KrayzieFox
05-11-2008, 11:35 PM
The purpose of using the upgraded Lentech valve body is to get quicker smoother shifts which reduces friction and temperature inside the transmission. This is an excellent mod to consider if you're looking to turbocharge your automatic Protege as it will allow the transmission to handle a lot more stress than it would with the OEM valve body.
So anyway, here's the tutorial. It's really easy actually, and these pictures should make it even easier.
Tools
1. 10mm socket for ALL bolts
2. 19mm wrench for drain plug
3. RTV liquid gasket for oil pan
4. 6-8 qts of Mercon V auto tranny fluid (ATF) -- I used Mobil1 synthetic
Tutorial
1. Start off by jacking up the car as high as you can, and place it on jack stands. Remove the driver side wheel, and then remove the plastic directly behind the wheel that's right by the transmission oil pan (x3 10mm bolts, x1 plastic clip)
2. Unscrew the drain plug and let the fluid drain (x1 19mm bolt)
*CAUTION* Tranny fluid can get very hot, so if you just got done driving you might wanna wait about 30 mins before draining the fluid or you'll potentially burn yourself.
3. Once the fluid is all drained, get to work on the oil pan. There is a bunch of 10mm bolts that need to be unscrewed, but they come out real easy. Once they're out, use a screwdriver (and hammer if needed -- be gentle!!) to pry the oil pan off. More fluid will come out, so be ready.
So now you'll have something like this in front of ya..
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1018&stc=1&d=1210560417
4. Next up you'll need to disconnect the 7 plugs that hook up into the solenoids and oil strainer, and take out the plastic oil strainer itself. Take pictures or write down the order of the plugs, cuz you'll need to remember them for later. If you forget to do this part, the order front to back is white, green, blue on the driver side and black (2-wires), white (1-wire), black (1-wire) on the passenger side.
5. Now you'll need to remove the bolts that hold the valve body in, and the ground wire bolt. Take out all of them except the corner ones, then loosen the corner bolts and let the valve body come down a little so the rest of the tranny fluid can come out. (x14 10mm bolts)
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1019&stc=1&d=1210560417
6. Remove the last four bolts and take out the valve body. Now you might have an accumulator or two fall out along with the valve body, and that's ok. I had one fall out, and one stay inside. Just make sure you don't switch them around when reinstalling.
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1020&stc=1&d=1210560417
7. Now you'll need to remove the solenoids off the OEM valve body and install them onto the new one. Sorry no pics, my valve body came with extra solenoids. (x7 10mm bolts)
8. So now you'll need to put the new valve body back in, but don't forget the accumulators!! If you did mix up the accumulators, the one with the larger diameter spring goes in the left opening(facing the passenger side of the car), and smaller diameter spring accumulator goes in the right opening.
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1021&stc=1&d=1210560417
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1022&stc=1&d=1210560417
9. Also, make sure that on the opposite side of the valve body, you get the parking assist lever inside the metal groove like this.
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1023&stc=1&d=1210560417
10. Once the parking assist lever, accumulators, and valve body are all in their place go ahead and put back in the 10mm bolts that hold the valve body in place. Reinstall the grounding bolt, and plug in the solenoid plugs in the right order.
11. Now the last thing left to do is clean up the oil pan and put on some new RTV liquid gasket sealant. If you have a high power dremmel you're in luck, cuz a wire brush takes the old gasket right off!!
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1024&stc=1&d=1210560417
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1025&stc=1&d=1210560417
12. I also found out there's a pretty large magnet inside the oil pan, and it was nasty as hell so I cleaned that up too. I guess there's no need for a magnetic drain plug in the tranny..
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1026&stc=1&d=1210560417
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1027&stc=1&d=1210560417
13. So put on some new RTV sealant and reinstall the oil pan. You're almost done .. almost ..
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1028&stc=1&d=1210560417
14. Now measure out the amount of fluid that came out of the tranny, and put back in the same amount through the dip stick. I ended up using around 6 quarts, the tranny holds 7.8 qts total but you'll never get all of it out cuz some stays in the torque converter. Anyway, it's better to put in less at first and fill up if needed than overfill. You definitely don't wanna overfill the tranny before starting up the car.
15. This last part gets pretty scary. When you go and start the car, DO NOT .. DO NOT .. I REPEAT FOR THE LAST TIME ... DO NOT SHIFT OUT OF PARK!!!!! You're going to hear the most God awful whirring, sucking, squealing, tranny screaming for mercy sound ever imaginable. It's actually ok, that's the oil pump trying to feed itself the new fluid. I let my car idle IN PARK!! for about 15 minutes and then it finally stopped.
16. Go through all the gears nice and slow a couple times, and if the noise comes back just put it back in PARK and wait for it to go away again. Top off the fluid if needed and go for a ride.
