Coolant Change, Transmission Fluid and Diff Notes

So much of this information is already here. And most of it is recent. Even though, I had questions on how to do this for the first time, and after doing it, I felt that maybe if I wrote something up it could supplement the existing info and help someone out.

 

Anyways…so this weekend I did my “30k” minus the brake fluid flush…I will get to that at some point in the future.

So I changed my oil, changed the coolant, and changed the transmission fluid (5MT and rear diff)

 

Oil…people know how to do this.

 

Coolant:

To do this you have to remove the under cover. Easy enough. When under the car, on the passenger side of the radiator/fan there is a black plastic screw. On my car it wasn’t completely clear of the under part of the bumper…maybe a few mm off. I just point that out because it wasn’t a straight clear path to the bucket when the fluid came out. Anyways, use a Philips screwdriver on it, and once free, the coolant will start flowing. This will take a long time to finish, so remove the coolant filler cap, to make it go quicker. The coolant filler cap is the metal cap with orange label that is on the passenger side of engine. That took about 20 minutes to complete stop dripping, and you should almost have 2 gallons of fluid come out.

 

I then prepared the new coolant. One jug (gallon) of Subaru coolant and one gallon of distilled water. I poured the Subaru coolant conditioner in the filler tank, and proceeded to fill the car up with coolant. I noticed that it was filling really slow, so I opened the radiator cap as well, and that sped things up. If you do this make sure to watch the coolant level in the radiator, you don’t want it to overflow there. Anyways, filled the coolant up, closed everything up. Started the car, raced the engine to 3k 5 or 6 times, shut it down, check coolant level in the filler cap. (It didn’t drop for me, but instead came back out.) Then I cycled the heat…engine at <2k RPM, heat on full hot, LO fan speed and waited for the radiator start stop. I check the coolant levels later and they were fine.

Later that evening I took the car out for a good drive, and in the morning checked levels again…the reservoir dropped a bit so I filled it up, but the coolant filler tank level was good.

 

To note, I did not change the fluid in the reservoir. After taking the coolant out of the car, and comparing it side by side with the new coolant…they looked almost identical. My dad was like, why did you change it, both look brand new. The reservoir I have had full for awhile, with new coolant, so I just decided, screw it, not going to change it out.

 

Transmission:

 

The transmission fluid drain plug is dead center under the transmission, and it is the only plug that has the Torx "star" pattern. (You need a Torx T70 socket) Mine was caked with dirt so it looked like a rubber plug or something, when indeed it is brass (seems like brass anyways). Anyways, that is easy enough to take off, get ready for the horrible smell that is transmission fluid.

 

I went and got the skinniest funnel wal-mart had...it was an orange one, and probably had a 1/2" opening. Then, I got some 1/2" hose from home depot, and jammed the funnel into it. I cut about 8-9 inches of hose (which seemed to be enough for me.

This really helped for me once I knew what I was looking at:

 

After taking the engine cover off. Go to the passenger side fender (where the dipstick is) and look right under the intercooler. You should see a brass/copper handle with a loop on it. Mine was twisted away from me, so I didn’t know what it was until I started grabbing things under there. Anyways, its bent because that allows you to take it out from under the intercooler. Just swing the angled handle so it is pointing at you and take it out. You can see why you need the hose now. No bottle is going to fit under the intercooler (without taking it off) and the fill hole is just past the turbo heatshield. I wasn’t able to see the hole 100%, but I was able to see enough to get the dipstick in and out and the hose in and out. Put the hose in there, and fill it up with almost 4 qts of fluid. I put 3 in, and then checked periodically with the dipstick until the dipstick read F. Changing the transmission fluid is about as easy as changing the oil.

 

Rear diff.

This is slightly harder, just because there is stuff in the way. Like other walkthroughs have mentioned, all you need is a ½” drive ratchet…it fits right in. For the filler plug, you will need some sort of extension. I went and got a set of 4 ½” extenders and some combination of them worked for me. I had to place my wrench right behind the Y-pipe for it to work. The filler plug, is easy to take out with the extensions. I did not need an extension for the drain plug, and mine wasn’t on all that tight. Granted I was using a torque wrench to take it off, but I didn’t need to pull the “use the jack on the wrench” trick. My plug also didn’t have that adhesive on the threads…so I don’t know what the deal with that was.

