Potential ATF fluid disaster -- Can broken plastic pieces in ATF fluid harm the transimission? (1 Viewer)

[onemudder]

I Was trying to refill through the ATF fill tube and noticed that the ATF fluid was not going down easily as usual.
The fill tube would not accept much fluid at the same time causing immediate overflows on just my initial quart.
I was limited to around 3 tablespoons down every five seconds before the tube would start to back up.

Prior to this I drained around 2.5 quarts from the trans pan plug. So on refilling I

stopped pouring and pulled the funnel out only to find out the year tip of the funnel broken and a chunk of it missing ( see pictures).

I freaked out a bit thinking that could very well be why it was not taking a reason reasonable amount of ATF during the fill.
I just thought that the funneled tip was fairly narrow, and and the ATF simply was not flowing through quick enough so I thought I'd just take my time to get it filled.
But now seeing the missing piece of the tip, I'm thinking the slow refilling was from a piece of this funnel obstructing the flow.

I took a boroscope and decided to carefully probe the tube-- it is one with a light at one end and connects to my iphone.

I did not see anything on the way down, moving very slowly. I got it as far as it could (around 22 inches) with 1/4" camera lens / head, before hitting a narrowing of the tube hitting the stepped down graduation. (see photo).

On the way down with the boroscope it did take a slow turn before traveling further down so I did manage to get beyond the curved portion of the ATF fill tube.

So at 22 inches, I’m wondering if I should basically be at the pan level where I could next to the PITA work of removing the pan from below and inspect there and hope to find the piece there.

Kills me to think that It is also possible that the funnel was broken before this refill attempt in which case there would be no piece and certainly no peace of mind because God only knows where the tip could potentially have broken.

Free Tip: Never buy dollar tree funnels for fluid changes on our cruisers. The ATF filled tube is fairly narrow, and it was tough to find and narrow one other than my wife’s one that she uses in the kitchen. (!). Probably a good idea to carefully put a stainless steel screen in the fill tube. Who knows. I suppose the ATF filter in the pan is designed to catch things like this.

** Failing the any ideas on the next step I would like to know whether the pieces of broken plastic would do harm to the transmission. Guessing it would get ground to bits by the gears and not really do any damage to the transmission. The funnel piece that broke off must be extremely Dollar Tree brittle.

So frustrating. Any opinions would be great. -- Thinking of doing nothing because, apart from harmless(?) brittle plastic, I'm not even sure the pieces are down there to begin with. Ugh.

 

[Mike NXP]

Bump to help but I have no idea what to do for this.

 

[UZJ100LC]

I would think the metal mesh screen would protect the transmission and the broken piece would just be in the pan, maybe even fall out with a fluid change or two. I am not 100% sure on this, but there must be a reason why there is a screen in there.

 

[bentonrover]

Run it. I wouldn't lose sleep over it. Let the filter do its job.

 

[onemudder]

Thank you both. I was stressing over this only putting the funnel in only 2 inches, just bought it just for ATF changes, and this happens. Can they make the plastic and more brittle? Thank you again.

 

[abuck99]

If it makes you feel better, drop the pan before you run it and fish out the plastic. Future problems averted.

I can see the plastic softening into a blob from heat cycles and molding itself to the filter body, possibly causing some restriction. Or worse over time breaking apart into fragments and getting pushed into the valve body, clutch pack, who knows where else.

If the valve body gets any debris in it it’s game over- you’ll never get it out.

 

[onemudder]

If it makes you feel better, drop the pan before you run it and fish out the plastic. Future problems averted.

I can see the plastic softening into a blob from heat cycles and molding itself to the filter body, possibly causing some restriction. Or worse over time breaking apart into fragments and getting pushed into the valve body, clutch pack, who knows where else.

If the valve body gets any debris in it it’s game over- you’ll never get it out.

Thanks. Something to definitely think about. Since I'm not even sure that the funnel wasn't chipped from before, I think I'm going to do something in between first. With the boroscope I thought for sure I could see the broken piece caught in the fill tube, but nothing. So, I'm thinking of pulling the drain plug and drain the fresh ATF I just filled from the pan and closely inspect the fluid that came out. Maybe that will tip me off that there would be something actually caught in the filter.

 

[nissanh]

I recently pulled the pan to replace the filter. The poresin the filter strainer is so small even a 0.5 mm piece would NOT pass through the filter. Draining will not help because the drain will only remove 4 quarts while removing the pan will remove 4 more quarts, so draining will not drain everything in the pan.

If you are comfortable, remove the pan and clean it, (if you haven't done it in past 100K miles). If you think some might have gone through the filter (which is unlikely) install a inline filter for about 100 miles to trap any particles that can still pass through the screen in the pan.