And now you're finally DONE!! See it wasn't so bad, a couple tricky spots like the accumulators and parking assist lever, but other than that it's pretty straightforward. Feel free to PM me if you have questions :)
So anyway, here's the tutorial. It's really easy actually, and these pictures should make it even easier.
Tools
1. 10mm socket for ALL bolts
2. 19mm wrench for drain plug
3. RTV liquid gasket for oil pan
4. 6-8 qts of Mercon V auto tranny fluid (ATF) -- I used Mobil1 synthetic
Tutorial
1. Start off by jacking up the car as high as you can, and place it on jack stands. Remove the driver side wheel, and then remove the plastic directly behind the wheel that's right by the transmission oil pan (x3 10mm bolts, x1 plastic clip)
2. Unscrew the drain plug and let the fluid drain (x1 19mm bolt)
*CAUTION* Tranny fluid can get very hot, so if you just got done driving you might wanna wait about 30 mins before draining the fluid or you'll potentially burn yourself.
3. Once the fluid is all drained, get to work on the oil pan. There is a bunch of 10mm bolts that need to be unscrewed, but they come out real easy. Once they're out, use a screwdriver (and hammer if needed -- be gentle!!) to pry the oil pan off. More fluid will come out, so be ready.
So now you'll have something like this in front of ya..
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1018&stc=1&d=1210560417
4. Next up you'll need to disconnect the 7 plugs that hook up into the solenoids and oil strainer, and take out the plastic oil strainer itself. Take pictures or write down the order of the plugs, cuz you'll need to remember them for later. If you forget to do this part, the order front to back is white, green, blue on the driver side and black (2-wires), white (1-wire), black (1-wire) on the passenger side.
5. Now you'll need to remove the bolts that hold the valve body in, and the ground wire bolt. Take out all of them except the corner ones, then loosen the corner bolts and let the valve body come down a little so the rest of the tranny fluid can come out. (x14 10mm bolts)
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1019&stc=1&d=1210560417
6. Remove the last four bolts and take out the valve body. Now you might have an accumulator or two fall out along with the valve body, and that's ok. I had one fall out, and one stay inside. Just make sure you don't switch them around when reinstalling.
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1020&stc=1&d=1210560417
7. Now you'll need to remove the solenoids off the OEM valve body and install them onto the new one. Sorry no pics, my valve body came with extra solenoids. (x7 10mm bolts)
8. So now you'll need to put the new valve body back in, but don't forget the accumulators!! If you did mix up the accumulators, the one with the larger diameter spring goes in the left opening(facing the passenger side of the car), and smaller diameter spring accumulator goes in the right opening.
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1021&stc=1&d=1210560417
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1022&stc=1&d=1210560417
9. Also, make sure that on the opposite side of the valve body, you get the parking assist lever inside the metal groove like this.
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1023&stc=1&d=1210560417
10. Once the parking assist lever, accumulators, and valve body are all in their place go ahead and put back in the 10mm bolts that hold the valve body in place. Reinstall the grounding bolt, and plug in the solenoid plugs in the right order.
11. Now the last thing left to do is clean up the oil pan and put on some new RTV liquid gasket sealant. If you have a high power dremmel you're in luck, cuz a wire brush takes the old gasket right off!!
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1024&stc=1&d=1210560417
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1025&stc=1&d=1210560417
12. I also found out there's a pretty large magnet inside the oil pan, and it was nasty as hell so I cleaned that up too. I guess there's no need for a magnetic drain plug in the tranny..
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1026&stc=1&d=1210560417
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1027&stc=1&d=1210560417
13. So put on some new RTV sealant and reinstall the oil pan. You're almost done .. almost ..
http://www.themazdaforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1028&stc=1&d=1210560417
14. Now measure out the amount of fluid that came out of the tranny, and put back in the same amount through the dip stick. I ended up using around 6 quarts, the tranny holds 7.8 qts total but you'll never get all of it out cuz some stays in the torque converter. Anyway, it's better to put in less at first and fill up if needed than overfill. You definitely don't wanna overfill the tranny before starting up the car.
15. This last part gets pretty scary. When you go and start the car, DO NOT .. DO NOT .. I REPEAT FOR THE LAST TIME ... DO NOT SHIFT OUT OF PARK!!!!! You're going to hear the most God awful whirring, sucking, squealing, tranny screaming for mercy sound ever imaginable. It's actually ok, that's the oil pump trying to feed itself the new fluid. I let my car idle IN PARK!! for about 15 minutes and then it finally stopped.
16. Go through all the gears nice and slow a couple times, and if the noise comes back just put it back in PARK and wait for it to go away again. Top off the fluid if needed and go for a ride.
And now you're finally DONE!! See it wasn't so bad, a couple tricky spots like the accumulators and parking assist lever, but other than that it's pretty straightforward. Feel free to PM me if you have questions :)