It’s been quite a while since I’ve changed the oil in the Trans Am, actually a year, but since it has an oil leak I wasn’t too worried. This weekend I decided to officially change the oil, filter, and the transmission fluid as well. I also had the idea I would change the rear differential fluid, but I never got around to that.
It took a while to get it all jacked up as there isn’t much room for the jack to fit as the car is so low. But I got it up on ramps and jack stands.
The oil change went fine, it’s pretty trivial, though I still have an oil leak. The hardest part was changing the transmission fluid.
GM was kind to give the six speed manual (6M) both a fill hole and a drain plug. Once I got all the fluid out, I had to fill it. That was a chore as there isn’t much room under the car. I had a 6 inch hose that I was using but after 30 minutes, I had only put in half a quart out of four! So I stopped for the evening until I could go to Lowes to get a 5 foot hose.
I used this hose to pump the Mobil 1 ATF fluid into the tranny. Yes, you read that right, I put ATF into my manual transmission. That’s what is supposed to go in there. 
Here’s the fill hole of the tranny, it’s a pain to get to.
It’s all done now. Next stop is to replace the rear differential fluid and gasket. Oh, and I can’t forget the limited slip additive so the rear end doesn’t chatter. Actually that’s not all that needs to get done with the car I have a laundry list of todos:
- fix driver’s side window
- replace driver’s side door panel
- fix headlight motors
- replace passenger side fender
- etc
