I'm a private investigator having to drive like hell when I work following people. A mechanic used to service my 3 Dodge minivan transmissions and he would use gasket sealer...WRONG! I would have a trans failure at least once a year! Gasket sealer gets on the inside of the trans pan and when the fluid gets hot it intermingles with the gasket sealer and changes the chemistry of the fluid. Service your transmission replacing the filter. Before you replace the pan, bring it to a machine shop or have a friend drill a hole in the best spot and weld a nut so you can drain the trans fluid at the same time you change the oil. USE ONLY A RUBBER GASKET. Trans fluid has viscosity just like oil and it breaks down under heat. Replacing 4 quarts of ATF+4 every other oil change insures a high viscosity and I haven't had a tranny problem in over 6 years since I've been doing the service myself! You don't even have to change the tranny filter, just do what I call a mini-service draining and refilling the 4 quarts of tranny fluid keeping fresh fluid in the transmission. By this I swear.

 

id change that filter regardless, every 25K miles, fluid, filter, and flush. the 3 F's of transmission service.

 

I agree with you heartedly every 25,000 change the filter.
To all you people out there that are paying out the a@# for transmission service...make a couple of scratch marks on several bolts and later look to see if INFACT the service was really done. There's alot of screw artists out there! Once you've serviced your own transmission once, it's a piece of cake and you can then rest assured your tranny will function properly. On the other hand, if you enjoy laying down 1000 miles worth of rubber on a 25 foot long burnout smoking the tires...forget servicing the transmission...it's a waste of money cuz you'll be needing a new trans soon!

 

How often should you do it in a manual? Is it any different from an auto?

 

they say you never have to do it in the 5 speed but i believe thats a bunch of crap. it can't hurt it and when i did mine i had lots of little metal shavings on the plug magnet so i'd say every 60-80k in a manual if not before if you wanna be safe. its a 17mm hex for the fill and drain plug which is a bitch to find but other than that its easy. make sure you use synchromesh fluid dont believe anything else you read synchromesh is what you need for these manual trannys.

 

What about filter? Do I need to do that as well?

 

nope no filter on the 5 speeds since its not really getting pumped through anything its just moving around when the gears are moving at least i think about that part but i know for sure there is no filter on it.

 

Sweet, so just drain and fill?

Trannys confuse me so much. I know how a motor works inside and out but im still confused about trannys...