I’ve got a 1998 Sambar KV4 Dias classic van with the 3AT automatic transmission. The Japanese user manual I have lists the ATF capacity for this 4WD model as 4.2L, but when I drained it today, I only got about 2L out, and put about 2L of ATF back in before it was back to full. I haven’t found much info out there on these mid-1997+ 3ATs, does anyone have a good source for technical info/service manual that might illuminate the details for me? I’d love to know about bolt torque specs and things like that as well the James Danko manual is not much help as that’s largely about the carburated and supercharged 5MT models, and the earlier automatic Sambars were all ECVT not 3AT.
This is typical for any AT vehicle. In this case, 4.2l is for a completely dry system. If you are only pulling the sump plug, then 40-50% sounds about right, as the rest would be stuck in the torque converter, AT oil cooler, and the galleys inside of the transmission itself. What I normally do is the drain and fill, drive the vehicle around the block to mix up the fluid, and do a second drain and fill. That ends up changing "about" 75% of the old fluid in the process.
I ended up using Multi-Vehicle ATF fluid, and anything compatible with Dexron III/Mercon should work. I don't have a specific reference, but I spent some time looking at what Subaru used for their ATs and it was all the same "Subaru ATF" which was always cross-referenced to multi-vehicle ATF from all the oil manufacturers.
