Most likely all they did is replace the fluid. Do you know if the transmission has a drain plug? If so, then they drained and refilled it few times. If no drain plug, then must have done it through the cooler lines. I bet they never took the transmission pan off, otherwise they would have had easy access to the filter.
which specific engine/model year do you have? may somebody might be able to find real factory shop manual for the car.
The Chilton's says it has a drain plug and it says you should replace its washer to insure a leakless plug, which I doubt they did.
It's a
1997 Mazda 626LX 2.0L 4-cylinder. Yes, they probably never removed the pan. I tried to call Mazda USA and ask them if this dealership messed up the service, I'm sure they have their standards. At the very least, I should not have been told that there's no filter.
However, I called at 4:45PM and they close at 4:30PM. I can call them tomorrow.
I also have to wonder if they properly flushed it. I saw a post that this car should definitely not be power flushed, that doing so, particularly without changing the filter, I think, would produce a lot of particulate matter into the transmission, making things worse. They say they used 12 qt. fluid (says that on the invoice), the manual says it needs 9.2 qt, so they could not have
"drained and refilled it few times." To placate the customer they have a policy of doing a "thorough inspection of the car's systems" or the like, giving me a checklist with no specific information. Seems like a snow job now.
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The CD4E transmission should NEVER BE POWERFLUSHED!! The filter is not removable (without major disassembly). So powerflushing throws all sorts of crap into the tranny oil. I can take a pretty good guess why your stang's tranny went.... When an automatic transmission is not maintained, excessive wear particles get into the oil and wear down the atx quickly. Those same particles keep enough friction in the oil to hold the tranny together... Changing the oil on a atx in this situation will only show the damage within the atx...
^^ thats not saying that changing the fluid damages the tranny. Doing so just magnifies symptoms already there.
That's a segment of post #30 here:
http://mazda626.net/topic/10379-if-you-have-had-a-transmission-problem/page-2
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You know, it's a nice car. It's too bad they completely blew it when it came to the transmission. It was designed for a much lighter vehicle. Mazda never owned up to the problems. They did eventually release a bulletin, but they didn't take responsibility and pay for the auxiliary cooler that would extend the transmission's life. The problems were for 626 models from 1993 - 2002, that's a long time. I found two nice illustrated threads at mazda626.net showing exactly how the cooler is installed. If it's working now reasonably well, I'll install my own cooler and keep my fingers crossed. Otherwise, I may see if I can put in an MTX or another ATX plus a cooler, possibly.