Yup orderd the pan kit from AB(including the ZF oil) 12 quarts? How did you flush the torque converter? Also got the 4 sleeve and the adapter seal( the double square gasket looking thing) didn’t get the solenoids though,( I haven’t bought the IID tool yet so I can’t perform any transmission reset. And yeah I occasionally hear my timing chain clunking when idling but but no codes so hopefully it will hold out till I finish flight school and get a job...
So when you pull down the mechatronic you’ll get another two quarts or so out (all the fluid that’s in the transmission). All that’s left is the torque converter fluid below the neck of the converter. You’ll probably need 9ish quarts of ZF to get filled. I used 9.5 I believe. The kit that AB provides has 7 which is sufficient if not dropping mechatronic.
I did the solenoids only to avoid doing this job for a third time. I was not getting any faults. I am fortunate to have a mechanic that will reset codes gratis (he knows he’ll earn it back when I need him).
I also talked to a zf trans specialist before doing the job and he said if shudder is not fixed when buttoned up, add Lubegard instant shudder fix. As a precaution I did it during the fill procedure. He advised that it was not necessary to get fluid removed from torque converter as trans would be mostly drained 9 of 11 quarts.
For safe measure, I plan on doing one more fluid swap in another 30k but will probably check levels in another 500 miles or so to make sure no fluid loss. I did drive it about 200 miles after fill and checked levels next morning upon cold startup. Level was less than 1/4 quart down (assuming that was just getting air pockets run through tranny). These things are sensitive to fluid levels...
All shifts are good and crisp. There have been a couple times I’ve noticed a slightly harsh shift on 4-3 downshift (accelerating up a hill) and whatnot, but I’m super paranoid after a repair like this. I don’t have enough time with it to know if adaptations will catch up or this is the new normal. Anyhow, it’s a drastic improvement over previous state and if I can prolong putting a transmission in it for another 75-100k, I’ll be happy.