Be careful when changing the 5eat transmission filter!

I had a scare this week with the auto transmission.

This past Saturday I finally got around to draining my fluid. The cars got 32,000 know and I figured I'd change the filter while I was at it. Never done this before, but I’m usually savvy with working on the car and had the vacation pics as well as fellow members instructions to assist me. I got the filter off ok, was a little hard to loosen, but took it off, changed it, put a new washer on the drain and refilled with 3.5 quarts of fluid as that is what I was able to drain. I didn’t have time to do the recommended second drain that day.

After changing the fluid and filter I let the car run to warm up and took it around the block. Everything seemed fine, drove it about 10 miles on Sunday and everything still seemed fine. No leaks or anything.

My partners been driving my car since our other car is an 05 4 banger Accord and that gets better mileage and I have farther to drive to work. Well, he calls me Monday afternoon freaking out cause the car won't go over about 30 mph and is revving high. While I'm on the phone he tells me the sport light is flashing and the trans light just came on. I'm yelling like a crazy person to pull over since I freaked out and can't understand what’s wrong. I was about 30 minutes away and he was supposed to be somewhere in 20 minutes so this added to my stress. You know how you get that gut churning feeling in your stomach when your afraid you screwed something up major?!!! Of course I gave that Honda hell buzzing down the highway through rush our traffic.

As soon as I pulled up to him I could see the trail of fluid running down the road and into the parking lot he had pulled into. Now, imagine all the curse words running through my head at this point. You know!

I didn’t have tools with me to pull the battery, but I could see the fluid was spraying from the filter area. The dip stick was not registering fluid and he had already indicated to me that he tried putting it in reverse and it would not move. Yea, input more curse words here!

I collected my thoughts and figured my best bet was to just have the damn car towed. Called Subaru roadside and they were very nice and sent out a truck that arrived an hour after I arrived. Well all night my stomach churned and my heart pounded. All the questions ran through my head about all the money I was going to have to cough up for a rebuilt transmission and could only hope it was nothing serious.

Tuesday morning comes and I get the dreaded but much anticipated call. The rep asked in a joking voice. Did you have the trans filter changed recently? I had to fess up and told him yes, I changed it all and could not image why it had leaked.

He explained that when I removed the old factory original filter the rubber seal separated from the filter and stuck to the filter housing. When I proceeded to screw the new filter on I had two rubber seals on there and did not know this. I could kick myself at this point for being so stupid.

Luckily they reinstalled the filter without the double seals, refilled the transmission with 5 quarts of fluid and it test drove without a problem. $205 dollars later my cars transmission seems ok and I had a small thank you prayer that nothing more was wrong.

I've seen this happen with engine oil filters also, and on many types of cars. Always look at every spin-on filter you remove to make sure the gasket was removed with it!

In the words of the maintenance schedule:

The ATF filter is a maintenance free part. ATF filter needs replacement when it has physical rust, damaged or ATF leaked.

Bet you wished you'd read that first

Originally Posted by PhilT

In the words of the maintenance schedule:

Quote:
The ATF filter is a maintenance free part. ATF filter needs replacement when it has physical rust, damaged or ATF leaked.

Bet you wished you'd read that first

never knew that..haha

Really? Man the dam stupid service department said if I was changing the tranny fluid to also change the filter. Least I know now, and for those near my area, don't trust the service or parts department of Walker Subaru in Renton, WA.

Well I did the same thing also, but saw that the o-ring was still there after removing the old filter. Luckily i looked before putting the new filter as I tend to never trust the monkeys at the factory for torquing anything to specs, so I figured they would of over-tightened the filter in order for it to do that.

Glad it turned out okay for you...

i had them change my oil when i was in WA end of May. however, hubby is a service advisor for the local dealer, so we just told them what needed to be done.

Originally Posted by dynamic80

Least I know now, and for those near my area, don't trust the service or parts department of Walker Subaru in Renton, WA.

I bought my 05 lgt from a auburn valley.. i think it's across the street.. auburn valley bought it from renton and i got it as is for $15.3k.. car faxed looked perfect.. 2 1/2 months later it needed a new turbo (went with bnr evo 16g and infamous tune for roughly $1200 after fluids), new engine ($5800) and now i found out a new 5eat transmission.. never buying a used car again...

Hey there,
I just bought a new BNR Evo 16G and am thinking about going with an infamous tune. How was your experience with the process?

They are fantastic! And I'd reccomend getting the oil and avcs oil feed lines as well!

We replace the ATF filter every 30k miles as part of our maintenance schedule. Treat it like an oil filter. Being obserbant would have avoided the oil loss issue experienced by the op. Glad no permanent damage resulted.