[AZStang]

I'm getting ready to do some work for a friend on her 02 Beetle and would like to change the auto trans fluid. I've never even driven a VW much less know anything about them, but I'm doing lots of reading here.

Anyway, I come from the Ford world and we do DIY trans fluid changes a little differently than what I've read here. We disconnect the trans cooler line at the radiator outlet and connect one end of a long clear hose to the radiator while the other end goes into a drain pan. Then with the fluid already warm, we start the engine and at idle slowly shift through all the gears using the pump in the transmission to pump the old fluid out. When you see air bubbles in the clear hose, it's time to stop. At this point drain and drop the pan to clean it and change the filter. Reinstall the pan, add some fresh fluid, and repeat the flush procedure until the fluid shows clean through the hose. The gets all the old stuff out including the torque converter and cooler.

Is there any reason you couldn't do this on the Beetle?

Thanks,
Shawn

 

[bman]

I'm not an expert by any stretch, but I'm not that brave.

I'm much happier letting gravity do the work, and do another change in a week to further dilute the leftover fluid.

Two of my cousins needed new trannies within a year after getting theirs power-flushed. Likely not the same procedure you're describing, but still makes me wonder.

There are lots of tiny lines and/or channels in auto boxes that could potentially trap air bubbles from power flushes, so I'm just not that confident about trying to get every last drop out.
​

 

[Smileybug]

Our old Honda had a change procedure of drain - fill - go through the gears a few times - drain. Fill a total of 3 times. I would probably do similar if I had another auto. Seemed to get it pretty cleared out doing that.