How to Change EVERY FLUID in your Car or Truck (Oil, Transmission, Coolant, Brake, and More)

hey guys chris fix here and today i'm going to show you how to replace every single fluid in your vehicle so whether you have a luxury car a muscle car a pickup truck an suv a normal passenger car a compact car or a convertible after you're done watching this video you're gonna know how to replace every fluid in your car at home with common hand tools this video will cover how to change engine oil transmission fluid power steering fluid engine coolant brake fluid rear differential fluid transfer case fluid washer fluid and finally we're going to force out all the old grease and add brand new grease to all the grease points on our suspension and if you're wondering how often you should replace your fluids and what type of fluid and how much you need we'll grab your owner's manual and let me show you now we're going to want to head to the back to the maintenance and specifications section and as you can see it lists the different types of fluids in your vehicle the specific fluid you should use and also the capacity the amount of fluid that you're going to need and some owner's manuals even have a page like this that it tells you how many miles that you need to change specific fluids at so it gives you the interval for example we have the oil right here it tells you to change it every 5 000 miles and then the coolant right there it tells you to replace every 45 000 miles so this will give you a good idea on when you should replace your fluids all right so now let's get started replacing all the fluids and the first thing we need to do is lift up the vehicle if you have a lift that's awesome definitely use it in this case we don't have a lift we have a jack and jack stands and that's what i'm going to be using we're going to lift the front and then we're going to lift the rear so let's get started first thing you want to do is chalk off the rear wheels and we're going to pull the e-brake so the car doesn't move next let's slide the jack under the front of the car and we want to jack up under the cross member which could easily support the weight of the car as we lift it so jack the car up as high as you can so we can get under and change all the fluids comfortably now you want to grab your jack stand and look underneath the vehicle for the frame rail and to find the frame rail on your car just look for this large metal piece that runs from the front all the way down to the back so get the jack stand underneath the frame rail like that and i have our other jack set up as well then we can slowly lower the car onto the jack stands and remove the jack from the front so with the front of the car safely lifted up now we're gonna come to the back slide the jack under the car and back here we're gonna lift it up from the rear differential just make sure the jack is centered on the differential so it doesn't slide off as you lift it and as you jack up the car keep an eye on the front jack stands to make sure they're not tilting or sliding and as we lift up the rear you want to get it lifted up high enough so the car is level just like that so at the car level in the rear we need to find a spot to put the jack stand this right here is metal on the frame but i don't think it's thick enough i'd rather get something thicker and a little bit sturdier there is a giant piece of subframe metal right there that is thick and sturdy and that'll be safe so let's slide the jack underneath the car get it under that thick metal subframe and then let's slowly lower it down onto the jack stands just like that and i like to keep the jack resting up slightly against the differential as extra protection just in case the jack stand fails so there we go now the car is completely lifted off the ground and anytime i lift the vehicle i like double protection so in the back here not only do we have our jack stands but we have the jack holding up the differential just in case and if we come over to the front not only do we have the jack stands under the frame rails but we have ramps underneath the tires you could use ramps you could use wheels whatever you have just have double protection two things to prevent the car from falling on you so if one fails you have backup it's very important you want to make sure you lift your car up safely and another thing i like to do is i like to grab the car shake it back and forth and that feels really sturdy you don't want to wobble you don't want it to shake it should feel solid like it was on the ground and with that the last thing to do is to make sure that this car is level because we're changing the fluids this is very important so let's go under the car and you want to find somewhere flat that you could put your level on like the frame rail right here or the oil pan and as you can see our bubble is right in the middle which means our car is level so it's very important make sure you do that step especially when you're changing your fluids make sure it's level because if it's not your car is going to be tilted one way or the other and when you're changing your oil or transmission fluid differential fluid basically every fluid in your car requires your car to be level in order to get an accurate reading so you could fill it to the proper level otherwise you could under fill it or overfill it and that wouldn't be good so with that we are ready to start on our first fluid change now out of all the oils in your car the engine oil has to withstand the toughest conditions which is also why it's the most frequently replaced oil as the oil gets used up it gets more acidic it gets sludgy and it isn't good for the engine it could easily clog up narrow passageways check this out this right here is a variable valve timing solenoid and if you take a closer look there is a fine mesh screen on this that oil has to pass through so if the oil gets sludgy and thick it won't pass through this that might cause you to lose fuel economy lose power and it could trigger a check engine