If your AT is like the one in my 99 Trooper you have two downwards facing plugs. The higher one is the fill and the lower the drain. AFAIK the level is set correctly when fluid just drips out the upper hole with the engine running (AT in park) on a warm AT that has recently been shifted through the gears. At least that is the short version. Do a search for all the details.

Again assuming your AT is the same as mine, the drain and fill plugs have a special washer with a rubber insert. That rubber insert can tend to fail if reused. Could be the mechanic that did the original service reused the washer hence the leak. In any event if you refill the AT make sure you go back with new washers.

As for making a AT last "forever", letting any leak go is certainly not the way to do that no matter what fluid you put in it.

Tad, thanks for the reply. just out of curiosity, when you put in the temp gauge, did you disconnect and reconnect the connections for the temp warning light? thanks, taro

I added the sender inline with the tranny cooler. The stock light and it's sender were not touched. I'll also add that I had an 18,000lb rated cooler when my transmission died.

-Tad

Kevan, just a very general comment. My tranny went caboom right after I had the tranny flushed.

Jeff, you cant say stuff like that. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

Did you go back to the shop who did the flush after it blew up?

kevan

That tranny going kaboom wouldn't be the fault of the shop, its because of previous poor maintenance. when you dont change the fluid for a long long time you get nasty buildup inside the tranny. When you finally flush it the high detergent content in the new oil breaks the buildup free and it floats into the ports and kills the tranny. This is why its important to take care of the tranny from the start.

Dallas

So after the first flush, it would wise to do another? or just do an oil change on my own? I plan on changing the oil to somthing good like mobil 1, what all do i need? for example do i need a pump to pump it up or do i have enough room for a funnel? i dont like the maintenance of autos.

kevan

Get out of four wheeling.

As for the tranny going kaboom, I agree with Dallas. Let's just say I wasn't real good about taking care of the tranny.

I dont mind the maintenance of automobiles, i hate the maintenance of automatics. I just barely figured out how manuals work, i dont even want to think about automatics (crazy gears, planatary, satallite gears, hmmmfff)

kevan < loves to work on everything except automatics and cv joints.

Really all you have to do to keep an auto alive is change the fluid every 15k or so. Quite simple really. Problem is most people dont know that and just drive it til they have problems, and then its too late.

Dallas