Over the weekend I performed a series of transmission fluid drain and fill's on our 2004 Saab 9-5. The car has 79,000 miles on it.
I purchased 2 cases of Moblie 3309 Transmission Fluid from thelubricantstore.com
MOBIL ATF 3309 (12X1)2$52.95/CASE
I wanted to be able to drain and fill 3 times, which according to the forums will result in about 90% fluid exchange.
I am glad I went ahead and did this as the fluid in the transmission was very old, black and overall in poor condition.
It is an easy thing to do if you have a set of ramps and an adjustable crescent wrench.
I collected the fluid from each of the 3 drains, and to show what is currently in the transmission, I drained just a bit into a cup after driving to Brunch.
The 4 cups are show in the images below.
In the first image (cups only), The oldest is to the left and the Final fluid quality is shown to the right. The old fluid is nearly black, Terrible!
after just one drain and fill, the quality is still horrendous. By the last drain, we finally have light penetration through the fluid, and the familiar red color.
In the second picture I poured out some of the fluid onto a white paper. In this picture the order of the fluids is reversed. I was amazed at how bad/dirty the fluid was until the final drain and fill.
The moral of this story: Yes the Fluid is expensive but it is worth it to get good fluid
circulating through the transmission. Simply draining the fluid once and refilling leaves the fluid too dirty.
There is a noticeable difference in the quality of shifting. The car is much smoother as it shifts through the gears.
transmission fluid for 01' 9-5