light but that's the least of your worries bad oil doesn't lubricate the engine like it should it could cause increased wear or completely destroy your engine which is an expensive mistake so definitely replace your engine oil at the manufacturer's recommended interval so to do that you just need some oil you need an oil filter which you replace every single time you replace the oil tool wise we have an oil filter wrench we have a ratchet with the correct size socket to remove the drain bolt we have a funnel and an oil catch can so we can catch and recycle the oil and as always grab those safety glasses put them on get some gloves on so you don't touch the oil which isn't good for you and let's get started by replacing the engine oil now the first thing you want to do when replacing the engine oil is come to the top of the engine and remove that oil fill cap what this is going to do is allow air to come in so when you're removing the oil it'll come out quicker and you'll get more oil out now we could go underneath the car and remove the oil drain plug and looking under the car right away you can see the oil filter is right there and then right behind that is the oil pan which holds the oil that we're going to have to drain now moving back a little bit further down the oil pan and that's where the oil drain plug is so let's remove it so get a 16 millimeter socket on there and crack it loose now get your drain pan underneath so we don't leak any oil onto the ground and then we can remove the drain plug the rest of the way beautiful and now we just need to let it drain so now with the oil just dripping out it's pretty much completely drained and we could install our drain plug one thing you want to keep in mind though some drain plugs have a crush washer on them this is an example of a crush washer and if you have one of these you might want to replace it especially if your drain plug was dripping oil in this case our drain plug doesn't use a crush washer so all we need to do is tighten this down by hand and then get your ratchet and tighten it until it's snug and can't easily turn anymore like that then give it a little extra turn to snug it down but don't over tighten it with that done now let's go and replace the oil filter so to remove this get an oil filter wrench and crack it loose like that and with the catch cam below now we can remove the oil filter the rest of the way by hand and do your best not to make a mess and not bad for once i didn't make a mess it's a good idea to take a look at the oil filter housing and make sure that the oil filter gasket isn't stuck on the housing here you can see this is bare metal but if there is a rubber gasket on here you would want to remove it you could also check the old oil filter you can see the gasket stayed with the filter which is exactly what we want now you want to grab your new filter and there's two things we want to do first we want to pre-fill our filter a little bit since this filter is sideways we can't fill it all the way but adding a little oil helps and what that does is that prevents the engine from running dry when you first start it and the second thing we want to do is get some new oil on our finger and then rub it around the perimeter to lubricate the o-ring now we're ready to install our new oil filter and remember this has oil in it so be careful not to spill it everywhere and just line it up and thread it onto the filter housing by hand don't tighten it down with the wrench hand tighten it as much as you can and that way it'll be tight enough to keep it from leaking but make it easy enough to remove next time when you change the oil a little tip which comes in handy is to mark the car's mileage on the filter so you could easily see when it was last changed and with the new filter in now we could go under the hood and add our engine oil and before you add your oil it's very important that you check your owner's manual and make sure you're adding the correct viscosity oil in this case it's said to use 5w20 and i'm using six and a half quarts of full synthetic to provide the maximum protection now let's remove the funnel and screw the cap back on and with all the oil added now we need to check the level and make sure we added enough but before we do that we need to run the engine to circulate the oil and make sure we get an accurate reading so start the car and keep an eye on your dash look for any red dash lights that indicate there might be low oil you'll see an oil symbol or something like that if that's the case shut your engine off add more oil in this case we have no lights so after a minute we could shut the car and with the engine off you want this to sit for a minute or two and let all that oil drain down into the oil pan so we can get an accurate reading now pull the dipstick out and wipe it off since we ran the engine and when the engine's running oil splashes onto the dipstick so we won't have a good accurate reading then take it out again and now we can check the level so there's the minimum and there's the maximum and we want our level to be close to the maximum and check it out we filled it perfectly to the end of the crosshatch area at the max line and the last thing we need to do to finish this oil change is to recycle our old oil i like to use the oil jug we just emptied and fill that up with used oil and this works well because you could cap it off and now your oil is ready to be recycled and this is a very important step all the fluids i'm changing in this vehicle today will all be recycled so that we can keep our environment clean your town's recycle center your local mechanic and some parts stores will take your old oils and recycle them for free so with that we are done replacing the oil and the next fluid i'm going to show you how to replace is the transmission fluid now the number one killer of transmission fluid is heat heat degrades the fluid it changes the viscosity and over time it could clog up your transmission all these little passageways it could cause your