ATF drain plug
 

I have 46000kms on our 2007 Outlander now. According to the manual, the ATF should be serviced at around 48000kms. I bought 4 liters of Diaqueen J2 (and paid enough to put a kid through college) with the intention of doing a drain and refill. Just want to confirm the drain plug is the hex head bolt facing out the side of the transmission. If anyone has a diagram it would be appreciated. Does that bolt have a crush washer? I've been doing drain/refills on our Sienna yearly since I tow a large trailer with it, but haven't worried about the outlander until now.

im close to 40kms with an 08 outlander so I will be doing this as well soon.

Let me know if you have any adivce, I know there is a post on here somehwere re: ATF plug with pics.

I'm pretty sure there is no drain plug for ATF. I think the procedure is to pull the return line from the cooler in front of the driver's front wheel... There was a thread on it a year or so ago.

Some info
 

http://www.outlander-forum.de/phorum...002600-23A.pdf

seems to indicate two drain procedures. both the hose and a drain on the transmission itself. Page 23A-153 and onward.

The drain plug has a rubber washer.
If you remove it, do NOT tighten it to the torque specified in the workshop manual - it is far too tight and you will strip the threads.
I found that if you follow the manual and drain the fluid from the cooler (p 23A-153, steps 1&2) then within less than a minute you should have drained approx 5 litres of ATF and there will be next to nothing left in the pan. Top up with the same amount you removed and then follow steps 5 onwards. This way you can avoid removing the drain plug.
There was a post about it last year and myself and a couple of others all found that it was very easy to strip the threads on the plug, even if using a torque wrench and following the manual.
4 litres will not be enough - you will need at least double that. It is expensive, but there is no cheap alternative.

Done
 

I ran the outlander up on the ramps and did a drain/fill (this is not a complete flush, nor complete exchange of the fluid). It was easier than my sienna. I undid the drain plug on the bottom of the transmission (14mm socket) and allowed the fluid to drain until it stopped dripping. A total of 3.2 liters came out (I use a pitcher with level markings to catch the fluid) and I put 3.2 liters back into the dipstick tube after replacing the plug.

Thanks for the word of caution on the drain plug. It has an o-ring on the threadless portion of the bolt by the head. The drain hole on the transmission is flared out at the opening for the o-ring to seal into. i installed it by hand and you can feel the 0-ring engage about 1 turn from metal to metal contact. I tightened it slighly more(estimate 4-5 lb/ft) and left it at that. 10 minutes start to finish. I'll probably start doing this yearly (around 8-10k miles/hear driven) like I do with the Sienna.

Glad you did it ok. Certainly easy just to drain some from the plug, although as you know, you will have only drained approx a third of the total fluid. However, I guess if you are going to do it each year, then that should be ok. If you had done a full drain using the hose from the fluid cooler, you would have replaced approx 9 litres. You would only need to change then approx every 3-4 years.
I think the amount you tightened the plug sounds correct - it certainly shouldn't be as tight as the manual says. I marked my plug with a hammer and chisel and for the first few weeks just felt it weekly to check not coming loose - it was fine.

Drain plug torque
 

While looking for the o-ring specs for the transmission drain plug, I stumbled upon the proper torque specs for the plug. 65 in-lb. 7.4 Nm.

Thanks for the torque settings. There is obviously a misprint in the manual in section 00-66 where it specifies a torque of 32nm!! This is why people are stripping the threads!

I changed my transmission oil by removing the top hose from oil cooler(according the manual) and make sure you have extra hose about 2 feet long(I kept it for next trans. oil change) and put on the pipe of the oil cooler and tight with hose clamp and the end hose put in a clear jug so that you can see how much oil came out for me about 4.5 liters.On the drain plug I used 14mm socket and came out about 0.5 liter make sure HAND TIGHT ONLY!!!DONT FOLLOW THE MANUAL!!!! I used 5 liters or 5 bottles of oil and my transmission oil was cleaned and red.I bought the oil at scarborough dealer 15 dollars per bottle and for 5 bottles almost 75 dollars plus tax for me to much expensive but still I saved a lot of money rather than to bring to the dealer... right now 60,000km and next trans.oil change 120,000km. THanks

I did this job back in November and uploaded some pictures showing the drain location at the bottom of the post.
It really is pretty simple and will be doing this yearly in the fall instead of the full flush every 2 years. Thanks for the warning on stripping the drain plug.

Mitsubishi Outlander Transmission Drain & Fill « Chris Ness – Amsoil Independent Dealer – Mississauga, Ontario