changing my ATF this weekend - need advice

[nosajh9]

i have been having the torque bind problen and read on the boards that this may help.

 

i am planning on doing the drain and refill method 3 times, but have some simple questions:

 

1) is it better to drain and refill, or powerflush transmission fluid?

ive heard good and bad about both.

 

2) with this "torque binding" problem, have i been killing my transmission? in other

words, what are the side-effects from torque binding, besides the

slight shudder on sharp turns?

 

3) what brand/weight etc.. of ATF fluid should i get, and are there

any addidtives i should add to help? would you rcommend using synthetic ATF? would i be able to do the 2

drains with cheap stuff, and the last fill with synthetic? i have read

that people on the board recommend either castrol synthetic ATF, and

mobil 1 synthetic ATF. the car has 102,000 mile on it.

 

4) ATF capacity. how much ATF does a 95 impreza 1.8 4Eat hold? when i do the drain and refill , i realize that all fluid doesnt drainout , how much is left in, and how much do i need to fill after the drain so i dont overfill?

 

any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated! jason

hundog@gmail.com

[idosubaru]

unfortunately i think you need to use the same fluid for the drains. the point of doing the multiple drain method is that you can't get all the fluid out with one drain, so you do it a couple of times to get most of the old fluid out. if you use a different fluid for the last drain you'll have partial concentrations of different fluids, not the best idea in my oppinion.

 

the synthetics are nice, but old school ATF works well too. i'd plan on changing at 30,000-60,000 intervals.

[bulwnkl]

I'm with Gary on all his points. Plus, the new ATFs (Dexron VI, ATF+4. Unsure of Mercon V) require quite a bit of synthetic content in them due to their performance specifications, so I don't think it's cost-effective to pay much more for a full synthetic.

[buru]

I agree with what the others said. Also, you want to start the car and shift through all the gears when you refill and check the level.

[86subaru]

real easy to do ,i did mine ,got out 7 qts, on a 88 turbo a/t full time 4wd wagon , drained it into a dain pan , poured it into a 5qt jug + 2 qt into another jug, , then i knew how much to put back in, i used napa brand

[nosajh9]

ok, never thought to just drain into a jug. makes sense, then you know how much to put back in. thanks for the advice guys, ill just stick with using ATF and see if this torqu bind goes away.