shift solenoids not to shift into certain gears or shift hard it could cause your clutches to slip all bad things and transmissions aren't cheap so let's maintain it get good fluid in there so we don't have that issue now when replacing the fluid it's very important to use the correct fluid that's in your owner's manual in this case mircon 5 for this vehicle make sure you're using the correct fluid otherwise you could damage your transmission but this is super easy there's not many tools at all we have a ratchet and socket a pump we have a little adapter because this is a ford transmission and we have our catch can this transmission here is a sealed transmission i know you guys been asking for that for a while so let me show you how to replace this transmission fluid so right at the front is where we just changed our motor oil and since we have a rear-wheel drive car if we look towards the back we have our transmission pan right here and that's the drain plug right there not all transmissions have drain plugs some you need to remove the whole pan to drain the fluid but luckily they made it pretty easy on this sealed transmission so let's loosen the drain bolt and let's drain the trans i also want to get a fluid sample so we could smell and compare this to the new fluid good and now we just wait for this to drain now as we wait i want to show you guys the drain plug because it's a little different and it'll help you understand how we're going to fill the transmission this drain plug is long and it is hollow you can actually see on the bottom here there is a bolt that will remove and that will allow us to pump fluid up into the transmission pan so the transmission pan level is gonna fill all the way up until it hits to the top of this bolt and then fluid will start running out and that's how we'll know it's full it'll make more sense when we actually do it but i just wanted to explain it to help you understand so now with the transmission pan completely drained let's hand tighten the drain plug into place and this plug gets torqued to 22 foot pounds so we won't have any leaks so out with the old transmission fluid and in with the new and look at that color difference the old fluid doesn't smell burnt and it isn't too dark which means it's still in decent shape but it's good we're maintaining the trans by adding some new fluid now we need to figure out how much new fluid we need to add to the transmission and an easy way to do that is to empty the catch can into an old oil jug the oil jug is perfect for this because it has a clear side so we can see how much oil we removed from the trans and therefore how much we need to add back in now not bad about four and a half quarts getting removed from this transmission out of 11 quarts which is pretty good for not doing a flush now the reason why we can't remove all the fluid is because the torque converter holds a bunch of the fluid but that's okay that's why we need to do maintenance like this so it mixes with the old fluid and we have some good fluid in there to maintain our transmission so now let's go and fill up the transmission and to do that we need to remove the inner fill bolt this is a t30 torx and it comes right out then we have our adapter which we want to screw all the way in by hand and finally we have an oil pump and we could take that clear hose on the pump and push it onto the adapter like so and then we could screw the pump directly onto the bottle of the transmission fluid and start pumping it into the transmission this pump works pretty good but expect to spend about 30 seconds pumping this for one quart to get pumped in and with the magic of editing we are almost done filling this up with four and a half quarts so with the transmission filled now you want to start your car and you want to idle between 5 and 10 minutes so the transmission temperature gets between 80 to 120 degrees fahrenheit that's the temperature that this car needs for checking the fluid level all right so it's been about 10 minutes of the engine just idling so now we want to go through each gear go into reverse wait a couple of seconds go into neutral wait a couple seconds into the drive gears make sure you go through each one we could go into the manual mode here go into first gear second gear third gear fourth gear fifth gear and then we could go back into park basically we want all the parts of the transmission to get fluid to it so that's why we do that now we can go back underneath with the car running and see if any fluids coming out so let's remove our hose here and if the fluid is at the proper level it's only going to come out as a little stream or drips and this is looking pretty good and just so you have an idea you can see on the left if it needs more fluid no fluid is going to come out so grab your pump and add more fluid in until it does come out and if you take a look on the right if it's overfilled a steady stream is going to come out so let that drain until it looks like what we have right here and now that we've verified we have the correct amount of fluid let's remove the adapter and screw in the fill bolt by hand now when tightening this up the rest of the way don't over tighten it it's only supposed to get torqued to about eight foot pounds which is not tight at all and with the fill bolt snugged up we have successfully replaced the transmission fluid in a sealed transmission it's that easy and the only special tool we needed was that little adapter so that we could pump the new fluid in and i'll be sure to link it in the description so now you know how to replace the fluid in a sealed transmission but what if your transmission has a dipstick well luckily i have a whole video that goes in depth on how to replace the trans fluid by dropping the transmission pin replacing the transmission filter reinstalling the pan and adding new fluid and i'll link that video in the description so you can easily find it and the next fluid i'm going to show you how to replace is the power steering fluid now power steering