Thanks Sean,
This is why I love our little group- it takes all our minds to make one good one.

I want to do it myself, and have done several others, because of wanting to see if there are any meaningful shavings and oil condition. Bit of a stickler for perfection.

Unless you see something extraordinarily cumbersome. The filling up with engine running I can do better than that guy in the video mangling up the heat shield. I can use a 1/4" copper tube about 6 feet long and preform it with a bend. Do you see anything wrong with that? Just going to use my mightvac as a dispenser.

On snapping the heads. Is it because you use a wrench and the torsional forces are skewed or are the bolts simply too small for the torque. I was planning on using a cordless impact. I can use an air ratchet too (soft torque)

I noticed the pans on ebay/ amazon are not ZF. Does anyone care?

You bet there is knockoff ZF fluid, look at the incentive vs risk, you can make $20 a liter, and how will anyone know. They ship knock-off baby formula to make 10cents a liter. Or machined aluminum flashlight for two bucks including shipping all the way from Jhina. I hope I havent given some of you spry brothers an idea.

 

Whatever you decide to do, make sure you DO change your transmission fluid. AT failure is probably #1 reason why cars get scrapped and a lot of these failure are preventable with regular fluid and filter changes.

 

I also used copper tubing and this tool attached to my Rigid Cordless drill.
Great deal on Private Brand Tools - 70913 at ToolTopia.com
Worked great but I started with an air ratchet which was too slow to draw the fluid. It comes with a drill - 3/8 male ratchet attachment. I saw a pic of a forum member who did the same (short piece of copper followed by plastic hose )and just hung a funnel from a step ladder and let gravity do its thing. worked for him.
I should have been concise. The heads didn't break off, the torx just rounded out. I think it's just the result of corrosion that seizes them as they are too small. For the ones that were seized, I just broke as much of the pan away as I could with a channel locks to clear the head. Then I used vice grip as the torx stripped easily. Problem is, you can't reuse them. If ordering from CTSC, just ask for a full set of 21. He's a bit slow to respond but he does get back to you

I don't. I used a non OEM replacement pan and it came with gasket and screws, as did Cee Jay's. No runs, no drips, no errors.

 

Wow, if only Trump's business advisory board would have worked this well.

Sean, why not use a mightyvac?? I love that thing for dispensing. Does not waste a drop.

 

Geezus Sin, you are the one saying they are designed to do 275000 miles. Yeah I know I have a car with 260000 miles on original transmission. But I have flushed that transmission several times. The gunk that comes out of a transmission cooler will shock you.

 

They are designed to run 275K miles with proper maintenance. Not changing transmission fluid and filter is neglect. Typically, you can get 125-150K on original fluid, then you will require complete rebuild. So over car's lifetime 300$ or so in maintenance vs. $1500-$4000 for transmission work.