Here is how I changed my fluid...
1. With engine warm, pulled bottom drain plug and plastic standoff riser.
2. After fluid drained out pulled filter cap and filter.
3. Refilled with 5 quarts DSG fluid from top with bottom plug removed but plastic standoff inserted. This will get you to the proper fill level fast without guessing.
4. Reinstall drain plug, fill plastic filter housing with DSG fluid and pour into funnel on top of transmission. This will replace fluid pumped into filter housing without guessing at how much.
5. Warm transmission up to 45c with drain plug installed, measure with laser thermometer gun or vagcom, shift through gear selector holding each position for about 3 seconds, then remove drain plug at 45c. Little if any fluid will come out because its properly filled to the max level while engine running. I even ran mine up to 50c with no fluid loss.
6. Drink beer and marvel at your work.
This fluid expansion idea I think is really overrated. Exactly how much does this DSG fluid expand can anyone tell me? You should never have to measure how much come out with the plastic standoff riser installed. This will get you to the factory fill every time. I added an even 5 quarts and just let the excess flush out any old fluid. (that's the idea anyways). The only fluid drop you have to account for is the fluid pumped into the filter housing. I could be mistaken But there is no statements to say if the case level should be at the top of the stand off riser when the engine is running or when it is off.
To me it is just like an engine. You never check the dipstick level when the engine is running (not that you accurately could anyways), you check it when it is off. When the engine runs if you could check the level accurately you would see that the crankcase level will be lower than when it is not running. So in the case of the DSG, until I can find something that says level must be at top of stand off while at 45c and while engine is running then I think this way is perfectly safe. I believe so far the only reason they do it the way they do is because the case is always overfilled from a bottom fill to begin with and they have to measure it while engine is running and at 45c. This is ridiculous because now we are talking about extremely precise fluid level requirements that are so exact and precise the difference of +- 5c can cause who knows what problems. Can anyone show how much expansion of DSG fluid is at 45c +-5c?
It seems to me if the DSG fluid level is at the top of the stand off while running then it will always be above the standoff or "overfilled" when the engine is shut off...not very accurate in my opinion, to many variables and very wasteful.
If the DSG fluid is is at the top of the stand off while the engine is not running then it is full, but not over full. However at that point we also know fluid will be low at least the amount that will be pumped into the filter housing, hence my method of filling up the filter housing with fluid and adding that to the case. Now the fluid level should be right at the top of the stand off while the engine is running and warmed up to 45c and he filter housing is full.
On that note I just picked up my DQ500 filter housing which is much taller than the DQ250 housing hehe. Also the filter looks much more robust and is pleated in addition to being physically taller. I have heard from lots of sources that these filters only filter for about 5000 miles before they go into bypass anyways and then they are useless. I do not know if this is true but I am certainly no opposed to more and better filtration media hehe.