fluid over time degrades because of heat and wear particles the wear particles come from the rubber hoses and seals in the power steering system so in order to prevent your power steering pump from getting noisy from the steering getting difficult and ultimately the power steering pump failing it's very important that we replace the fluid this pump right here has over 300 000 miles on it and it still works perfectly fine because i replaced the fluid and replacing the fluid on this is super easy all you need is your power steering fluid or in this case the owner's manual recommends transmission fluid and then you need some type of pump something to suck the fluid out in this case we have a suction pump or a turkey baster or that pump that we used before that's all so let's go get started and the first thing we need to do is find the power steering pump fluid reservoir and in many cases it has a steering wheel on the cat so this right here is the fluid reservoir and anytime you remove a cap it's good practice to clean the surrounding area so you don't get dirt into the reservoir and inside here is a particulate filter which we need to remove and now we can push our fluid pump to the bottom of the reservoir and pump out all the old power steering fluid i'm going to save each fluid each time i pump it out so we could compare it when we're done now with all the fluid removed let's remove the pump then let's fill the reservoir up with some new fluid all the way up to the max fill line and finally we can remove the funnel and put the cap back on so with our reservoir topped off with brand new fluid now what we need to do is turn the steering wheel back and forth to pump that new fluid into the steering rack and pump the old fluid into the reservoir and we'll change out the fluid again so start the car up and then we want to turn our steering wheel all the way to lock and then go back the other way all the way to lock and just do that a couple of times and that's going to pump the old fluid into the reservoir and suck down that new fluid we added so we could get the old fluid out good now let's go shut the car off and pump out the reservoir again so now you're gonna repeat the same process over again pump out the old fluid add new fluid turn the wheels back and forth a few times to circulate the fluid and repeat this as many times as you want i ended up flushing the fluid four times and in total i used about one and a half quarts of fluid to get this looking pretty fresh and remember on your last flush be sure to fill it to the max line and don't forget to reinstall the filter before you tighten the cap down and that's how you replace your power steering fluid it is that simple and just to give you an idea check this out that is brand new power steering fluid that was our first flush second flush third flush and fourth flush and that looks pretty good so we have good fluid in there and our power steering pump is going to last a good long time now i'm going to show you how to replace your engine coolant this is very important coolant prevents the engine from overheating from freezing in the winter and from corrosion there's corrosion inhibitors in coolant and over time they degrade and go bad you don't want that to happen you want to replace it before they go bad otherwise you run into bigger issues like i did with my truck here's the water pump on my pickup truck the previous owner never replaced the coolant and you can see how rusty it is and all the scale and scale prevents good heat transfer that's the whole point of the cooling system so i had to flush the entire system even that didn't work i ended up replacing the radiator the water pump and some other parts and that got the system into better condition but we want to prevent that we don't want to do all that work we want to do like what we did with the jaguar we replaced the coolant at the proper interval and look at how much better that water pump looks compared to the truck that way you don't run into issues and i'm going to show you how to do that right now so you could either use a universal coolant or you could use a more specific coolant for your vehicle either one will work and i highly suggest picking up one of these spill-free funnels it makes filling the coolant a lot easier and it makes bleeding the air out a lot easier so let's begin and the first thing you want to do before you start working on the cooling system is make sure your engine is cool never work on the cooling system with a hot engine coolant is pressurized when it's hot and if you remove the radiator cap you could have hot scalding coolant come flying out all over you and that wouldn't be good so with a cool engine now we're ready to work on the car and you want to find where your radiator is and see if you have a radiator cap in this case the radiators under here there is no cap on this instead we have a coolant reservoir cap which is right back here now most of the time you'll see a pressure listed on your radiator cap or reservoir cap and that's how you could easily identify that this is the right cap to remove so we're going to remove this now with the cap removed air could enter the system as we drain our radiator which will let it drink quicker and hopefully we'll get more fluid out of the system now we're not going to get every single drop of coolant out of here there's going to be coolant left in the block and that's because we're only draining the radiator since we're trying to maintain the system we're not trying to do a complete flush and with that said let's go under the car and let me show you how to drain the radiator now under the front of the car what you want to do is you want to find your radiator which is this right here and at the end of most radiators is a valve this valve also known as a petcock is how you drain your radiator and if you don't have one of these all you have to do is remove the lower radiator hose but this makes it nice and simple and so we don't make a mess what i like to do is i like to get a hose