ATF refresh
 

I ordered an electric fluid pump and 4 quarts Mazda FZ ATF from Amazon, it came yesterday and pumped out about 3.5 quarts, it was a little brown already, the car just hit 60K miles, since I was in there I went ahead and cleaned the throttle body butterfly. I drove the car a lot today and noticed how smooth the upshifts and downshifts are now and it idles really smooth now, no more vibration on the steering wheel. I recommend you all to do this, just follow YouTube videos, there is no such thing as lifetime transmission fluid, my previous car was a 2009 Honda Fit with an automatic not cvt and the manual called to drain and fill every 30K miles which was 4 quarts. PS, the reason I didn' t drain from the bottom is that I'm 79 years old and didn't want to deal with the big plastic cover under the engine.

Nice work and thoughtful service. But the color of the fluid would have advised you to do a pan drop and filter change. You are going to find a lot of buildup on the bottom part of the pan and stuck to the magnet. This will contaminate your fresh fluid in a couple of days.
If for some reason you pan does not have a pan magnet get one and if no Drian plug there are universal drain plug kits that you should install for your next drain and fill service. I NEVER recommend the method you used for changing the ATF fluid.

Something is better than nothing, the total quantity of ATF in the transmission is 8.2 quarts, wether you open the bottom or not, you can only get 3.5 to 4 quarts out, not changing the filter is not an issue and the magnet will continue to pick up metal wether it's clean or dirty so the 3.5 quarts I put in will get mixed with the rest of the fluid regardless of what method was used to change it, I made a post to encourage members that are afraid of a big job to be able to refresh their ATF easier. My car is shifting better and that is what I was trying to accomplish, I will do the next refresh at 90K the same way, I won't wait for a 60K interval.Thanks for your opinion Callisto.

Sorry it not an opinion
To qualify myself perhaps a little more then a DIY?
I have a small line or transmission upgrade parts engineered and developed by myself and my pardoner that is a recognized in the performance world an automatic transmission specialist that teaches shop at a local JR College that still has one of only 3 in the USA Transmission Dyno. Have built automatic transmission for years.
We do at least 1 transmission service in the shop a week. The dilution theory only somewhat works after a full transmission service with a professional shop grade machine. The OEM pan magnet does become less effect as the varnish collects and creates a sludge blanket very thick around the OEM magnets which are not very strong to start with.
Doing a simple 1 hour pan drop and filter change allows to person to see what is in the pan and the build up around the valve body.
The temporary shifting performance gains with a siphon method on an age and neglected serving transmission is the indicator that the fluid was very old and contaminated.

Mazda Skyactiv transmission service 20,000 miles. Filter and oil pan only. This was not the first service of this type. I want this as an example of low miles the beginning of what should be cleaned out more frequently. You may also notice a drain plug magnet as well a Neodymium Ring Magnet which is one of the strongest types you can get. The oem was removed during the first service below 5,000 miles on the odometer.

I do want to point out I did this in my garage NOT the shop and in a very confined work space with common garage tools. from start to finish that included the cleaning of all parts removed was about 2 hours. If it were just the basic service and not meticulously cleaning all the parts, then about an hour service .
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I applaud that you support more frequent transmission serving but let's make sure that all reading this thread try to do it the best way and most effective way to help prolong the life of the transmission and get the best performance for many miles ahead and avert potential problems..

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You need to return the 7up crates. Yea all auto's get that grey grime in the. Fine powder that must help the oil last the life of the car.

lol …. We have a commercial account for the soda vending machine . We get a little extra $ if we service it and not have it serviced. So I borrow various crates sometimes :o