here's a question that will stump you

Where is the tranny drain plug? I crawled under my rodeo and i found the tranny pan, but theres no drain plug. The pan is smooth and the only bolts are the ones holding it up...i found the oil drain plug and transfer case drain plug but there is no tranny drain plug. Any one else have this problem or is it hidden? The haynes says its on the bottom of the pan, but not on my ride...:shakehead

What year rodeo? If you dont have a dipstick for the ATF, you have a fill plug and a drain plug on the rear-most trans pan. Both plugs face downward, which is a royal pita. :banghead: Tons of posts on this.

G/luck
Joel

sorry forgot the info:
'95 rodeo
4x4 v6

it does have the dipstick. I even followed the gear shifter from the floor to the tranny and still no plug.

it is an automatic too...

I dont think the 1995 w/ 4L30E came with a drain plug. It was like 1995.5 or 1996 that went dipstickless with drain plug.

Joel

i just did a search and found out throught the net that these tranny's didnt have drain plugs due to the manufacturer adding fluid that does not break down over time and does not need changing. BUT, according to my haynes, the fluid should be changed.
I wish i would have known this before i spent the money on fluid! :banghead:

Personally, you should change the AT filter anyway - so why not just drop the pan, change the gasket and filter, button her up and add some new fluid.

DO still change the fluid as you too have the 4L30-E, it just has a different pan and these tranny's like clean fluid.

A suggestion, when dropping a full pan...

Loosen all the bolts slightly about 1/4", pick an end of the pan where you will drain from, loosen those side bolts more, and then give the pan a whack with a rubber hammer. The fluid should pour primarily from the side where the bolts are looser. This is a trick to help avoid a huge mess.

Also make sure you get the tranny good and hot before doing this as it will aid in removing some of the junk that may be in there.

-Phil