2019-2023 Chevy Malibu 1.5 Transmission Fluid Change and Level Check THE RIGHT WAY! 

I’m about 500-1k miles away for that service, I don’t drive a ton, so I should have it out in the next couple months

Dude that’s awesome, I appreciate you helping a brother out. The new c8 is such a cool car and is super unique. Yeah the CVT is a pain to work on but overall the Malibu is everything you’d want for a good daily.

I had similar shuddering and slipping issues, I was worried my transmission was done for, but I swapped the fluid and man it made such a difference. out of curiosity how many miles does your car have on it?

@@CollegeMechanic 141,000. My fiance and I share it and drive it everywhere and it's a great car. I'm happy to report that I did change out the fluid (using your video of course) and everything seems back to normal. I'll be looking forward to your video on the filter change brother.

I had similar problems turned out to be the gas pump

Unfortunately no, if you have the 1.5t your car is equipped with a Hydra-Matic six-speed automatic transmission, the process is different for a traditional transmission

For sure!

@@CollegeMechanic nice

Dude that’s gotta be some kind of record LOL, have they been replaced under warranty?

@CollegeMechanic all of them have been warranties, being the end consumer it still has cost me a lot of money in breakdowns and rides and shit. I've a new ford maverick on a train, less than a month and I'll be out of the Malibu

Change your engine oil as you normally would(I do mine every 3,000 miles) If you were to completely flush your transmission you wouldn’t need to do a second and third fluid change. Since we are only draining and filling(not flushing) the transmission we will need to repeat this process a second and third time as to clear out as much of the contaminates as possible without flushing the transmission. I personally change my trans fluid every 30,000 miles, as cvt’s tend to be rather delicate transmissions. I did this service about 10,000 miles early(my last service was at 60k and I now have 80k on the odometer) I could feel it starting to shudder just a bit and figured I’d rather play it safe.

It’s just gonna be the external one, the only way to access the internal filter would have you tearing apart the transmission

@@glowupquotes I’m not sure, you have the 6 speed automatic transmission, not the cvt

Nope LOL, it’s a ghetto 5 dollar washers in the exhaust mod. I was curious how it would sound straight piped so I unbolted the exhaust immediately after the catalytic converter, it ended up having such a nice tone and low enough volume as to not be a nauseous to society. So I took a trip to Autozone and grabbed some nuts and threaded them into the studs in the catalytic converter, I put the exhaust back on, so it left around a quarter-half inch gap in the exhaust, long story short I created an exhaust leak. No exhaust leaks into the cabin, it doesn’t drone at highway speed, and most of the exhaust gases make it out the rear end unless under load, and it sounds good! I’d be interested in making a video if you’d like:)

2019 was the first year, they lifted the grill a little bit and swapped the transmission for a CVT

The car has to be on and running!

I’d definitely take a look, if it’s pitch black and some very small metal flakes then leave it, it will do more damage changing the fluid, Chris fix has a video that explains this much better than I can

Only if you want to tear the trans apart! But flushing(or changing, that’s what we I in the video) the fresh fluid cleans those sensors, of course they can always be taken apart and removed to be further cleaned, but all the effort wouldn’t be worthwhile, keeping up on the general maintenance, like I did here, insures these sensors will stay clean and function as intended!

Hey man! So you would want to change your filter after the 3rd(final) fluid drain and fill, at this point the fluid will be close to clear of debris, this is when you will change the filter because you will drive on this fluid and filter for another 30,000+ miles. If we changed the filter at the first drain and fill we would dirty it with the old and dirty fluid. We want the filter to be as clean as possible at the end of the job.

Measuring the fluid is an extra precaution that all should take, measuring what comes out and what’s goes in, especially when servicing something as important as the transmission.

If you use a ramp you have to jack up the other end of the car, it’s very important the car is level during this whole process

@@CollegeMechanic you close to the filter replacement.. in there today and have LOTS OF QUESTIONS

Yes, mine does something similar, especially on a cold morning, but after I put it into gear and start driving it’s fine, I’m sure the fluid just needs to get moved around and get a little more heat in it, nothing to be super concerned about.

@CollegeMechanic thanks man.

@jasaonbynum8216 Even my malibu 2023 does this every morning and after a little ride it goes and the shifting to drive feels so smooth. These days it shows evertime when the car is rested for a long period.

My friend says No but let run for a few let idle down to normal. Try that some people don't they just go. To each is own

Yeah I've let it warm up for 15mins but still first time in the morning it jerks/hard shifts a bit and then everything is fine from there.. ​@@matthew-kg4um

@@vincewright7438 yes I just need to edit and post, so the shift linkage can be undone via the nut closest to the font of the car, the bolt is leveled off on one side so it can be easily realigned

@@CollegeMechanic thanks 🙏🏾 greatly appreciated didnt kno if that nut would throw off alignment.. BUT I unscrewed the bolt to the shift linkage will that hinder the alignment ?

@@vincewright7438 further back? Toward the long metal rod and plastic piece?

@@CollegeMechanic past the plastic piece further back past the rod. the bolt that secures the linkage to the trans

@@CollegeMechanic answered my own question never mind AND CANT WAIT till you post so I can stop asking questions.. but just one more 😁 what did you use to remove the filter?!?

It’s a crappy design not necessarily a crappy car. This whole process would be so much easier by simply adding a dip stick to measure fluid. When it comes down to the basics yes the design sucks but what sucks even more is the customers right to repair. Modern corporate America has rather quickly belittled a customers right to repair, we’ve seen this with companies like Apple, John Deere, and of course many car manufacturers, all this trickles down to money. If you can’t work on your car then you usually go to the dealership which means they make more money, it’s very unfair but that’s how the industry is.

You might not have caught it in the video but I mentioned to do a drain and fill for the transmission 3 times over the course of 9,000 miles since we aren’t doing a full flush. This transmission should be serviced every 40,000 miles, I do it at 30,000 just to be safe(and I live in an area where temperatures go above 110 in the summer and it’s pretty taxing on the transmission) As for the oil changes, yes, i do change my oil every 3,000 miles. Being a high compression turbo engine it relies heavily on good oil, that being said the hot side of the turbo tends to burn the “lighter oil” leaving heavy sludge behind when sitting after running the car hard or in a hot environment(again where I am temps are over 110). All I am doing is preventative maintenance. It’s different for everyone, for me I’m ok paying 40 bucks every 3,000 miles to do an oil change myself, it all comes down to the driver.