2019 Escalade 10L80 transmission fluid change

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SpyShops212

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No fluid exchange machine. The way I'll be doing this is pulling the cooler line from the radiator, draining, the refilling, until it runs cherry red. Just like in the first video. I did this 3 times on my old 2012 Yukon Denali and it worked great.
Ok but you have to get the transmission temp to a certain temp when you check the level. I would check it for a few days.
 
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jyi786

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Sounds like you got it. Are you anywhere near Houston.
Nope, in the DMV.

Yes, I have the entire procedure to do the fluid level check. Doing the fluid level check and the actual pan drop/filter replace is the easy part. The ONLY part I think I'm going to have difficulty with is getting the pan off the transmission. If I have any problems with this, I have 2 potential ways to get it off: use a jack on the exhaust against the floorboard, or slightly pry on the exhaust with a breaker bar, as shown in the second video.

Quite confident I'm going to pull this off without a hitch. My biggest worry is that it's supposed to rain tomorrow, and I have a garage but not one big enough for my truck that I can do this work myself in.
 

SpyShops212

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I am thinking that the dealer only removed my pan and drained the fluid then added fluid. I don’t know there procedure. I would love to do this myself but I don’t have all the tools or a lift to do it. I might change my fluid earlier this time.
 
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jyi786

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I am thinking that the dealer only removed my pan and drained the fluid then added fluid. I don’t know there procedure. I would love to do this myself but I don’t have all the tools or a lift to do it. I might change my fluid earlier this time.
If the idea was to simply change the fluid, they don't even have to remove the pan; they can do it from the cooler lines.

This is the process for checking the fill level.
 

SpyShops212

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The dealer did remove my pan then put the seal and the pan back. They added the fluid and checked the level.
 

koachdaddy

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Ordered PPE extra capacity pan along with bypass valve delete shortly after purchase and wanted to get it done before flat towing an old Wrangler from Central Florida to Twentynine Palms California. Unfortunately, the t-stat is internal on the 2020 10spd so that went back and didn't receive the pan in time so I went ahead and serviced the trans myself at 40k before heading west. It took 8qts for pan/filter which was consistent with a good how-to vid I had come across. Ran/drove fine for a few months before and during this time the pan had arrived.

With new pan in-hand, decided to do it all at 50k by a transmission shop down the street from my dad's house in Ohio...have known the owner for decades. Supposed to be a 10qt job according to online info, but gave the shop 11qts to account for line-loss and unpumpable from the fill container. Went to pick it up and it was then that they informed me that it was their first 10spd service and it took all 11qts. I questioned it and they assured me that they brought it up to temp blah blah blah. While driving back to FL and pulling a small trailer (<1k lbs), I started to see more of a mist from the rearview than the side mirrors (cloudy/drizzly day) and while rolling thru the mountains in the middle of nowhere WV, it started bellowing smoke off the rear. Pulled off at the next off ramp, found a truck parking area with a mound of dirt to use as a ramp (can't slide under with the running boards and reverse level), and proceeded to investigate. In the end, they had overserviced the transmission. The new 10spd's leave very little room for thermal expansion and thus, it started dumping the extra quart out of the vent.

My point; correct servicing can be tricky given the temp span according to servicing specs. Given the lack of a dipstick, it is imperative that you get this correct or bad things can happen.
 
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jyi786

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I did it. Completed the job.

The things that I THOUGHT were going to be difficult were not difficult. Not at all. The things I least expected to be difficult, were difficult.

1. The fill plug uses a 8mm hex allen head. On top of that, it's a stubby; there's no space to get in there with a ratchet unless you have the stubby bit, which I didn't have.
2. Taking off the jiffy type connector for the cooling hose on the radiator was much harder than I thought because the awkward positioning.
3. The fill plug was sealed shut with pipe dope and loctite. From the factory.

Doing the fluid exchange was easy but time consuming, because I had to drain 2 quarts, fill 2 quarts (from below). Thankfully I foresaw this and had a pump so pumping new fluid into the transmission was easy. I did the exchange until it ran cherry red (but not bright cherry red yet, because I had to save fluid).

Now, the part that I was expecting to have much trouble? DROPPING THE PAN.

Except, the trouble never materialized. I drained all the fluid so there was no spillage, disconnected everything, took all the screws out, lowered the pan, angled it to the right (toward the passenger side), and the pan DROPPED RIGHT OUT. No fuss, no problem, nothing at all. No jacking the exhaust pipe, lowering it, disconnecting transmission bolts, nothing. Took me less than a minute to get the pan out once I had all the screws out and it lowered. I'm not even exaggerating.

I'm even let down because I thought the transmission pan would put up much more of a fight. After all, everyone is complaining about it the most. It posed zero obstacle to me whatsoever.

Once I had it open, I changed the filter, cleaned the pan/magnets, buttoned everything back up, filled it back up with 4 quarts, went through the fluid level check procedure, and I was done. I did run into difficulty with the fluid check procedure. My truck does have a fluid check plug. But even at 167-176F, even after filling (and overfilling slightly), none to only slightly few drips came out the fluid check plug, but wanted to come out the fill plug instead. I had to end up using 1.75 extra quarts. I believe it might be different for this truck, in that it uses the fill plug for fluid check. Even still, at 167-176F, a few drips came out of the fluid check plug, but that's it. I went with it.

Tightened everything down, ensured no leaks, took for test drive, and was amazed at the smoothness of shifting. It's almost like when I first bought my truck.

The old transmission fluid was black, and stunk. There was no metal in the fluid, nor in the pan (other than a tiny bit of fuzz on the magnets, which is typical). It looked like normal transmission maintenance.

Job took me 12 hours, but that's because I took my time to ensure everything was done to the letter. I'm happy.
 

koachdaddy

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My truck does have a fluid check plug. But even at 167-176F, even after filling (and overfilling slightly), none to only slightly few drips came out the fluid check plug, but wanted to come out the fill plug instead. I had to end up using 1.75 extra quarts. I believe it might be different for this truck, in that it uses the fill plug for fluid check. Even still, at 167-176F, a few drips came out.
Ah yes, I forgot this happened to me during the first service as well. Even on an assumed level four post lift I could only get it to come out of the fill plug, nothing from the spillover tube while up to 175deg gauge indication. I figured if it's seeping out of the fill plug, then it's good and went with it without issue.
 
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jyi786

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Ah yes, I forgot this happened to me during the first service as well. Even on an assumed level four post lift I could only get it to come out of the fill plug, nothing from the spillover tube while up to 175deg gauge indication. I figured if it's seeping out of the fill plug, then it's good and went with it without issue.
Good to know, glad to hear we had the same experience. I was worried for a bit, but being that it drove perfectly, I guess everything was good.
 

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