Ok so I dumped the transmission oil instead of engine oil, put over 4 liters of new oil in engine,ran engine stationary a few times checking dipstick when rested,anyway next day no reverse as no transmission oil, buy new cvt oil, put in through dipstick hole, hard to get right level as different stick to owners manual, now the first time I try to reverse out my drive it makes it half way(20ft) then roll back to flat spot under carport , try again to reverse just revs and hardly moves ! What do I do ? Tow/trailer to mechanic ? Tried going through p r n d and let idle in park for ten minutes, opened dipstick up to breathe system, dumped fluid again refill to pretty close to right level and the same ! Please help, I know it's my fault and I'm stupid but all advice appreciated !

 

What year and make vehicle do you have, You say you drained the tranny and put oil in the motor!!!!! I don't understand your question. We need to know what make m model you have.

 

Only engine oil in engine ,outlander zg 2.4 2009

 

I did the exact same thing last saturday. No reverse. I then put 7.8 liters of new CVT oil in and bingo. I had reverse again.

I then had to drain out the engine oil as dumped a new 4 liter in on top of the old oil thinking I'd drained the old oil hahaha.

 

Sorry for the archive being dragged up. Funny how history repeats! I did the exact thing today to my 08 Outlander!
A simple check of the dipstick, or even clean of the dipstick would have shown me the problem INSTANTLY!!

Took my other car to Supercheap to get some CVT fluid, and since it was nearly closing, used their system to identify the fluid needed. They had J4 listed, so I bought a bottle.
Poured that in the tube, and it allowed me to reverse back up our driveway and off the road where it had rolled to earlier trying to drive it.

Is J4 going to kill it? I have not moved it again yet. I'm already down almost 5L of engine oil, the original CVT oil, and I don't really want to dump $90 of brand new CVT juice to replace it with $170 of J1..... UGH!!!
I can't find anywhere if J4 is backward compatible.....

Please help another unfortunate person who unscrewed the wrong sump plug

-KegRaider

 

Sorted it out today.

For those interested or suffered the same fate, read on.
I re-drained all the CVT fluid again, and replaced with the Penrite CVTF-J1 from Supercheap Auto. As I had no idea on how much fluid I dumped into the old oil collector yesterday, I don't know if the dipstick was low before hand. I do recall watching the colour and thinking that the engine oil doesn't look all that bad. Was a translucent honey colour, which I gather is not what it's supposed to look like.

The 4L of Penrite CVTF-J4 low viscosity fluid that I mistakenly put in yesterday was a bright green, almost like a coolant colour and smells like cat urine!. As I said, it was used only to reverse back into my driveway after a failed start, so probably 4 metres maximum. I reversed it another 4 metres today into my garage and drained the trans sump of it's green CVTF-J4 fluid. I left it dribble and drip for about 90 minutes before cleaning the bung and the seat it mates on. All looked good there so torqued it up with the guesswork forearm tool.

The newly purchased CVTF-J1 fluid is confronting being a red colour. My heart jumped a few beats at first pour thinking that I'd screwed up again and bought regular tranny fluid!!! Alas no, a check of the 2x 4L bottles confirmed that it was CVTF-J1 fluid, so I then went to Penrite's website and they do say that it's "Red Coloured" https://penriteoil.com.au/assets/pis...ll%20Syn.).pdf. Phew!!!

The manual says 7.8L of fluid, but the dipstick is reading slightly over the middle marker indicating cold full. I checked on a few other sites, Sparesbox say it takes 7.1L. These might be because I didn't change any filters at this stage, and I only put in 6.5L of fluid, but I will see how it goes after a few days light driving.

I'm guessing the Outlander needed a fluid change as the transbox feels a lot smoother through the rev/gear range. First gear is where the standout difference is. It used to feel like the car was revving and slipping, although it was still accelerating. Now it seems to launch if that makes sense. I had my neighbour pop his scan tool on the car and clear the low 2nd oil pump pressure, and it hasn't returned after a 35km sedate drive.

Anyway, my worries are at ease, the car isn't dead and I'll book it in for a full CVT service in a month. No doubt the Mitsy dealership will rip me a new one for the red colour, but hey, the car is 15 years old with 180,000km's on the clock. I think it's lasted very well!

-KegRaider.
PS. Oh, I did need to get the neighbour to clear the codes with his scan tool, as the MIL light was still on. Once he cleared it, I cycled through the gears a few times, car was at 86 degrees C in the garage. I checked the dipstick level again, just on the groove cut in the top of the triple markers. That's when I took it out for the 35km trip, 100km/h for about 2 minutes on a motorway. The rest was 70km/h and less.