The RIGHT WAY to Flush your SST Trans
 

Hello Everyone,
Id like to start off saying thank you to Kris at SSP Performance he gave me a few pointers and was very helpful. It all started a few weeks ago, the car felt very sluggish and was skipping gears when down shifting going from 6th to 4th and so on. I was driving home Friday and felt the car starting to vibrate alot and the trans was making alot more noise than before. I have 64,700 Miles on my car. I decided to park it and gave kris at SSP a call he said what the hell I was waiting for that ot was was past due for a flush, and this is what he told me to do so here we go........{thumbup}

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Id also like to thank Ryan at Fred Beans for getting me the 2 gallons of the SST fluid and the Filter if you guys need anything contact him. I also took Kris's advice and got two gallons of mineral oil from a local feed shop to FLUSH the trans out with. {thumbup}

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tools needed just basic stuff
Trim Clip Puller for all those clips
8mm allen head socket
10mm
13mm trans cooler bolts
32mm axle socket Trans Filter
Torque Wrench
a few extensions to get to those hard to reach areas
Alot of paper towels!

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Picked up a 5 gallon drain pan from my work (Autozone) and a felxi funnel to fill the fluid up top since its sorta hard to get to. This pan worked awesome didnt drop ANY fluid on the floor:beer:

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Start off by jacking up the car, I got the whole thing off the ground to make it easy to get under. I pulled the front bumper off, and removed all the clips and 10mm bolts (Thread about how to remove bumper elsewhere)

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Just to be safe I had a tarp laying around thought Id throw it down just incase of a spill, didnt have one at all just take your time!

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I removed the plastic air guide in front of the trans cooler to make it easier to get to the one top bolt its 13mm marked RED.


SHORT VIDEO
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...h_4a45f734.jpg

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Remove the three drain bolts and filler bolt they are a 8mm allen. Good thing for this huge pain I got all three holes under it no problem, did one drain hole at a time.

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Next remove the old filter housing, that plastic clip that everyone hates is not really that big of a pain in the ass if you just take it slow little by little I took it off three times with no issues on the little clip. Used a 32mm Socket here.

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Drained the Stock cooler by removing the first bolt ontop then its as simple as unduing the hose clamp and tilting it so it flows out easy.

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I used empty water jugs to measure what I got out, almost got close to two gallons out of it.

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Had a few little pieces of the clutches in the drain pan but not too bad for close to 65k. {thumbup}:beer::D

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I can say that this filter was clogged pretty bad, it was nasty.

Now come thes fun part and the part where that strange mineral oil flush WTF :lol: I like to thank Kris for this tip, after draining all the stock fluid take out the filter put the housing back on NO FILTER inside, then poor in two gallons of the mineral oil into the trans using the flexi funnel Igot at autozone, start the car leave it in Park and let it idle for 20-30min. This will clean out anything thats left behind. the mineral oil will not hurt the trans and it will not bind with any other oil other than itself. After letting it run for 25min I drained all the fluid like stated above just repeate those steps.

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Now you want to getthat nifty 130 dollar filter, put a little of the new SST fluid inside it make sure the area where it screws in is clean. screw it on gental go slow so the clip wont break.

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Here is a picture of the new fluid on the left and the old on the right you can see the diffrance:crap:

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tighten the trans filter till its snug and then make sure all the drain bolts are torqued to spec 19ft/lbs

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Time to fill her up, Used the felxi funnel life saver! for that tricky filler hole. poor the fluid in slowly and let it go down might take awhile I had my dad help me out. {thumbup}

Start the car let it idle again for 20 min, then while parked change the gears from park to R to N to Drive to get any air bubbles out and help The fluid get threw the trans.

After all the time I was worried my trans is fine even with the mods that are listed in my signature. No RPM bounces at 50mph anymore no misshifts or vibrations. Thanks again to Kris at SSP and RYAN at FreadBeans for the parts and advice{thumbup}

ahhh good job dude {thumbup}

Thanks man. Happy thanksgiving everyone.

Glad to see more people draining the cooler and lines :) Other wise it's only 75% new fluid, haha.
Nice clear how-to, good pics {thumbup}; hope everyone does this, but don't wait until 65K!

Yeah that was my fault there dealer told me fluids good for 100k it started acting very strange so I changed it. Just thought I'd share my way of doing it

Thanks for the writeup! How much of the mineral oil came out when you drained it? My only concern about that flush would be in leaving mineral oil in the system and having it effect the lubrication and friction properties of the diaqueen. Normally, I would flush the solvent out with fresh transmission fluid but the liquid gold is a little pricey for that!

It mostly came out. Maybe 1/4 cup left in the trans or less. And the mineral oil will not hurt the lubraction properties of the sst fluid.