and put it at the end of that valve and i do want to mention this is a plastic valve so be very careful you don't want to break it so get your 19-millimeter socket and break that drain plug free then loosen it the rest of the way by hand and there we go now the coolant is flowing out and i'm going to loosen this up all the way to get it to flow out faster perfect now for the catch can i'm using a large disposable steam table pan and these work perfect for collecting draining coolant once the coolant stops coming out then we can tighten up the drain plug and then lightly snug it up with a ratchet don't over tighten it because this is just made of plastic and it will break good and finally let's remove the hose all right so the next thing you're going to want to do is check the condition of your fluid and this looks really good and i have a sample for you guys to check out compared to the new coolant so out with the old and in with the new and check it out you can see a couple little specks of sediment in there floating around and also this fluid is darker than the brand new fluid but overall this looks really good and that's why we're doing this simple change that way we could add some new fluid to the old fluid get those corrosion inhibitors in there and our cooling system will be well maintained now if you remove your fluid and when you inspect it it looks like this then you have an issue this fluid's all rusty has sediment in it it's cloudy and in this case adding any fluid to that is a waste of time you really need to flush your cooling system and if your system needs a flush because it looks like that don't worry i have a video i'll link in the description that shows you how to super flush your cooling system and get it from looking like this to looking like that but in this case we lucked out we maintain our cooling system so we don't have to flush it we just have to do a fluid change because our fluid looks pretty good now to do a fluid change on this all you need to do is go to your coolant reservoir then grab your funnel in this case i'm using a spill proof funnel and i highly recommend these whenever you're adding coolant it comes with all the adapters that you might need and it makes bleeding the air out of the system super easy so you don't get any overheating problems so just grab the adapters that you need fit that in place and tighten it down and then the funnel just gets pushed right into your adapter and the reason why this works so well is because look at the funnel it is on top of the entire cooling system it's the tallest point nothing is higher than that so any air that's trapped in our system is gonna bubble out through here and any coolant that's in here is gonna get pushed into the cooling system so now let me show you how to fill the cooling system and the question i get asked all the time is what coolant is correct for your vehicle and the answer is just check your owner's manual as always in this case we have two options we have a universal option this works in pretty much every make and model car and then we have a more specific option on here it tells you exactly what vehicles it works with we have a 2005 ford so it works perfectly with our ford plus it has the oem coolant color so that's what i'm going to be using but either one of these would work so now let's go and fill up the cooling system now no matter what coolant you choose make sure you have a 50 50 ratio of coolant to water in this case it's easy because the coolant is pre-mixed so we don't have to add any distilled water to it but they do sell concentrated coolant so pay attention to what you buy okay so now the system isn't taking any more coolant and our funnel is about half full so we're done adding our coolant now let's start the car and we're gonna let it warm up so the engine gets to operating temperature and that thermostat opens up and as the engine's running just keep an eye on your funnel here make sure the coolant is topped off you can see the bubbles coming out which is good the air is getting bled out and you also want to take a look make sure there are no leaks anywhere we'll go under the car make sure there are no leaks down here i don't see anything dripping so we're good and now all we need to do is wait for the engine to warm up and another thing you should keep an eye on is the temperature gauge inside the car you want to make sure that your gauge doesn't go above half towards that h because that means your engine will overheat there's air stuck in there somewhere and if it does that shut it off let it cool down and then we could start it up again another thing to do inside the car is go over to your climate control turn it on and we want to crank the heat all the way up and this opens up the heater control valve which allows the coolant to flow into the heater core and push the air out which you can see is bubbling into our funnel perfect now about 10 minutes later the engine is officially warmed to the operating temperature the thermostat is open and it is hot in here and that's a good sign that means we don't have any air trapped in the heater core but let's just say it's not hot all you have to do to get the air out of the heater core is give it some gas you want to go to about 2 000 rpms and hold it there for about 10 seconds and what that's going to do is that's going to spin that water pump faster and that'll force the air out of the heater core so we're at operating temperature we have heat we're good to go and i haven't seen any bubbles bubbling up into our funnel which means that all the air is bled out of the system now some cars have a little bleeder valve you have to check your owner's manual see if you have one in this case we have a bleeder valve right here and all you need to do for this bleeder valve is unscrew it remove the cap and make sure you have a nice solid stream of coolant coming out which removes all the air from the system and it looks like we didn't even have to do this because our funnel system works so well so finally