OD light

[kassim503]

So, light acting normally occasionally.

Checked the tranny fluid and found bubbles, sign of foaming?

left the car and came back, drove home, checked again, no bubbles.

All through this I found normal shifting, mabye slightly softer than usual, not too sure if thats my mind working on me or the car actually shifting softer.

[kassim503]

After wailing on the car to get the transmission to true operating temperature, about 180 degrees (its cold outside it wont heat up) I checked the fluid level, I seem to be a bit high, reading right under the bump above the H mark, and seeing a couple of bubbles inside the lower bump in the dipstick.

Sounds like its foaming from overfilling, but thats about a half a quart too high, and its not a whole lot.

And some transmissions benefit from overfilling, like the 200-r4's stuck behind race ready beasts from the 80's to prevent air getting picked up from fluid sloshing away from the pickup screen.

[kassim503]

ok, so I seemed to have read the dipstick wrong, at 100 degrees its a little above the L mark on the trans. Completley normal, the only thing is im curious to where the bubbles are coming from.

[asavage]

Loose filter? Loose valve body?

Perhaps it's time to drop that pan and service the AT (change filter, clean pan).

[kassim503]

prolly gonna do the fluid change this weekend, its been a couple of years since the last change, I guess its about time to change it anyways.

Im not too sure if a loose filter would make a difference, because I think the pickup is submerged as well, but ill just change it and get on with my life.

[kassim503]

does the pickup flange and the filter have a gasket on it?

I never remebered any kind of seal on the trans filter, but there might of been one and I thrown it out with the old filter


Should I dabble some rtv on the filter? It sounds like a bad idea.

The foaming may be normal, after all all fluids today have detergent propreties that may make it bubble up a ltitle. After all its not really at the point of milkshake foaming and the level is completely normal

[kassim503]

changed the fluid/filter, after overfilling the trans (again) (this time less) I noticed the bubbles went away, but the dipstick was reading insanley high, about 3/8"th over the end of the top bump of the dipstick, with the transmission relativley cool. Made a poor mans mityvac, sucked fluid out, and ran it at the normal level. A couple of bubbles. Whatever, I checked around and didnt see any visible blown out gaskets and the valve body and filter was tight.

I was surprised I was able to come up with a contraption to suck fluid out without even thinking. I didnt take a pic because its still under a couple of quarts of tranny fluid at my other house 600 mi away, ill definitley take pics of it when i get back, it costs free (if you have a pile of junk) Took a empty bottle of Ideal wire pulling lube, drilled a hole in the bottom, stuck a hose on the end of the tapered top, and stuck the shop vac to the bottom of the bottle, and it sucks fluid out through the tube and uses the bottle as a water/air separator so my shop vac dosent turn all mucky.

[asavage]

Shop Vacs are handy