Great writeup! I knew there had to be a way to flush the tranny without wasting the precious sst fluid. Was the mineral oil pretty dirty when you drained it out? I am doing this next week!

It was blackish but not that much and the fluid was pretty clean when I fist drained it. The filter seems like that's where most of the issue was. But I wanted to do a proper flush and Kris at SSP told me he dose this all the time so I ran with it. Thanks Kris!

My favorite thing is the Honda Accord oil change guard. lol

Yeah Honda left it on my dads car lol so thanks Honda!

trans change
 

Nice write up.

Thank you guys Just trying to help out other members.

When I do a flush on them, I only fill the trans with 1.5 gallons, but I flush it out twice. Hopefully your post helps to quiet the naysayers regarding flushing the trans. It is really important to do this flush like you have written about. {thumbup} on the write up.

Yes it is, the flush just makes sure you get everything possible out and makes it Oem clean inside

Thanks for the write up! Doing us all a favor here. Quick question: is it necessary to take the front bumper off, or can this be done without taking it off? I'll probably be bringing it to a shop with a lift to do it. Thanks again.

You can do it with the bumper on, taking it off made it easier to get to the trans cooler.

Thanks! {thumbup}

Anytime man just trying to help some members out

Very nice thanks for the how to

Your welcome :)

Mind telling us the price this will set us back?

Excellent write up! Thank you very much!
I had my mind set that it was going to cost big bucks to pay a shop to do this service but after reading this write up I am confident i could do this myself...

It's very easy here's the break Down on cost I got the fluid and filter from fredbeansparts.

SST fluid $107 a gallon
SST filter $140
Mineral oil (2 gallons) $30

What does it cost to have a dealership do it?

I know how to do this, but due to the fact that some of these transmissions fail, I want to make it as difficult as possible for Mitsubishi to deny anything.

My local dealer wanted to charge me close to 650

OUCH!

Maybe I should find a reputable independent transmissions shop, pay them to do it, and have their warranty.

It's really easy to do it yourself. Just take your time

Great man

Question : how many exactly liter of fluid you fill in the transmission ?
do you fill also the filter house with fluid ?

Amir

I put in the same amount I took out. And yes I filled the filter housing first before putting it back on.

Great write up, now I am definitely going to do this myself.

After the mineral flush did you drain the trans cooler again? Also where can you get this mineral oil? I'm changing mine tomorrow and did not know about this and would like to pick some up tonight. Thanks!

Try tractor supply if there is one near you or any farm place should have in in gallons. Yes after putting the mineral oil in I drained all that I could out before I put the new SST fluid in.

You can find good mineral oil at any a/c supply house as well

Thanks for the tip I got two gallons for 25 bucks at a local feed shop

Well I ended up changing mine last night thanks for the tutorial it was very helpful! And man does it make a difference the shifts are so much smoother. Under heavy acceleration in Sport mode the shifts were harsh and now its so smooth. It got rid of the jerkiness for me when coming to stops also. I'm a very happy man haha.

I'm glad it worked out for you :)

EFFF i need to do mine too... it's way to cold over here for that right now.

Haha same here did in 10 degrees last night just had a heater going not too bad. I was kind of mad 30,000 had to fall in the winter.

aww man, only 30k? you could've waited another 10k! lol i'm at 40k and i'm dying to get it done. I'm jerking at almost every light.

I think when i have a good day off i'll start up the heater and get it done with the oil change.

*off topic but 08Lancer89 have you done your differential fluid change yet?

can't find a Ralliart edition for DIY...

Yeah I thought thats when you were supposed to? Haha oh well its over with.

My next weekend project is the differential fluid. Do you have the EVO X maintenance booklet thing that shows how to? I have been looking at that and its about the same as ours.

Not yet its next on the list tho want me to do a how to? Waiting to get my car back since it got hit last week.

Great write up! I just did it. Major difference during my drive, and my filter looked like yours. I installed the SSP inline filter. I got about 7.5 Quarts when i drained everything. FYI, the fill plug is under the battery.

You can use mineral spirits which is found in most paint sections. I found it at lowes. Just and FYI

Mineral spirits are NOT the same as mineral oil!

Mineral oil is an inert lubricant and is being used as a flush fluid in these instructions.

Mineral spirits are a solvent and remaining any solvent will break down the SST fluid. It will also break down organic materials like clutch plates!

