Trany fluid change question

Discussion in 'General Motoring' started by bobotis, Nov 8, 2008.

  1. bobotis

    bobotis Guest

    I own a 2005 Elantra and need a tranmission oil change at 60,000
    miles.

    My question is what is necessary to maintain the 100,000 miles
    warantee? I have conflicting information.

    1. Drain and fill?

    2. Drain and fill and disconnect the line to the radiator?

    3. Drop the pan, clean/replace the filter if there is one there that
    is accesable. Some one told me it is not accesable for the
    average home mechanic.

    4. Have a power flush performed?

    I prefer to do the minimum that keeps the warantee valid and that
    would be a drain and fill. I will be keeping the car for 100,000
    miles but not for much more.

    Where can I purchase SPIII other than from the dealer. Can a parts
    store such as Autozone or others special order the fluid and if so
    what brand would you recomend. Is the fluid from a KIA dealer cheeper
    than from a Hyndai dealer and is it the same and acceptable to use?

    Comments welcome.
     
    bobotis, Nov 8, 2008
    #1
  2. **HyundaiTech has reported in the past that a "drain and refill" is always
    considered a proper servicing to maintain the warranty - if the right fluid
    is used;

    **SPIII (now becoming SPIV) is a Mitsubishi fluid. By their own admission,
    marketing for it failed miserably. HT recommends you buy ONLY that fluid.
    And I do agree, at least to the extent to NEVER put any kind of Dexron-based
    fluid (the most common) in your Hyundai

    **That said, oil companies like Castrol are starting to market a special
    IMPORT Multi - Vehicle ATF. It was the first fluid to specifically list
    being compatible with Mitsubishi SPIII. That is what you would find at a
    store like Auto Zone. In fact, it is on sale at Auto Zone this month. If
    you buy this, make sure it says IMPORT and not DOMESTIC.

    **If you do decide to play it safe and get SPIII fluid, the dealer is your
    only bet. But prices vary greatly, and the car dealer's brand (Kia,
    Mitsubishi, Hyundai) seems to have no relation to price, at least not in my
    experience/
     
    Rev. Tom Wenndt, Nov 9, 2008
    #2
  3. Down here, the fluid was half as much at the Kia dealership than at
    the Hyundai dealerships. I say this not to disagree, but to encourage
    comparison shopping :)
     
    Matthew Fedder, Nov 9, 2008
    #3
  4. bobotis

    Plague Boy Guest


    The 2002 2.7 Sonata LX I bought was serviced at 92KMi 18 months
    ago. The receipt the owner gave me states:
    ============================================================
    TRANSMISSION FLUSH W SYNTHETIC FLUID

    BG synthetic ATF 4 gal $61.41
    INSTALL cleaner to suspend harmful varnish and sludge, and
    completely flush out old fluid and contaminates from the valve
    body, torque converter, and cooler lines, refilling with
    new fluid $53.67

    Trans flush kit $24.91
    ============================================================
    So....my transmission seems to work fine. I'm wondering why the
    guy I bought the car from paid $139.99 for the transmission
    service...and if they used the correct fluid... and if not if the
    past 11KMi with the wrong fluid has damaged the tranny. Most of
    the the last year it has sat in my driveway and has not been driven.

    I asked at NAPA about the SPIII fluid, and the guy tried to sell
    me some "anti-friction" additive that he said would "convert" the
    ATF. I took a pass.

    I'm thinking I need to change the fluid just to be sure. Is
    draining it OK, or do I need to try and get all the fluid out? Is
    there anything else I should service on the tranny? I'm willing
    to pay for the SPIII, it's cheaper than a new tranny. I will shop
    around, though.
     
    Plague Boy, Nov 9, 2008
    #4
  5. A drain-and-fill only replaces about half the fluid. You'll want to
    hear from someone more expert than me about what percentage is really
    safe. (Any tribological experts out there know?)

    In my case, the guy drain-and-filled with what I later found was the
    wrong fluid, so I freaked out and did two drain-and-fills of my own
    with actual SP-III fluid. The math says:

    Initial Composition: 100% worn SP-III
    After Luis Transmission (Convoy St., San Diego) exercised their
    incompetence: 50% worn SP-III, 50% Dexron/Mercon
    After 1 drain-n-fill: 50% new SP-III, 25% worn SP-III, 25% Dexron/
    Mercon
    After 2nd drain-n-fill: 75% new SP-III, 12.5% worn SP-III, 12.5%
    Dexron/Mercon

    So maybe I'm slowly ruining my transmission .... but at least it's a
    relatively small percent. I've noticed no ill effects in the 20K miles
    or so since then.

    If they used Dexron/Mercon to flush your transmission, and if my
    assumption that 12.5% is a low enough percentage to be safe, you could
    fix it with 3 drain-n-fill-drive cycles.

    Or you could call dealerships, verify that they use SP-III in their
    service (NOT a safe assumption, trust me
    *cough*KerneyMesaHyundai*cough*!), and get a full flush.

    Good luck!
     
    Matthew Fedder, Nov 9, 2008
    #5
  6. bobotis

    hyundaitech Guest

    Unless you have something different in your manual than I've seen recently
    you don't need to do anything. Any recent manual I've seen says ATF need
    to be changed at 105k
     
    hyundaitech, Nov 10, 2008
    #6
  7. bobotis

    hyundaitech Guest

    "TRANSMISSION FLUSH W SYNTHETIC FLUID

    BG synthetic ATF 4 gal $61.41
    INSTALL cleaner to suspend harmful varnish and sludge, and completel
    flush out old fluid and contaminates from the valve body, torqu
    converter, and cooler lines, refilling with
    new fluid $53.67

    Trans flush kit $24.91"


    If this were my car, I'd *flush* it with SP-III fluid unless BG Product
    is willing to guarantee my transmission in the event Hyundai refuses t
    pay for it. I don't know what BG synthetic ATF 4 is (suspect it specs ou
    as Mopar ATF+4), but it's not SP-III. It may be one of thos
    meets-many-specs fluids, but I doubt their claims as well. Differen
    fluids have different friction properties. More (or less) friction isn'
    necessarily better, it's just different.
     
    hyundaitech, Nov 10, 2008
    #7
  8. bobotis

    Bob Guest

    How in the world can that BG fluid be used in absolutely any auto
    transmission? At least that's what BG claims:
    http://www.bgprod.com/products/transmission.html

    The funny thing is that both the local Kia and Hyundai dealers use it
    instead of SP III.
     
    Bob, Nov 14, 2008
    #8
  9. bobotis

    Plague Boy Guest

    Hmm. Interesting information. As an update, I went through the
    service records again, and I realized that the ATF was actually
    replaced at 30K, same place, same fluid. So actually, the car has
    been driven for about 4 years and 73K with this BG fluid.
     
    Plague Boy, Nov 14, 2008
    #9
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