cvt fluid change [SOLVED]

2445 Views 24 Replies 7 Participants Last post by dave21LX, 9 d ago

anarky321

can someone recommend a good guide to do this? need to change the fluid + filter in 2020 Rio cvt, have the parts already

edit: fluid and filter changed, see below for details

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dubber09

· #21 · 11 d ago

Good to hear all went well!
In my experience - if someone asks a lot of questions - that means they have no clue about the thing.

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dave21LX

· #22 · 10 d ago

Crittercups said:
Could you tell me where the drain plug is? If I’m being honest I didn’t look very hard.
I figure that would be easy enough to find but it’s the fill plug that’s probably in a bad spot. I honestly thought it would be one plug and I’d need a pump to get the fluid out.

Here is a pic of the transmission oil pan on my Rio. Please realize that I haven't done this with the Rio. I have done it with many other cars, though, and with all of them you would drain fluid and access the filter by removing all the bolts holding the oil pan to the transmission, which releases fluid and allows access to the filter. You reattach the oil pan with a new gasket, and bring the fluid level back up to full.

It appears to me that maybe the hex head (located at the bottom left of my picture) may be a drain plug on the Rio's oil pan. Not sure, though. As I understand it, there is a refill plug at the top of the transmission which you could access by removing the air filter box. Not sure about that, either, though.

The problem I see with this is refilling the fluid to spec. There is no dipstick. I guess the procedure requires using a scan tool to make sure the trans oil is at a specific temperature, then adding fluid until it begins to come out of a weep hole. I have also heard of other people simply measuring how much fluid came out, then replacing the exact same amount (at the same temperature) back into the transmission.

Note the sticker on the bottom of the transmission which says "Warning - Do not change the oil". Maybe it would be best to not change it until it is beyond factory warranty. As for me, I'm not going to do anything with it until the warranty is up, and I have clearer understanding of the process and tools to ensure a perfect fluid level. Maybe a good YouTube explanation will be available by then!

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nyairguard

· #23 · 9 d ago

Best answer yet

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Crittercups

· #24 · 9 d ago

dave21LX said:
Here is a pic of the transmission oil pan on my Rio. Please realize that I haven't done this with the Rio. I have done it with many other cars, though, and with all of them you would drain fluid and access the filter by removing all the bolts holding the oil pan to the transmission, which releases fluid and allows access to the filter. You reattach the oil pan with a new gasket, and bring the fluid level back up to full.

It appears to me that maybe the hex head (located at the bottom left of my picture) may be a drain plug on the Rio's oil pan. Not sure, though. As I understand it, there is a refill plug at the top of the transmission which you could access by removing the air filter box. Not sure about that, either, though.

The problem I see with this is refilling the fluid to spec. There is no dipstick. I guess the procedure requires using a scan tool to make sure the trans oil is at a specific temperature, then adding fluid until it begins to come out of a weep hole. I have also heard of other people simply measuring how much fluid came out, then replacing the exact same amount (at the same temperature) back into the transmission.

Note the sticker on the bottom of the transmission which says "Warning - Do not change the oil". Maybe it would be best to not change it until it is beyond factory warranty. As for me, I'm not going to do anything with it until the warranty is up, and I have clearer understanding of the process and tools to ensure a perfect fluid level. Maybe a good YouTube explanation will be available by then!

View attachment 128873

Yeah I was going to do it by measuring how much fluid came out and putting the same amount back in. It’s just the location of the fill plug that I’m unsure of. I wish they would just include a full schematic with your owners manual but all these car companies are anti repair.
Thanks for your reply.
I found a shop that will flush it for 200$ So I’m just gonna do that since on my own it would cost 140, I wouldn’t even be able to do a flush but only a drain and fill. So for 60 more they can do it.

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dave21LX

· #25 · 9 d ago

Crittercups said:
Yeah I was going to do it by measuring how much fluid came out and putting the same amount back in. It’s just the location of the fill plug that I’m unsure of. I wish they would just include a full schematic with your owners manual but all these car companies are anti repair.
Thanks for your reply.
I found a shop that will flush it for 200$ So I’m just gonna do that since on my own it would cost 140, I wouldn’t even be able to do a flush but only a drain and fill. So for 60 more they can do it.

Here is a link to a video of a guy doing this on a Soul with the same transmission we have in our Rios. He shows how to access the fill plug, but not the weep hole:

$140 sounds very very expensive for a DIY job. Why do you expect it to cost that much?

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