I was looking online about transmission flush and Mineral Spirits is one of the one that came up along with mineral oil and a couple of other ones I never heard of. I never said that they are the same! I googled it when I was looking for mineral oil in town and I saw mineral spirits and I typed it in google "mineral Spirits transmission flush" and read a lot on it and it seams a lot of people use it. Dang, if I'm wrong that means I have to do another drain soon! Well back to looking up more info on it.

great write up. wish I knew this a few weeks ago. In Canada the dealers want $750-$900 to do this job and I know they are not going to this extent of a flush.
I did a drain and fill and it's still pretty jerky. hurts to cough up the dough for more diaqueen to do it again. I got a 'deal' from the local stealership at a cost of $268 for one tin of the damn stuff. Can't help but feel like I'm being bent over....

I didn't change the filter yet though. guess I better do that.

Change the filter mine was clogged bad

great write up bro!! quick question, if you want to do a drain and fill, its approximately 2 gallons right? from the 3 drain bolts and tranny, it was a total of just under 2 gallons correct? im still iffy about the whole mineral oil, so im just going to drain and fill, with new filter, and maybe in a month drain and fill again, to try to get out the other fluid

You are correct three drain Bolts and 2 gallons of mineral oil for the flush.

^thanks :)

i over tightened my filter and this is what happened, FML!!!
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oh that sucks man....the other thread there were a couple of people that broke the clip thingy and warned people to be careful...so when i swapped mine I was being extra paranoid.

great writeup btw....wish you would've posted this before I did my SST fluid change...didn't drain the cooler all I drained was the main reservoir....and the mineral oil flush would've been awesome...

Just did my fluid change yesterday. Thought I would post 2 more tips.

1) A 1 1/4" socket works perfectly on the filter housing, if you don't have a 32mm.

2) While the oil cooler is loose, this is a GREAT time to take some compressed air and blow it out. I probably got a 1/2lb of gravel & dirt from the fins of the oil cooler. I spent a good 20+ minutes with my air gun blowing back and forth on each side loosening everything up and getting it out of there. Can't do much cooling if the fins are all clogged with junk!

Oh, and I used the Pentosin FFL2 fluid menioned in other threads here as well - paid just over $125 shipped for 8L.

My car has just over 73k on it with an unknown history of transmission oil changes, so I really felt under the gun to do it. Fluid looked just a little dirty, but the filter was ugly, and dated from 2008.

^have you ever had any problems prior or after with your transmission? i keep hearing about people and grinding problems during start up, including me. im thinking of trading up to a GSR

Did you mention doing the Trans fluid change at 60k+ miles? How was the car runnng at 45k? just wondering since this is a very expensive service.

Twice in the first week after buying my car, I had the grind at startup. It hasn't happened since then, and certainly not since the fluid change.

I can say for certain that the car shifts much better since the fluid & filter change. I'd say the filter was causing a restriction, based on how gummed up it was.

I would say the same my filter was pretty bad, next time I'm going to get a reusable tranny filter.

This thread needs to be a permanently sticky.

It is:

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/09...w-archive.html

Thanks kyle!

I'm looking to do this in the near future. Quick question...aren't there different grades of mineral oil?

Not that I know of I could be wrong the oil I used was really thin and I got it at the local horse supply store

Well, thanks for all of your hard work. There are lots of horses around these parts, so I'm hoping to have some options :) The whole thing just seems so very odd.

Picked up 2 gallons of Mineral Oil at a local animal feed shop as well. Also used FFL-2.

If you are on the fence about doing it yourself, DON'T BE. Use this write up and you will do just fine. The mineral oil actually came out a little dirtier then I anticipated.

Some tips:

1) I did not remove my bumper, I instead drained the oil cooler by taking off a lower hose clamp that leads to the SST Filter housing and let that drain for about 10 minutes. This will take a little longer then removing the bolt and tilting the cooler.

2) Be gentle with the removal of the SST filter cap. I also used a small flat head to pry the clip away during ratcheting. You'll realize how brittle it feels when you have it in your hands to inspect.

3) Remove battery, remove battery tray, Ta-Da! A hex fitting with your new fluid's name in it. It's on a funky angle but your L-shaped hex will fit.

I measured about a total of 7.4 - 7.5qts after draining the lines and cooler. Get new splash shield clips...you might break one or two.

Thank you sir :)

I've seen other threads on people doing through each gear for a minute or two with the mineral oil in to help get out all of the clutch particulate. With zero load, this shouldn't cause any problems should it? I'm also going to be using the Pentosin FFL-2 fluid as well.

Correct, it will be just fine to cycle through the gears while at a standstill. A minute each is a bit excessive, though, 15 seconds each should suffice.

I'm glad that this is helping everyone I try to make how to's now a days since I have no life hahaha jk

Curious how you go about getting all the mineral oil out of the Trans.... can't be good to have that in there mixing with the Trans fluid, right?

It's actually not that detrimental. Mitsubishi recognizes a small portion of mineral oil as acceptable since it is in their service procedure. SSP and others have confirmed this as well.