let's plug our funnel so we can remove it without the coolant spilling out then unscrew and remove the adapters that way we could screw our cap back on all the way to seal the system and it's that easy to change out the coolant and to maintain the cooling system now the last thing to do is to recycle the old coolant by putting it into a sealed container this is very important to do if you have pets because coolant smells sweet and if your pet drinks this it could die so let's cap up this container and we are done [Music] and the next fluid i'm going to show you how to replace is the brake fluid now obviously this is very important to maintain your brake system brake fluid over time absorbs water it's hygroscopic and that means that you could get a lot of corrosion in the brake system if you don't flush out your fluid you could get your brake lines to corrode you could get your caliper to corrode look at these pistons these are the caliper pistons they're all corroded that could cause it to leak it cause your brake caliper to fail and that wouldn't be good but if you do maintain the system check this out nice and clean and smooth that's what it should look like old brake fluid could cause your stopping distance to increase you might have a squishy pedal feel all bad things so let's replace the brake fluid now many cars today use dot 3 or dot 4 brake fluid including this car right here so that's what we're going to be using but check your owner's manual don't use anything except what the owner's manual recommends and then the tools that we need just need a wrench or something to crack the bleeder valve and then have something to collect the fluid this is a 3 8 inch diameter hose and we're going to be using the two person method so let's get started and the first thing you're going to want to do is locate the master cylinder which is found on the driver's side right here so always start by cleaning around the cap and then we could open it up now we need to remove the old fluid from the master cylinder and you could use something as simple as a turkey baster just suck out the old fluid and squeeze it into a catch can or you could get one of these inexpensive vacuum bleeders and then you can just stick this in here and just pull a vacuum and pump that brake fluid out into the catch can it's that easy and check out all the old brake fluid we removed and this is dark good thing we're replacing it why not check this out look at the difference what a difference that is i'm glad we're flushing this system that's probably the original fluid and it really needs it now one thing i want to mention if you get any brake fluid on your paintwork be sure to clean it off with soapy water right away brake fluid will damage your paint and it'll make it look horrible and you wouldn't want that so with that in mind let's fill up our brakemaster cylinder with new fluid using a funnel will make this a lot easier and put a towel under the reservoir to catch any accidental drips then we could top off the master cylinder reservoir with some new fluid and with the master cylinder full we're going to leave it just like that because we're going to have to be adding more fluid in as we flush the brakes so now we're going to go to each individual wheel and flush the brake system at each one what you want to do is you want to start from the furthest wheel from the master cylinder so the master cylinder is there the furthest wheel is the rear passenger after we bleed that and flush all the fluid out then we're going to go to the rear driver's wheel then we'll go to the front passenger and then the front drivers so let's head over to that rear passenger wheel let's start off by carefully removing the center cap cover then we can remove all the lug nuts and i'm using a simple lug nut wrench nothing special and the trick with this is to spin the wrench after you crack the nut loose so you could quickly remove the lug nuts like so then we can remove the tire and slide it under the car for extra safety now we want to head over to the brake caliper and at the top of the brake caliper is the bleeder valve so remove the dust cap get the closed end of a wrench onto the bleeder valve and push the clear tube all the way on and now we're ready to bleed the brakes and flush all the old fluid into the catch can and notice how our hose is facing upwards so when the fluid comes out any bubbles that are in here are going to bubble upwards and not back into the brake caliper and now i'm showing you the two-person method somebody is sitting in the car getting ready to press the brake pedal so then you're going to want to ask your helper to press the brakes press the brakes and with pressure on the brakes crack the bleeder valve open about a quarter of a turn and let that old brake fluid get forced out then close the bleeder valve and when it's closed tell the helper to take their foot off the brakes let go and now you want to repeat this process until the new brake fluid pushes the old brake fluid out and you can see the fluid in the hose is clear and after about 20 times of doing this our brake fluid is looking excellent there's no bubbles and the brake pedal is firm when you have the bleeder valve closed also check out this difference in color before and after and we're done on this break so let's remove the catch can remove the wrench and clean off any brake fluid with a paper towel and remember to put your dust cover back on and that's all there is to it it is that simple to flush your brake fluid we have completely flushed the fluid out of this brake caliper and the entire brake line leading to the master cylinder there's also no air in the system and we know that because when we press the brake pedal it's firm so we're done working on this caliper and just so you have an idea we collected about a half a bottle of brake fluid before our brake fluid ran clean this caliper is the furthest the way so this is the most brake fluid we should collect before the line runs clean and that'll help you out when