I am posting this as memeber of the multi Monty family. My little brother has a 2003 Montero Limited (Gen III) with the 3.5 SOHC motor and the five speed auto trans.
Sparing you the history of his other automotive follies (he's actually a really smart guy and your tax dollars are paying him to fly a multimillion dollar aircraft off of and on to an aircraft carrier - he's recently back from a six month cruise where he spent allot of time over Iraq), he accidently pulled the plug on his trans instead of his crank case oil plug when he was doing an oil change.
I know, I know . . . I told him if he didn't know the difference he should have his oil changes done for him, but he's persistant, and he wants to learn how to do it himself - I guess I can't fault him for that.
Anyway, he thinks he lost about a quart or tranny fluid before realizing it was the wrong fluid and replacing the plug. I'm not sure what cheapo brand he put back in (at this point I think I had already read him the riot act and told him he'd ruined his car - so he was pretty quiet, and I think he'd thrown away the bottle already), but he did put a quart of some tranny fluid back in and then decided to call me to see if screwed something up after he read his owner's manual that said to "use only Diamond Star" fluid. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />
So, my question is, could he have contaminated the fluid already in there if he used another brand, and what is his recourse? I told him not to drive it, to drain all the tranny fluid (now that he knows how to do that) and refill it with Diamond Star fluid from the dealer, which was not so easy to do on a Sunday night when this all went down.
He's off doing execises with the Enterprise, so I can't ask him any questions, and I feel really bad for going off on him, so I figured I'd try to get his little dilema straightened out before he gets back. Oh yeah, he and the truck are in Florida, and I'm in California, so I'll be relaying everything to his wife.
Thoughts, comments, further chastisement?
Thank you!
Jim
