Hello everyone! Using a lot of really useful info available on this forum, I decided to go for a fluid change on my transmission. My car's a 2010 SXT with a little over 109k on it now. I've had the CVT whine and the overheating issue in the past but I've babied the pedal and it's been a decent daily driver for about 6 years now. Average is 35 miles a day. If I drive it longer than that on a warm day, I start to get the CVT whine. I haven't had the over-temp light come on in a few years, and the time I did was on a long road trip.
All that said, I decided to try to change the fluid and see if anything improved. If it did, then I'll go ahead and change the filters and gasket, etc. To change my fluid, I did what I've seen suggested on here and a few other places. I took the line off going from the transmission to the radiator, and then turned the car on and let that pump into a receptacle while I poured new fluid in through the dipstick tube.
This seemed to work well and I kept a close watch to make sure I was only putting in as much new CVT fluid as was coming out.
BUT, here's what was weird and is what prompted me to make an account to ask you fine folks:
When I first started this, I turned the car on and it pumped fluid out fine. Pushed out about a quart with no problem. Then it slowed to a trickle and stopped. Turned the engine off and back on. Flow came back strong for about half a quart, then slowed and stopped.
I did this over and over until I pushed out 7 quarts.
Here's a video of what it's doing:
My question is, should it be doing this? I expected to turn the engine on and have a constant flow of fluid out of the pipe.
My fluid came out very dark. Not used-oil black but not far from it. I know it's getting cooked and now I'm wondering if it's getting cooked because it's not getting properly pumped through the cooling system.
Has anyone else seen this? I'm wondering if it could be a clog that clears when the pressure gets released but the same amount of fluid comes out each time I turned the engine off and on.
All that said, I decided to try to change the fluid and see if anything improved. If it did, then I'll go ahead and change the filters and gasket, etc. To change my fluid, I did what I've seen suggested on here and a few other places. I took the line off going from the transmission to the radiator, and then turned the car on and let that pump into a receptacle while I poured new fluid in through the dipstick tube.
This seemed to work well and I kept a close watch to make sure I was only putting in as much new CVT fluid as was coming out.
BUT, here's what was weird and is what prompted me to make an account to ask you fine folks:
When I first started this, I turned the car on and it pumped fluid out fine. Pushed out about a quart with no problem. Then it slowed to a trickle and stopped. Turned the engine off and back on. Flow came back strong for about half a quart, then slowed and stopped.
I did this over and over until I pushed out 7 quarts.
Here's a video of what it's doing:
My question is, should it be doing this? I expected to turn the engine on and have a constant flow of fluid out of the pipe.
My fluid came out very dark. Not used-oil black but not far from it. I know it's getting cooked and now I'm wondering if it's getting cooked because it's not getting properly pumped through the cooling system.
Has anyone else seen this? I'm wondering if it could be a clog that clears when the pressure gets released but the same amount of fluid comes out each time I turned the engine off and on.