Is it possible to change the manual transmission fluid without lifting up the car? I have a couple hydraulic jacks and jack stands that I could use if needed. I am just worried about a lot of the old fluid not draining if the front of the car was jacked up. Would I have enough room to access the drain hole and fill hole without lifting it up?

 

Yes and Yes.

 

http://vbxmaxima.8m.com/mtoil.html

 

what we did was jack the front up, unscrew the drain bolt and filler screw, then lowered the car and let it drain. Then we filled the new fluid from the top of the engine bay by using a funnel and a long rubber hose.

 

if you're just doing normal drain/fill, there shouldnt' be a problem if you've got a lil old stuff still in the tranny. It's like doing engine oil change...if you wanna be thorough, then u gotta take the pan off.

Just be happy you don't have an auto. Those are a lil more involved when it comes to changing tranny fluid.

Jae

 

Okay, I'll bite. How do you propose "taking the pan off" on a manual transmission

 

A few minutes with a plasma cutter...?



-RMB

 

haha, i was refering to the "engine oil" pan, not tranny oil pan. Don't the 4sp guys have a tranny pan?

Jae

 

I misread your post then. Yes, the auto guys do have a pan you can drop on the tranny. I've never seen a setup like that for a manual tranny though.

 

For changing my tranny fluid, I lifted up my car with the same tools you have. I jacked up the driver's side so that the front and back were at the same height. That's important for re-filling. Anyway, about 4.5 quarts of old fluid came out. See p.7 of my homepage to see how I went about things. There are lots of pics there for reference.