose on my fluid pump to go through the dipstick that is crazy long.
I dropped the back of the pan let most flow out then did the wiggle worm for like 25 minutes while pushing the exhaust cross pipe down a bit. Got it and got a bath in all the fluid left in the pan.

Drop the back of the pan and insert the fluid pump hose and pump it out?

Lifetime fluid, not in my lifetime. Our 2019 C7 with 25,000 miles needed new fluid. The local GM dealer said we were lucky that’s all it needed as they had a backlog of 52 transmissions that needed replacing.

I don’t understand how an Explorer drains most of the fluid. My Odyssey and F350 only drain half and the rest is in the torque converter. I do three drains and fills to wind up with 87.5% new fluid.

If you have ever used a flushing refilling machine you will wonder why you drained from the pan or the drain plug.

The debate over flushing vs draining is as vociferous as 9mm vs 45.