I can't find a dipstick for this: do I need new glasses or does it not have one?

It's a white plastic thing with ATF on it. Look down the left side of the battery box under the air intake.

Also when you check the level make sure car is warm and runing and car is on Neutral.

Also when you check the level make sure car is warm and runing and car is on Neutral.

I found Neutral or Park doesn't seem to matter. As long as the car is on level ground and is warm.

Do a search and you might find the link to the Magna service manual that someone kindly made available, it's worthwhile to have.

However it may embolden you to dismantle your car........

Thanks everyone for the advice. Car (2005 ES) has done 53k, was serviced 3 days ago by local Mitsi dealer, but has never had a trans. service. Oil level is half way up the dipstick, about 6" higher than the mark.

It has been changing a bit funny -some flaring on upshifts -and doesn't seem crisp in changing.

Wouldn't you have thought they would have checked the trans when servicing?

Can anyone suggest a good auto. box specialist in Adelaide? I'm not inclined to take it back to the dealer.

Thanks everyone for the advice. Car (2005 ES) has done 53k, was serviced 3 days ago by local Mitsi dealer, but has never had a trans. service. Oil level is half way up the dipstick, about 6" higher than the mark.

It has been changing a bit funny -some flaring on upshifts -and doesn't seem crisp in changing.

Wouldn't you have thought they would have checked the trans when servicing?

Can anyone suggest a good auto. box specialist in Adelaide? I'm not inclined to take it back to the dealer.

The manual will probably state transmission fluid changes every 100,00kms or so. It needs to be changed every 30,000kms or so, otherwise you will get flaring and clunking which will lead to gearbox failure. Have it flushed ASAP.

Yes, that's exactly what it says, and I thought I was being careful checking it at 53k. I'm disgusted to think that I've been driving using brown ATF. Will be changing it ASAP and keeping a close eye in future.

i tried park and neutral in my car (KE diamante-manual said use neutral) and in park it read way overfull, in neutral it read correct ( three quarters full). just my experience, but use neutral just incase.

Get the trans fluid changed yearly (forget kilometres) and have a very large trans cooler fitted.
I don't like flush machines, they can and do cause problems. It's very easy to do in your driveway, follow the FSM instructions.
The main reason these cars are so hard on fluid is they are a very compact box and the stock coolers are barely adequate. An auto trans can't have too much cooler, just buy a big RV/towing one.
Nulon make a synthetic fluid to suit these auto boxes, a very worthwhile upgrade and will allow trans drain intervals to be safely extended to factory mileage.
Oh, and fit an inline filter to one of the cooler lines. You won't notice much difference from any of this now, but when your car hits 250k and still has the original trans, you'll love them!

Regards, Andrew.

Typhoon,

Any details or pics of the inline trans fluid filter you suggest be fitted on the cooler lines - hadn't heard of this, but as I have a KJ (thus the spin-on filter was deleted) I am liking the idea.....

Nulon make a synthetic fluid to suit these auto boxes, a very worthwhile upgrade and will allow trans drain intervals to be safely extended to factory mileage.

Have you used the nulon oil in the trans yet?

the sp3 fluid i get from mitsi is synthetic. i have the spinon filter, but wonder if adding the inline one would help. could you use a inline fuelfilter-the cheap plastic ones? the clear ones would be great for keeping an eye on fluid colour. would they flow enough??

Gday all

I recently flushed by auto box in my TE auto. I went to check the ATF fluid (when warm), with the car idling in neutral, and the dipstick reads erratically... I insert it one way and it will read differently on both sides. Insert it 180 degrees to first time and it reads differently again. I decided to check it with the dipstick writing pointing to the front of the car. I added a bit of fluid to bring it halfway between the |HOT| marks. There seems to be a three second delay between shifting from drive to reverse of vice versa, but it was there before I flushed the tranny

Gday all

I recently flushed by auto box in my TE auto. I went to check the ATF fluid (when warm), with the car idling in neutral, and the dipstick reads erratically... I insert it one way and it will read differently on both sides. Insert it 180 degrees to first time and it reads differently again. I decided to check it with the dipstick writing pointing to the front of the car. I added a bit of fluid to bring it halfway between the |HOT| marks. There seems to be a three second delay between shifting from drive to reverse of vice versa, but it was there before I flushed the tranny

Follow a re-learn procedure.

Disconnect the battery for 10 secs. Reconnect the battery.

Start the car in N.

Leave it for 3 seconds, then change to D. Leave it for 3 seconds, then back to N. Repeat this step 5 or so times.

Do the same as above, but go from N to R. Repeating 5 or so times.

Thanks for your reply.

I forgot to mention I have already tried that twice now, no success.

Cheers