Kizashi Club

So I recently performed the 60K maintenance.

Replaced:

Plugs
Brake Fluid
Cvt Fluid
Diff Fluid
Transaxle Fluid
Oil
Cabin Filter

As a avid DIY person I really enjoy the ease of servicing the kizashi.

Only strange thing that I can't explain and hope others have some insight on, is the CVT fluid.

All the service literature states it takes about 8.3 liters. And so I bought 9 liters at around 20 bucks a pop.

When I drained the cvt fluid, only about 4 liters came out.

Now I can understand some fluid being held up in lines/cooler and what not, but 4 liters????

So I just replaced what came out and the level was right back where I started, but now I have spare CVT fluid LOL.

I know not to many owners have hit the 60K mark yet. And of those most have probably had a mechanic change the CVT fluid.

Any insight would be helpful.

A vast majority of the fluid is held captive in the torque converter. The only way to get all of it out in a single service is a closed loop powered flush. This is how it's done in a conventional auto trans. I have not been able to find out if it possible and/or adviseable (or not) to perform this type of fluid exchange in a CVT. The only other method is multiple drain and fills over a narrow period of time to replace 'most' of the fluid.

Funnily enough our 2004 Suzuki XL-7 5 spd auto trans when drained only loses 4 litres too. All I've done is change it on three successive service intervals (my intervals are 7500km) to allow for the retained fluid.

I've heard some bad things about the "IV" type flushes causing problems. So I save money, invest in quality synthetic oil and use the DIY approach. It's running perfectly at 105000km. All the Suzuki workshop manual directs for my XL-7 is to drain the pan for a fluid "change", no fancy IV transfusion.

Ronzuki is right. The remaining fluid is in your torque converter. It holds a lot of fluid.

murcod wrote:I've heard some bad things about the "IV" type flushes causing problems.

As with any service that is performed, if done incorrectly, problems arise. I've been using the 'IV method' for a long time on multiple vehicles w/ stellar results. In fact when we had our 08 SX4, I had called ASMC and talked to them about performing a flush before hand to verify there were no issues on their end and to confirm there would be no future warranty issues. They blessed the process and specifically mentioned the BG flush system as their preference. Perfect, that's the system the GMC dealer I frequent for these types of things uses. Now that ASMC is done here, I have no one to contact (that would give a crap) regarding the CVTs in both of my cars.

IIRC the problems I read about related to the loosening of "gunk" in the box internals, which subsequently lodged elsewhere. It was probably a case of a high mileage transmission that had never been cared for. Locally that type of service is only advertised by small companies and some of the claims using only their "special fluids" are very suss.
If it's manufacturer approved then no worries.

murcod wrote:IIRC the problems I read about related to the loosening of "gunk" in the box internals, which subsequently lodged elsewhere. It was probably a case of a high mileage transmission that had never been cared for. Locally that type of service is only advertised by small companies and some of the claims using only their "special fluids" are very suss.
If it's manufacturer approved then no worries.

Very true and entirely the case in some instances. My GMC dealer informs folks of this possible situation with neglected transmissions. In some cases it has saved owners from needing to junk a vehicle w/ an inoperable trans that isn't worth spending the $$$ to tear down and rebuild. The chemicals BG's system uses dislodges and disolves the gunk thereby enabling the system to flush it all out.

think ima just let the dealer do the cvt for me, everything else i can do. not tryna run into issues lol

you might want to think about that one....when I asked the zuk dealer what their process was to service the SX4's auto, the service manager stated they'd drop the pan, change the filter and fill'er back up. I said, oh OK, thanks and hung up. Yeah, OK, the SX4 4 spd auto has no pan and does not have a serviceable filter. That conversation is what prompted me to call ASMC directly in the first place. Went to the GMC dealer and did the flush.

Still have no clue what to do w/ the CVTs other than multiple drains and fills which is going to get pricey w/ the cost of the CVT fluid.

I am just curious, nowhere in the Kizashi manual does it state that the CVT fluid ever needs to be replaced, only inspected for proper fluid levels.