dj44

After days and days of posting on several other forums, asking everyone I know, looking in the Chilton manual, the owners manual and everywhere on the internet you can imagine - I still do not have the answer to this simple problem so I am hoping someone here knows.

I have a 2001 Cavalier 5-speed manual 2.2. I have owned it for every day and every mile (204K) since I bought it new in April of 2001. I have had many mechanical disasters and problems mostly starting a couple of years ago - and a lot of them I have worked on or fixed and/or replaced the part myself.

The transmission fluid in this car has never been changed, looked-at, drained, added, etc....because I was told that it didn't need it. The manual says the same thing. For as long as I've had this car, it has had a intermittent rattle noise that I figured was just the "Getrag rattle" - so I didn't pay much attention to it. But over the past year - especially the last 6 months - this rattle has just gotten totally insane and out of control. It is now a constant loud rattle whenever the car is in gear - especially starting out in 1st or 2nd. I mentioned this to someone and they asked when the last time the fluid was changed and said that would fix the problem - and couldn't believe that the fluid had never been changed after 15 years and 200K miles.

So my question is - (and if you are going to mention a dipstick, then you can forget it because this model doesn't have a dipstick, just a big red screw-on cap on top of the transmission).....First - is the fluid supposed to be changed on this model car or not - and if so, how often - and what do you suppose has been the consequence of not having done so for the life of the car as specified above? Second, I sure want to do it myself - so how are you supposed to drain/check/fill it since there is only a really tiny little hole at the bottom of this big reg cap on top?

I have searched and searched for a diagram or image of the location for the DRAIN and CHECK plug - and they are nowhere to be found even in the Chilton manual for this car. Given my situation, my plan is to just drain whatever - if anything - is in there and then fill it up and maybe repeat that after a month or so to get it all washed-out. But I need to know where the heck this drain plug is first. The owners manual says - in at LEAST 4 different places - that the fluid in a manual transmission does not need to be changed. It couldn't be more clear - and, apparently - more wrong. Nice.

Nielsdb

I can definitely understand your frustration about the manuals giving too little information. It seems like they forget key pieces of information. As far as I can remember, there is a drain plug on the lowest point of the differential housing. It is on the very bottom where you would get high centered on a rock. I think it needs a 3/8 Allan key to remove it. There is also a "check" plug that is located also on the differential housing on the passenger side. I think it is a few inches up from the bottom and you can fill the new fluid up until it starts to come out of this hole.

In theory, you should never have to change or fill the manual transmission with new fluid but I check them every so often. After 200K, I would suggest draining it and refilling it with new fluid.

Also, just for the record, my book says to use the dipstick to check the level but there i no dipstick, just the check plug.

As for the rattle, changing the fluid may or may not help that. First and second gear get used a lot more than any other gears so if any of them were going to wear, it would be them. If you feel like the gears are loose (lots of free play in the gear), they may be worn.

Hope this helps you, keep us updated.

Niels

dj44

Thanks for the reply. I crawled under the drivers side this afternoon and looked around. I also - after years and years of just assuming you added fluid through the easy-to-find huge RED cap, and only recently found that there is an actual different place to fill fluid - searched for that too. Everything is so coated and covered with thick black gunk - that I got myself covered in also, that the fill, drain and check plugs would be hard to find even if I knew what they looked like. But - (and here is where a photo would be soooooo nice to have somewhere), I eventually found what I can describe as three identical looking metallic discs on the end of a stubby cylindrical protrustion. 1 about 2 or 3 inches from the RED vent cap, and two pretty close to each other around the driver's half-shaft coming out of the lower tranny. Am I warm? Cold - totally wrong? I saw that after scraping and scrubbing most of the crud off the one on the top that it takes a HEX key and is definitely smaller than the 3/8" hex that I had with me from my brake caliper job a couple of months ago. So before I run out and buy the wrong size hex key for these things can someone tell me if I have in fact found the check fill and drain plugs and if so, what size allen I need to get them off?