So I have all my front end taken off after a collision and am waiting on new parts. No radiators are attached, drive belts are off, etc. I started up the motor to drive the car up onto some ramps, but forgot to insert a tube for my 5AT oil cooling return line to the transmission. Needless to say about 1 liter of oil came gushing out onto my garage floor. All I could do was soak it up with towels and throw it in the trash.

Now i've never done a A/T fluid change before, but our FSM states to refill with same volume of drained fluid. Well I don't know what that is but i'm betting there is another 5-8 liters of oil in the transmission.

Any suggestions on how to handle this? Obviously i'm going to wait until I get a new radiator on since i'll have to run the engine for a few minutes and don't want it overheating. But should I just drain the fluid under the trans and refill the same volume that came out plus 1 liter? Seems reasonable enough... Then disconnect the radiator cooler return hose and proceed as normal?

 

How about use a winch to pull the car up 'ramps'? Then once everything is back together and you're able to follow the directions in the FSM, fill your fluids according to the FSM.

 

Ya well, don't have one, nor do I know anyone that does. Thanks for increasing your post count by one. Anyone else have some useful advice? Maybe i'll just do what I said in the last paragraph. What could go wrong, right?