My car is at 67K and I want to change the tranny fluid/filter tomorrow for preventative maintenance, in the owner's manual it recommends to change it after 80K if the vehicle is driven in certain conditions (severe service). I figure id rather do it sooner than later so I bought a tranny filter from GM and will be using Mobil DEXRON-VI ATF fluid for the replacement fluid.

Now for the reason of the post, it is recommended to torque the pan bolts down to 10flb but I don't have or know anyone who has a torque wrench to borrow. I looked at some Mastercraft(CDN Tire) or Craftsman(Sears) torque wrenches but the "click" type torque wrenches covers from 25-30flb and up. CDN Tire sells some cheaper torque wrenches that use a pointed bar/graduated gauge like this that would cover 10flb. I obviously would like to buy a good quality torque wrench (Snap On, MAC, etc...) eventually but I need something just for tomorrow.

Can I guesstimate the torque (making sure not to overtorque them where i will scrap the pan gasket) or am I better off with the cheaper torque wrench rather than guesstimating?

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I've always guesstimated, and never had trouble. Get 'em finger tight to hold the pan up, and then tighten them (not sequentially) maybe another half turn or so.

Common sense will go a long ways here. Some trans pan gaskets have metal around the bolt holes, and it's to prevent overtorquing.

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One Big Ass Mistake America

Alright sounds good, thanks for tip! What do you mean by "tighten them (not sequentially)" ? Do you mean tighten them in a similar fashion to lug nugs, in the sense to tighten them in a star like pattern...? Sorry my first language is french so I just want to make sure im understanding you correctly, I don't want to assume.

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Some tips:
Really clean the pan and transmission mating surface. Spraying some brake cleaner on a rag then using the rag to wipe the surface. You want the mating surface to be clean and dry.
If you use RTV to make a gasket don't add fluid for 1/2 hour to give it time to set up
Use small amount of medium strength threadlocker like loctite blue to help seal and keep the pan bolts tight
Tighten with a 1/4" socket driver usually will keep you from over torquing the bolts
Tighten in a star pattern

Thanks for the extra tips, appreciate it! Im off soon to go do the work on the tranny so ill bring along my brake cleaner and blue loctite. I will also disconnect my battery for a short period after the work is done to ensure I reset the settings in the PCM for the "adaptive learning" as recommended by "njbrain".

Thanks to all for the help! I'll post back after im done.



UPDATE
Well its done and im happy I did it sooner than later!! When I started taking off the pan, the fluid coming out did not look red but more of an orangish color. Then when I cleaned the pan, the magnet was loaded with metallic dust and I believe the magnet also magnetizes the bottom of the filter since it also was covered in a layer of metallic dust. Shifts seem a bit smoother although my head may be playing tricks and Im trying to find an improvement...regardless of improvement or not, I feel better knowing fresh fluid/filter is in there and the pan/magnet is free of metallic dust.

Here is a picture of the old fluid in comparison to the new fluid in the cap of the fluid jug.



And on a completly unrelated side note, on my way back home earlier today my car has now officially turned evil....

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