Hi. I plan on doing a transmission filter change at some point this week on
my 1998 malibu. Unfortunately, I don't have the owners manual or a repair
manual which would probably list the fluid capacity. Tried google
unsuccessfully, so I thought I would post on here to see if someone could
tell me.

If it makes a difference, I only plan on draining the fluid in the pan. I'm
not even sure if you can drain the torque converter, but I don't plan to do
it. My only other question is, because this car does not have a trans.
dipstick, how do you check the trans. fluid level while filling it back up
with new fluid? On one website I found, it said there is a check hole above
the trans. pan that when the plug is removed, fluid should slowly drip out.
This seems kind of unorthodox because if the trans. fluid is way too full,
do you just let it drain until it starts to drip? And it didn't say whether
the car should be running or not when checking it, I assume not. Or whether
the car should be warm or cold.

Any suggestions before I attempt this would be greatly appreciated. And, I
have done this procedure before on other vehicles, just none that didn't
have a dipstick, so I won't be taking it to a transmission shop or mechanic
to have them do it for me.

Thanks
Sharky

the veh should be running, begin with4-5 quarts before starting, remove
plug and fill,keep a drain pan under veh will get messy otherwise,can take
up to 10 quarts before comming out of drain hole on trans,just room or warm
temp is sujested, once it begins to flow out youre ok!wait till it slows to
a drible, hope this helps

Thanks for the reply. At least now I have an idea of how much trans. fluid
to buy and how to check the level in the transmission.

Sharky

My freindly mechanic measures the "old" fluid removed from the trans do find
the starting amount of fluid to refill the trans. He then adds 1/2 quart
increments until the side plug drain starts to dribble. He says that the
factory usually overfills these trannys by about 1/2 quart to allow for any
small losses.

Hope that this helps you,
David


"Sharky" <cl_8ball (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote