ATF Level w/ thermocouple

Hey all, I am going to do the atf fluid and filter change and I don't have teh VAG-Com. I have read on there that you can just just at temp sensor on a multi-meter and it will work just fine. My setup is pictured below.

My question is: Do I just tape the thermocouple sensor to the bottom of the tranny pan and watch the temperature?

bump...anyone?

I think you have to get the temp of the fluid itself, which out of the bottle should be room temp?!

If I had an automatic and didn't have vagcom, I would drain the old ATF into a container and measure EXACTLY how much I took out, then put in the EXACT SAME AMOUNT of new ATF.

That should be sufficient until I could get to a dealer to have them "check" the fluid level on the trans.

A vagcom tool is a really good investment!

greenskeeper said:

I think you have to get the temp of the fluid itself, which out of the bottle should be room temp?!

If I had an automatic and didn't have vagcom, I would drain the old ATF into a container and measure EXACTLY how much I took out, then put in the EXACT SAME AMOUNT of new ATF.

That should be sufficient until I could get to a dealer to have them "check" the fluid level on the trans.

A vagcom tool is a really good investment!

Click to expand...

Well I am not sure if there is the correct amount in there though. I know some people on here have used a multimeter to measure the temp, thats all. I believe that you just tape the diode to the pan, because the pan will be about the same temp as the fluid. I jsut want to make sure this is the way to go about it.

T, if you want to stop by my office some day, and you have the procedure for checking it (I am not looking it up), I can help with the VAGCOMming portion of the task.

Well I am not sure if there is the correct amount in there though.

Click to expand...

Then that throws out my non-technical approach!

Buy a vagcom - worth every penny - especially if you plan to hold on to your car for a while!

Allright, I just finished the whole procedure. It turns out that was over 4qts. in there, so whoever did this last I think overfilled it.

I just put the temp. thermocouple down into the pan through the fill hole. It was along side the hose I used for filling. It worked great. The temp was about 40 degrees C, when it started coming out the bottom after putting in about 3.3 quarts.

Seems to shift better too, things were kind of sloppy before, maybe that was because it was overfilled, I don't know.

I also used the Quaker State Multi-Vehicle ATF which has been confirmed to be compatable.