Disclaimer: This DIY is for a 2004 Hyundai Tiburon GT V6 Six Speed. The location of the drain and fill bolts may be different on your particular year model and manual transmission configuration.

Update: According to Yoyo, NT's resident PR Tib expert; all the manual tranny gear oil change procedures are the same (V6 6 speed from 03-08 ) or (V6 5 speed from 03-08 ). I will keep this updated with any further info that anyone contributes. I do know that in the 03's the location of the drain and fill bolts is slightly different, and I'll update the thread with pictures of an 03'.


Of course, this is NOT meant for any auto transmissions out there! You guys have it easy when it comes to this one.

Okay, it's been a LONG tine since I contributed a DIY thread to NT, so I though this might clear up some confusion out there as to the procedure for changing out one's manual gear oil. I just hit 30k with the Tib and since Hyundai of Jacksonville can rarely do a job right on my car, I decided that they would not get the privilege of working on my car for this either. Hence, the DIY you see here.

Parts Needed:

3 quarts of your favorite tranny gear oil in GL4 and 75W specification.


I wanted to try Redline MT-90 so I ordered three quarts from JEGS online:

http://www.jegs.com/

1 3/8 Drive Ratchet and 10mm "Hex" Socket

4 Jackstands (or 2 and utilize 2 drive up ramps for the front end like I did - you will understand why you will want all four points up in the air shortly)

1 Hydraulic Floor Jack

1 Bucket

1 Oil Drain Pan

3-4 Shop Rags (Trust me, you'll need these)

1 Carpenter's leveler (if you are overly obsessive at times like me).


1 Fluid Pump Apparatus (such as this example below)



This is a very straightforward operation really. All you have to do is simply get all your supplies together and then find a level area (in my case, my garage) to work on the car.

Step 1:

This is what I did to get my car off the ground: I drove the car onto the drive up ramps and then MADE SURE the car was in first gear. VERY important.....remember, we have front wheel drive and you don't want that sucker slipping back down off of the ramps! Then just go to the rear of the car and using the floor jack, lift the back end of the car until it looks level with the front end. You can use the rear tow bar as a jack point. It should not hurt anything. I have done it many times thus far with no issues. Now, you CAN then put two jack stands under the car on both sides and remove the floor jack, but I choose not to do this in the interest of saving some time. Don't blame me if your jack fails and your car comes crashing down. You have been warned.



Do as I say, not as I did.....

At this point, make sure the car is level because it will affect where the tranny oil you are about to replace will be leveling off and filling up. You want it to indicate correctly when the trans case is full. Just use the carpenters level on the lower rocker panel and adjust if need be. Probably a bit too obsessive on my part, but hey, I don't like possibly tedious mistakes that would otherwise be avoided with a little forethought.

Step 2:

Now it's time to crawl under the car and get busy. Start by locating the drain and fill bolts for your particular model and year. The owners manual tries to show you, but I found mine to be vague at best. NT.com search button to the rescue!

Here's the location of mine from the direct front and drivers side wheel perspective, which is where you will find the transmission bell housing drivers side where the bolts reside, and if you simply look through the wheel well (as if the wheel was off of the car) you will see this:

Upper (Fill) and Lower (Drain) 10 mm hex bolts respectively



Another view of the lower drain bolt




Time to loosen and remove them - start with the upper one (fill plug bolt) and loosen it most of the way, but not all the way.



Then completely remove the lower one, but make sure your oil drain pan is underneath it first because some nice fairly dirty tranny oil will start issuing forth at a pretty rapid rate, especially once you go back and remove the upper drain plug completely.



Let 'er drain until all of the old fluid is out:



Done!



Out with the old stuff.......mine was fairly amber colored. You want it to be almost clear. I'd say every 30k is a good benchmark for changing it out, and I'm not even that hard on transmissions these days.



Step 3:

Time to put the good stuff in. Insert and tighten the bottom fill bolt and washer to torque specs first. I chose not to get a new washer because the old one looked fine, but it's personal preference really.

Set up the pump according to the directions that hopefully came with it. Mine was easy......connect two hoses, one to siphon and one to fill, and I was good to go.

Insert the siphon end into one of the new bottles of fluid and elevate it ABOVE the level of the transmission fill plug somehow.



Next, run the fill tube to the upper drain bolt hole.





Lastly, it's time to pump that new beautiful Redline (or whatever you choose) into the trans housing. Prime the pump and just pump at a nice, even rate. You'll hear some gurgling and some air, but once you get it started, it should flow evenly for the most part until you finish the quart. Rinse and repeat for the next two quarts UNTIL and only until you see some fluid start to dribble out of the upper housing fill hole that you inserted the hose into. You did put the oil pan underneath to catch the leakage didn't you?

That's it! Now simply insert and tighten the upper fill bolt back to torque specs, or if you have a good feel for how tight various bolts should be from experience, then do it by feel. You don't want to compress the washer that comes with the bolts though. This will lead to leakage, so do not over tighten! Take the fluid pump assembly and drop it into the bucket I asked you to have handy, because it will be leaking fluid all over the floor otherwise.

