how am i supposed to add automatic transmission fluid in an 88 s4 auto?

and im not going to get under a car supported by a jack, and im not going to get under a running car without it being raised. this is quite the dilemma.

 

You need to get the car up in the air on jackstands.

The reservoir is on the passenger side of the tranny, and the filler hole is on top towards the front of the reservoir.

A 17mm ratcheting wrench will help to get the cap off if its stuck. Pull out the screen or it will take your hours to add the ATF. Get a pump from your local auto parts store, the kind that screws right onto the ATF bottle.

Get the car up to operating temps, then get it in the air, and remove the filler cap and screen, and run the pump line from your already opened bottle of ATF into the reservior. Don't pump anything yet. Apply the parking brake, and fire her up. Shift to "2", take a quick peek and make sure that your E-brake is keeping your wheels from turning. Shift to "3", wait about 10 seconds, shift to "D", wait, etc. through all of the gates. When you're back to Park. shut down the engine, get under the car where you can see the front of the reservoir and start pumping in fluid until you are inbetween the "Min" and "Max" line on the reservoir. Do the process again until the ATF level doesn't drop below the "Min" line.

Let us know how it goes, good luck!

 

here in lies my problem. i only have 2 jackstands, first of all, and second, where do i put them under the car? the jack takes up the entire area where it is ok to lift the car up. is there another place where i am able to put the stands?
thank you

 

One way that works well for me is to drive the front wheels on ramps. Then jack the car using the back crossmember. Put jackstands under the jack points in front of the back wheels. Make sure the car is level.

Done right, you can safely go under the car while an assistant sits in it while it's idling in neutral.

The whole procedure should be done rather rapidly before the tranny gets hot.

Be careful of moving or hot parts.

Paul

 

JackOhSax,

If you don't have a floor jack, you'll need to buy one. The car jack is only ment to repair a flat tire. There are only 5 approved jacking points on the car; side fronts, side rear, and the center of the rear crossmember. This jacking is detailed in the Shop Manual.

You can jack from either front side jacking points to raise the rear enough to place a jack stand on the rear side jacking points.

You can also jack from the rear crossmember, and at the same time place two jackstands, one on each, under the rear side jacking points.

It's quite easy to place 4 jack stands on the car at the same time. First jack the rear sides one at a time and place jackstands on the front sides. Then jack the rear cross member and place jackstands under the rear side jacking points.

 

I have a mirror on the end of a stick that I use to check the ATF level without lifting the car. Get down on the ground in front of the right rear tire with a flashlight and look at the little window on the front of the ATF reservoir. You may have to wipe it off with a rag first. For relatively mess-free filling, I use a hand pump fitted with a Briggs&Stratton lawn mower gas cap (available at Home Depot $5). I made a hole in the cap for the pump hose. This way I don't have to remove the strainer on the ATF reservoir and risk crud falling in. Wear leather gloves to keep from burning your hands on the exhaust.

 

My driveway is slightly sloped, as you can see in my avitar. I back the 928 up the Pep-boys ramps which are set downhill of the car. This raises the rear, levels the car, and gives me room to get under a safely supported car.

Actually, I have to run the front wheels onto a pair of 2X6's at the same time to get things perfectly level, but you get the idea.

In a pinch you could get about the same effect with a few boards and a sidewalk.

 

Sax,

My personal favorite for this oh-so-annoying task is the pressurized garden sprayer. Available at youre local hardware store for ~$25.

Get a model that has a flexible head and/or fit the output end with flex tubing. You can fill the "sprayer" with the correct amount of ATF, then pressurize the sprayer and fill to the appropriate level with the engine running. Be sure to get the filler tube firmly in the resevoir.

If you approach the car from the passenger rear on a flat surface, there really should be no need to get the car up in the air at all, IF you can reach the filler cap. You don't even need to get your head far under the bumper, let alone up near the resevoir.

A flashlight to shine on the resevoir to check the level as it goes is very helpful and keeps you from having to get up close to see what is going on with the wonderfully opaque resevoir tank.

I do like Steve's tank cap, would make the garden sprayer almost into a 'powerbleeder' setup. Except you control the fluid flow with a valve on the garden sprayer.

Greg