you're doing the other brakes now we can get the wheel back on and torque down the lug nuts to spec in a criss-cross pattern good all right one down three more to go the next one to do is the driver's rear caliper but before we do that make sure you top off the master cylinder we don't want this to run dry and introduce air into the system so pay attention to this and always keep fluid in the reservoir next we're flushing the rear driver's side brake then the front passenger side brake and finally the front driver's side brake alright and with the front driver's side wheel done we have completely flushed the brake system the last thing to do is to add new fluid and by the way when you press the pedal now it is rock solid even better than before so we removed some pedal travel and some squish in that pedal so we have even better pedal feel the last thing to do is top off the brake fluid in the master cylinder reservoir and make sure you fill this up to whatever level it was when you started in this case it was filled to the max because our brakes are brand new so make sure you don't over fill it otherwise the next time you go to replace your brake pads you're gonna compress that brake piston and the fluid is gonna overflow out of the reservoir and make a big mess and so you guys know i flushed the entire system with one quart of brake fluid it might be smart to pick up two so you have an extra so with that we are done flushing the brakes [Applause] [Music] so the next fluid i'm going to show you how to replace is the rear differential fluid over time rear differential fluid breaks down and it doesn't protect the bearings or the gears as well as it used to and that could cause the differential to run warm it could cause it to wear out quicker you might hear a whining noise or a howling noise which could indicate that the differential is going bad and we want to avoid that so to avoid that we're changing out the fluid now check your owner's manual make sure you're getting the correct viscosity fluid in this case 75w90 and then in order to get the old fluid out and pump the new fluid in we're using fluid pumps easy as that so let's get started so the first thing we need to do is head under the car to our rear differential now right there is the fill bolt for the differential but there is no drain bolt so normally what i like to do is you just unscrew all the bolts that hold the differential cover on and remove the differential cover and that's how you drain it but in this case there's too much stuff in the way up here it'll just be a hassle to do this so what we're going to do is we're going to remove the fill plug and this fits the square end of a 3 8 ratchet so just break the plug free and loosen it the rest of the way by hand and the back of the plug is magnetic so take a look and we don't have any chunks of metal on here so this looks pretty good now the fluid level should be right at the opening of the fill hole so let's check and see yep this is filled so we don't have any leaks which is good now let's put the hose from our pump towards the bottom of the differential so we can pump out as much fluid as possible and then pump away this fluid is pretty thick so it takes a lot more strength to pump this also this is gonna be the worst smelling fluid of them all because they use a lot of sulfur in differential fluid now that our sample cup is filled i can't wait to show you the difference compared to the new fluid but first let's finish pumping the rest of the old dip fluid out all right so the diff is all pumped out and i'm gonna just push this hose into the back a little bit more to make sure and i can't seem to find any more fluid left in here so therefore we are done emptying this out so out with the old and in with the new and check out that difference i'm glad we're replacing the supposed lifetime fluid so now let's pump in our new differential fluid and you're going to want to pump this until you see fluid coming out of the fill hole so pump the new fluid in and one thing i want to mention is if you have a limited slip differential like this car does make sure you're using fluid that has limited slip additive or you're gonna have to add the additive in yourself in this case it says right on the bottle it has limited slip additive in it so we're good to go you could just pump the fluid until it starts coming out of the fill hole just like that and now we can remove the hose trying not to make a mess and screw the fill plug back in you want to make sure you don't over tighten this just tighten it until it's snug good then clean up any spilled fluid and it's that easy to change the fluid in your differential so the next fluid i'm going to show you how to replace is the transfer case fluid over time transfer case fluid breaks down and it doesn't protect the moving parts inside the transfer case as well as it used to so we're going to be replacing it with brand new fluid the owner's manual recommends automatic transmission fluid so that's what we'll be using and then all you need is a fluid pump and a ratchet so let's begin now since the thunderbird is rear-wheel drive it doesn't have a transfer case so i'm going to show you how to replace the transfer case fluid on my pickup truck so let's head underneath the truck so i could show you how to replace the fluid so this right here is your transfer case it allows you to run in two-wheel drive or four-wheel drive in two-wheel drive mode it sends power to the rear wheels with this drive shaft and in four-wheel drive mode it uses that drive shaft there and a front drive shaft sending power to the front wheels so this is pretty important and replacing the fluid in a transfer case is super easy behind this vibration damper weight is a drain bolt we only have to remove four bolts to get to it super simple but more important right up here is the fill bolt and that's the first thing you want to remove so let's get a ratchet on the fill bolt and break it loose like so and then loosen it up the rest of the way by hand now