I was planning on changing it myself, but my friends and I did not have experience changing the ATF so I changed the ATF at auto shop. They did a tranmission flush and put synthetic ATF into it. It costed me around $300.

Thanks for providing information to me so I will know how to do it myself in the future.

 

ark_royal, if the shop you took it to put anything other than DIA Queen J2 fluid in your Outlander, rush back there and demand they drain and refill with the factory fluid. I did some research into this before changing my fluid. No one on the marker with synthetic automatic transmission fluid has produced an acceptable substitute for the factory fluid. I even checked with Red Line Oils, one of the most respected aftermarket oil vendors with a large variety of high quality synthetic oils. They told me not to mess around with substitutes. These transmissions cost too much to mess around with a generic synthetic fluid. Be warned in advance, many transmission shops use a base fluid to which they add oil modifiers to make it compatible with specific brands of cars. This will not work for replacing DIA Queen J2 fluid. It works for older Mistubishi fluids but not the one in our cars. If the shop told you otherwise, they ripped you off and you are risking severe damage to your transmission.

 

Hope that you are right because I really did not do any research. They were using the BG products. I am living in mid-Missouri where Mitsubishi dealers are at least 100 miles away (I got my outlander in kansas city). The closest and most often place i go is St. Louis... I have seen them putting the BG advertisements in the service department so I dunno what transmission fluid they use.

So, one quick question, where do you guys buy the DIA Queen J2 fluid?

 

I bought mine from my local mitsubishi dealer - not sure you can buy it from anywhere else, but I may be wrong. It's not cheap either - mine cost approx $12 per quart and I bought 9 quarts.

 

I bought my DIA Queen J2 from a local dealer for $10.00 a quart. I have seen it on Ebay for about $12.00 a quart.

 

sorry to quote you on this one, but this is exactly why i did the change myself. $300 for ATF change is robbery. my mitsubishi dealer is asking around $160+ for the service. now this is about right because the ATF Dia Queen itself sells $9+/qt x 10 plus labor and shop cost. I think they should replace that rubber o-ring too.

Mitsubishi is VERY specific. ONLY Diaqueen J2 ATF, nothing else! Other fluids can and will be used as grounds for voiding your warranty.

Yep, I would give them a call and verify. you don't want a prematurely worn transmission after you have paid that much money for the service and end up paying for the repair yourself in the end.

 

Some old threads just need some resurrection once in a while.

It was time for my 2nd ATF change and called up the dealership that "changed" my fluid the last time...but this time, there was a different service manager. I asked her how the fluid was to be changed, while I was looking at the service manual instructions. They only charge $139 for just pulling the drain plug & refilling. I asked what I got last time..."drain & fill". S.O.B.!!!

So I bought just the oil, saved myself $10, and I know that all the old fluid is pretty much gone. Thanks to this thread, I pulled both hoses directed into an anti-freeze bottle.

Just a few notes. I let the engine run until the fluid out of the hose was not too productive...once you do this, you'll know what I mean. When I went to drain out the transmission from the drain plug...I got one drip. I put 4 quarts into the fill hole, then started the engine again. I let it flow out of the hose until the fluid changed from burned to bright pink. I then added 4 more quarts and was lucky that I landed right where I should.

It drives so much better now. Very glad I got it done today. Its also one thing to have a good service manual...it is also great to have others relate the same job for others.

 

What procedure are you guys using to drain and fill your transmission? Is it for the CVT too? I read the shop manual and nowhere could I find the oil cooler drain trick. My truck has only 1100 miles but I would like to keep this in my bag of tricks when it needs to be done. F#$k The Dealer!

 

Depending on your vehicle depends on how you change it. what year and transmission do you have?

 

DIA Queen J2 $10.23 qrt. Mitsubishiparts.net .Also has CV fluid.