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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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