Now, everyone should know that filling up the diff is a pain in the ass because of the clearance issues. I went to advanced auto parts and, after describing my problem, the CSR recommended a suction gun. It is called “Suction Gun” and it is made out of metal, and has a pint capacity. It comes with a 12” length of ½” plastic hose. Its about $10 bucks. I was looking at the thing, and I had my doubts. I stuck it in bottle of Redline, and just pulled. This thing really works! It got about half the oil out of the bottle. I went under the car, held it horizontal and aligned it with the diff filler hole, and just squeezed. It was a little messy, but couldn’t have been easier to do. Did it again with the remaining fluid and it filled up just fine. I tightened everything down, and I was done.

 

Anyways…sorry for the really long post of potentially duplicate (common knowledge) info, but hopefully it helps, and I welcome questions since it was a little confusing for me when I was reading the info, but it couldn’t be easier when I actually did it.

Two things about the diff: Make sure you are able to remove the fill plug before you remove the drain plug. Guaranteed to avoid panic! And Loctite makes a couple types of thread sealants. Buy the kind that allows easy disassembly rather than the "permanent" type which is for parts you never want to take apart again.

Congrats!

 

I guess one of these days we should take pictures of this process. The way I drive it shouldn't be long before I have to do this again

^ You know...after 30k, I would think the fluids would look worse. The coolant was pristine, and the transmission fluid looked decent. I know you don't "have" to change the transmission fluid, so that is probably the reason...because it was still good, but I didn't get a ton of metal shavings either. Oh well.

where in the world can i find redline products? my local stores seem to only have mobil 1 and other off brands. Great post by the way. I literally started buying the needed fluids today and this post answered all my questions that i had! Sticky!!!

^ Glad to help. I picked up my redline products from someone on the forum. The vendors here sell it online...jscspeed carries them I think....most online vendors carry it. Summit Racing should carry it too.

where in the world can i find redline products? my local stores seem to only have mobil 1 and other off brands. Great post by the way. I literally started buying the needed fluids today and this post answered all my questions that i had! Sticky!!!

 

I ordered from http://www.ogracing.com which is located in Sterling (Northern Virginia). They ship free if the order is over $100. Every so often they run promotions and discounts, and they have a wide variety of performance/enthusiast products.

Rear diff.

...

Now, everyone should know that filling up the diff is a pain in the ass because of the clearance issues. I went to advanced auto parts and, after describing my problem, the CSR recommended a suction gun. It is called “Suction Gun” and it is made out of metal, and has a pint capacity. It comes with a 12” length of ½” plastic hose. Its about $10 bucks. I was looking at the thing, and I had my doubts. I stuck it in bottle of Redline, and just pulled. This thing really works! It got about half the oil out of the bottle. I went under the car, held it horizontal and aligned it with the diff filler hole, and just squeezed. It was a little messy, but couldn’t have been easier to do. Did it again with the remaining fluid and it filled up just fine. I tightened everything down, and I was done.

 

I happened to have handy a gear oil pump that's used to fill outboard motor gear cases, and it worked very well, no mess whatsoever. You can pick one up for $10-15 at an Autozone/Canadian Tire, or a marina. There might be something similar one could buy for a few bucks less that would work just as well or better, I just don't know of such a thing. It screwed right onto the diff oil bottle (from Specialty Formulations), but even if it didn't, it'd still work fine. You just pump the oil out of the bottle and into the diff. Ah, just found a picture:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?id=0001314011394a

I left the metal end piece on the hose and just stuck it in the fill hole, but you could remove it if you were never going to use it to fill an outboard, and it might go a bit quicker...

 

Andy

When you guys changed your transmission fluid, did you also use a new drain plug gasket as instructed so in the service manual?

 

LaterZ!

Darren!!

No...twice. No leaks either. Just lucky?

When you guys changed your transmission fluid, did you also use a new drain plug gasket as instructed so in the service manual?

 

LaterZ!

Darren!!

 

 

No, and I don't have any leaks. If might be a crush washer like thing, but after taking it out and cleaning it up a bit, it looked like an ordinary old washer to me.