Month: April 2013

Time to change the transmission fluid, and final drive fluid. My automatic transmission leaks, and one common leak spot is the dipstick tube. An otterstat seal is recommended as a replacement for the problematic O rings. I’ll give it a try.

Castrol trans fluid, gear oil for the final drive:

I had a gear oil bottle with a little left from a previous fluid change. I also got a piece of tubing to make filling the final drive easier.

Draining the final drive:

Draining the trans and final drive:

Pesky dipstick tube:

Old O ring, new Otterstat seal

Installed:

It seems the dipstick tube will sit a little higher with the otterstat seal. I’ll be sure to adjust my readings with the dipstick.

Costs:

When I took delivery of my car in 2007, the rear window wasn’t glued onto the underbody. The car was delivered with a tube of sealant, so I did my best to glue on the window.

5 years later, the window separated from the underbody in some spots, and the wind noise was strong. I cut away lots of the excess glue, used masking tape to mask off the glue area, and attempted to get a better seal on the window. I applied the sealant from inside, and outside the cabin. The car is once again watertight, and sounds quieter!

I also repainted the rusty brackets for the rear wall and cargo net. Sure enough, I broke the plastic nozzle off the spray paint can, and cracked off the tube coming out of the can. The can was rendered useless, and I had to buy another can. Here they are after some sanding and grinding:

I previously removed all the insulation in the back of the car, and put down dynamat. I glued new foam onto the back of the rear wall, which I had left over from recovering some dining room chairs. To match the height of the plywood compartment covers, I added some styrofoam sheets that I had with some packaging materials. 

Yes, that says $9.95 on the containers of oil. I got some API SM rated oil on discount, when the SN oil was coming out awhile back. The oil filter and crush washer were purchased a while ago.
Mileage: 31,615

It had been two years since I last changed the coolant. Time for a drain and refill. The drain plug on the new aluminum radiator helps out a lot, and my bleeder kit makes burping the system easy. I also replaced a coolant hose leading into the auto transmission cooler. The hose had a slight kink in it, so I swapped it with a piece I had on hand, and repositioned everything to avoid another kink.