we can remove the four bolts holding in the damper weight which helps prevent vibrations from the transfer case and that reveals our drain plug so let's crack this open get our catch can underneath and unscrew it the rest of the way by hand to drain the fluid this drains pretty quickly so let it drain completely and then we have to reinstall the plug so that it's snug don't over tighten this you could easily strip out the threads so it's out with the old and in with the new amazing what 25 000 miles could do to a fluid all right so now let's fill up the transfer case and since this uses transmission fluid this is a lot easier to pump compared to the differential fluid so pump in the new fluid until it starts coming out of the fill hole like so and then screw in the fill plug by hand and snug it up like that the last thing to do is add some medium strength thread locker to the bolts that hold in the damper weight and get those hand tightened into place and finally torque these down to 15 foot pounds so they don't come loose so that's all there is to replacing the transfer case fluid and we are done now next let me show you how to add grease to your suspension components in this case we're using high temperature wheel bearing grease and we're going to use a grease gun to add the grease to the suspension so let's get started now since the thunderbird only has one grease point we're going to be using my truck as an example for this because it has multiple grease points so let's head over down to the suspension and obviously the wheels off already it might be a good time to do this when you're doing the brakes since the wheel will be off and you want to look for any ball joints so in this case we have a ball joint right here but at the top of the ball joint there is no grease fitting a very common place there would be a grease fitting is on a tie rod end and if you take a look right here you can see the grease fitting so let's clean off all the loose dirt with a towel and push the grease gun adapter all the way on now keep an eye on the boot all you want to do is pump enough grease until the boot expands which means you're adding new grease good so with our tie rod filled with fresh grease now let's go and check out the lower ball joint right down there you can see the grease fitting so same thing clean the fitting off with the towel push the grease gun adapter all the way on and pump new grease into the ball joint until the boot expands like so good and with that ball joint greased that's pretty much what you're going to be looking for when you're greasing the suspension any ball joint you have we have a tie rod ball joint we have a lower ball joint and sometimes even the upper ball joint has a grease fitting but we're not done yet now we have to go underneath the truck and find the drive shaft which is that right there and at each end of the drive shaft is a u-joint and you can see the grease fitting in the u-joint right there so connect your grease gun and pump the grease until you see it coming out of the boots at the ends of the u-joint then make sure you clean off the grease because this spins very fast and it's gonna fling that grease everywhere if you don't so we got that u-joint up there greased and then now i could go grease that u-joint down there and that gives you a good idea of all the different grease points on your car or truck that you might have to grease you might have a couple more you might have a couple less but keep an eye out for those grease fittings [Music] and finally for the last fluid i want to show you how to top off your washer fluid now while it's super easy a lot of people mess this up and create bigger problems so i want to show you how to do it real quick also if you live in a climate that's cold it freezes in the winter don't use water as your washer fluid make sure you actually use washer fluid that way you don't have problems with water freezing and expanding and cracking your reservoir cracking the pump or cracking the nozzle that sprays the washer fluid so with that said let's top off our washer fluid now the number one most important thing to do is to make sure you know where your washer fluid goes and that's the biggest mistake people make you can check your owner's manual there's nothing wrong with that it tells you exactly where it is and they even have a whole section about it that you can read up on you don't want to put it in the wrong reservoir you don't want to put it in the power steering reservoir i've seen that you don't want to put it in the oil i've seen that and what i see the most is people put it inside their coolant reservoir because it looks very similar but remember the coolant reservoir usually has a pressure number on the cat so in this case the reservoir for the washer fluid is right over here on the passenger side and you can clearly see there is a windshield with the washer fluid squirting out so that's how you could tell so pop the cap off and i'm gonna get real daring with this one and not use a funnel let's see if i spill it in front of millions of people we got the no funnel challenge right here let's raise the stakes here and beautiful and that is topped off then we can put the cap on and with that now you know how to replace every single fluid in your car or truck it's that easy and your vehicle is gonna thank you so now let's lower the car to the ground so we can take her for a spin and this is such a rewarding job feels so good to have every fluid in this car brand new and preventative maintenance like this helps keep cars reliable for years to come so i hope this video was helpful if it was remember to give it a thumbs up if you're not a subscriber consider hitting that subscribe button all the tools all the fluids everything i used in this video will be linked in the description so you can easily find it

Channel: ChrisFix

Views: 11,899,598

Keywords: ChrisFix, oil change, transmission flush, Coolant Flush

Id: t7JCh7PHoDc

Length: 38min 54sec (2334 seconds)

Published: Thu May 28 2020