You can further reduce the amount of residual mineral oil if you drain the cooler in addition to the drain plugs. Worth the extra effort, imo, since you are bothering to go so far as to do a complete flush, anyway.

Good to know, I'll be doing this with ffl2 right away

Just want to say thanks for this awesome write up. I just finished doing mine and everything went smoothly thanks to this thread.

Thanks for the write up... Changed it this past weekend.

Few notes: I did not mess with the Trans Cooler
My 2010 only has 2 drain bolts. Is that correct?

I removed 5.7L of old fluid through the 2 drain bolts and filter housing.
I added 7.5L of mineral oil, drained about all of it.
I added 6L of new fluid.

Shift are good, better than before. No warning lights or any errors.

So did I miss anything? Should I add the extra 1.5L?

Welcome guys glad I could help the community

Did u drain the transmission cooler and filter housing? What year is ur car? Some have 3 bolts.

Ideally, you should only fill what you take out.

However, there is a fill level bolt on the driverside of the transmission. Make sure the car is level, pop the bolt out, and fill slowly until it starts dripping out of the fill level hole. I say slowly, because each little drop is worth approx $7.95.

+1 but u should be able to drain a little over 7oz when u do a proper flush. If u did drain everything and don't get about 7oz I would use the fill hole to fill it properly.

I drained the filter housing & the main reservoir, not the cooler. It's a 2010.
Do you mean 7 Liters?
That's what I did, took out 5.7 liters and put back in 6 liters. Since I didn't drain the cooler, then is tha why I'm missing the extra Liter or so? The confusing part (to me) is that I put 7.5L of mineral oil in and got it all (mostly) back out. So why didn't that stay in the cooler part, or did it?

Yeah the cooler holds about a liter of fluid. So 5.7l out sounds right if you didn't drain the cooler.

Sorry it's about 7L. I got 7.4L out when I did mine. If you don't drain the cooler then that fluid will still be there and mix with the new fluid u put in.

Whoa.... how long have you been sitting on that nugget? Lol... I'm probably just blind

That will definitely make getting the proper level that much easier, shame we can't stick a dip stick in it... or would fabricating a dipstick on the fill plug work?

I found it while looking at some drawings on Ford transmission last year. :lol:. Since then I've noticed a few other people who knew about it here and there.

I'm not sure a dipstick would work out of the fill level plug (or at all, really). With the proper amount of fluid, the fluid should be right at the bottom of the hole and just barely dripping out.

I know I seen the SSP transmission pan with a dip stick a few times.

Level check plug location

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/345/19204033.jpg

^ score... gone are the days of measuring your fluid to get the level right

curious i was doing some reading of other forums and it says the trans temp has to be 40ish degrees celcius to check the level via this bolt....

does it really matter? as long as you let the fluid settle should be fine right?

Ummmm never heard about the trans temp lol... There is a fill bolt to make sure u fill it up if u don't measure how much u take out.

The fill bolt method is to fill it up till it pours out. put bolt back, start car and run it through the gears, then turn car off and open bolt and fill again until it pours out, this is to make sure the fluid gets to both chambers (odd/even side) and through the cooler lines (it might need to be up to that temp so that the thermostat kicks on the pump to fill these lines).

yeah i just dumped in approx what i drained out... wanted to pull the level check plug just to be certain i got the right amount

figure after letting it cool down after driving should be sufficient?

Gotta remember to do this for next time!

How many transmission drain plugs are there for the 2010 Ralliart??

3 or 2 on the bottom i believe. My 2011 only had 2. Easy to spot as they are black vs the bare metal casing.

Allen heads too can't miss them

I will be doing this for the first time as soon as my fluid and filter come in. My car doesn't sound as bad as yours was I have 52k miles but it does shift hard at times and a few other things you mentioned I figured this will help. Only thing is I don't know if it's already on here I didn't look through all the replys but what do you torque the drian bolts and filler bolt to??

25.8 +/- 3.5 ft lbs {thumbup}

don't like taking the bumper off. they never seem to go back on just right. everything else will be helpful when the time comes.

i see that some places selling the tcsst filters like SSP or Fred Beans online. they include the filter housing with the filter. is it necessary to change the housing or can you still use the oem one?

found the filter just for $37!

http://shop.kozmicmotorsports.com/ko...i-1756454.aspx

The one I got from SSP was just the filter and new O-ring.

After doing this today I learned a couple things like an idiot I got a drain bucket that wasn't deep at all and the fluid comes out too fast and it splashed everywhere!! So make sure you get one like he shows. Another thing is trying to get gallons of mineral oil is a pain you can only get it in small amounts at the hardware stores I had to order them even after calling a feed store. Besides that it was nice and smooth