My Tib manual says the trans should hold 2.86 quarts, and that's pretty dead on accurate. It took all three quarts of fluid until about 1/4 was left in the last quart before it started to drip out of the upper fill reservoir.

Drop the car and take it for a drive and feel the nice crisp, precise shifting, and in my case, reduced noise from the transmission. Feel confident that your Tib loves you for it.

Hope this helps some of you out possibly. Feel free to let me know what you think or if I can answer any questions, feel free to ask away.

-Brad aka CableTec on NT.com

Also, can I get a link put into the official DIY links thread?

Thanks guys.

So, are you telling me that there is NO fill plug from above the motor?

Yep, you got it man.......there had been some debate on this one, which is why I wrote the DIY.....plus, in my research for that thread, I found that there were no real comprehensive instructions on how to do the procedure along with pictures.

See this thread here for the debate.

http://www.newtiburon.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=115467

Wow, go Hyundai.....lol

Well, the auto powa people have a fill reservoir and even a dipstick up top of the engine.....but do the manual drivers get such love? No..................

Brad fix the description all tranny's are the same (6 speed from 03-08 ) or (5 speed from 03-08 )

Must cars are like that

Thanks Yoyo......I'll be adding pictures of an 03' 5 speed GT V6 to represent the locations of the drain and fill bolts on that particular year as it is slightly different, but the procedure is the same.


More pics for reference on the 5 spd 03 V6 manual:

Here's a pic of the level fill nut (on the face of the black plate)





Here's the drain plug (brass) on an 03 V6 GT

You dont need a pump. u can get a funnel with a bendable neck. thats how i did mine. its almost the same as your tibs. the funnel was about 5 bucks at autozone. which is alot cheaper then the pump

Yeah, I thought about doing it that way as well as I had read about using a funnel with long tube like Alex (Bosco) and a few others have done.........but I saw the pump while I was at Sears and it was cheap, but you are right, the way to do it with a funnel and long hose is to just have someone either hold the hose for you, or pour the fluid while holding the funnel above the level of the fill plug for you while you keep an eye on the hose that is inserted in the fill hole.

i did it on my own. and we all know im not the brightest

Nice work Brad! Maybe I'll save myself some $$ next scheduled service that comes around. How much did the pump cost?

Thanks for the great DIY. I'll be doing this really soon since my car is at ~40K miles now and I'm sure needs this.

Am I just seeing things or does the picture when you have the red tube from the pump to fill the tranny back up "Fill Plug" looks like a different location than the first pic where you have it labeled as "Fill plug bolt"? Maybe it's the orientation of the pic but it looks like a different location to me.

Thanks guys! Glad this will help some people out.

It's the orientation of the picture. I assure you, the hose was in the correct hole. The picture is rotated counterclockwise one turn, so just rotate the picture once to the right clockwise, and the drain plug should look as if it is higher. That would be the correct representation for the upper fill bolt. It was just hard to get the camera angled just so at the time.

Also, the pump was probably 10-15 bucks at most Andy.

wow. thanks for this info! this sure as hell beats the $100 that EVERY shop in town wants for a tranny fluid change.

Do you have any pictures for a 2004 Tiburon 4-cyl, 5-spd drain and fill holes?

I used your pictures as a reference and crawled underneath the car, but I couldn't find the fill and drain holes.

-Optimummind

Thanks man! I'm getting ready to do this on my girl; too. This will work out a lot better than taking it to the dealer, as they charge rapish fees around here.

Hi CableTec,

I have a '04 Tiburon 4-cyl, 5-spd manual. Are my drain and fill plugs located in the same place as the '03 Tiburon you showed in the picture? Is that '03 a V6 or a 4-cyl?

Last time I tried it find them underneath my car, I only found the drain plug but couldn't find the fill plug.

-Optimummind

**EDIT: nvm, I found them both.

I see that you found them apparently, but unfortunately, the only pictures I have been able to reference have been for the V6 Tiburon.

Ahh this is great since I have 32,000 on my Tib now! Hmmm now I need to decide what fluid to get?

thanks cable. Im due for this as well but quick question, after this did u see any improvement with the shifting (u know that stupid grinding problem)?

I have read that using certain brands of tranny fluid such as GM Syncromesh helps tame the grinding, but after using it for a while now, I can say that Redline MT-90 is a good fluid, but probably not that great at making the car shift more smoothly.

If anything, I have to work about as hard as ever with the shifting to keep it smooth now because Redline MT-90 takes a long time to get warm in the tranny.

Hmm, I was planning to try the Redline MT-90. Maybe I'll try the Amsoil MTF instead then.

This thread was a life saver! I just used it to change my transaxle oil. I used Royal Purple Max Gear 75-W90. I wanted to use a GL-5 oil since that is what it says in the owner's manual. I just wish I hadn't drained the oil before realising my siphon was gone. It was a messy night! Trans runs awesome now!