manual trans oil

[00stang3.8]

I was wondering about how frequently the oil of a manual trans needs to be changed. I have a '00 3.8 stick that has 63,000 on it and i dont know if the trans oil has ever been changed, I got the car in '03. Is this a hard thing to do? or is it worth the money to take it in and have it done?? also it there anything you can tell by looking at the old oil, such as tranny condition??

thanks alot for any advice.

[Scut95]

If you dont know if it was changed or not, i would just do it to make sure. I just did mine and it was a little brown, i have 68,000 on my car. The drain and fill plugs are in the passenger side of the tranny. Just take a 3/8 ratchet and put it in the hole. It's a perfect fit, they will be tight though so you might hafta put some elbow grease into it. Make sure you can get the fill plug loose first before the drain plug, otherwise you could be screwed. An easy way to fill the tranny is to fill it up throguh the shifter but you would have to take the shifter out to do that, if not just see if you can get it in the fill plug. It's a bit tricky because of the tight space. Good luck

[00stang3.8]

thanks alot for the input but the only thing im worried about is filling it back up? How much do you put in?? How do you know when there is enough in there? and what kind of oil do you use??

[SpectorV]

I would change it every year if you have the area to do it yourself else every other year. It lets you see the fluid and find out if you have any issues before they become major issues. It takes like 3 quarts (maybe 4) of fluid, most run Mercon/Dextron 3 (oem fluid what came in it) you basically pull the drain plug and fill plug and after its drained put the drain plug in and use a little pump to fill up the trans through the fill plug until the fluid starts to run back out of the hole and you are done. Just make SURE the car is on level ground~

[00stang3.8]

alright sounds good, thanks!