Remove breather & battery to access top area of trans. Remove battery tray to access top of starter area.
Then take PS line bracket and trans wire harness bracket off Mount bracket bolt stud. Pay attention to routing of wires and the wiring bracket goes below the PS line bracket. This must be assembled the correct way as you go back together to make it right.
Unplug the following in this pic.
1. Solenoid connector
2. G68 sensor connector
3. G22 VSS connector
4. Unscrew G22 counter clockwise to remove it so it doesn’t get broken during handling.
5. Unplug Multifunction switch.
6. Pry with even pressure upwards to pop the shifter cable off the shifter lever. Don’t cock it or you’ll break it like this one is. Usually you don’t want to remove the bolt “X” because you would then loose shifter cable adjustment. I suppose you could paint mark the adjustment, then remove the bolt, and when you bolt it back up just make sure the adjustment is the same. This might prevent the cable end from breaking. I just make sure to pull the cable off carefully.
7. Remove the horseshoe shaped clip from the shifter cable, by prying it upwards. Then take the cable out of the cable bracket and wedge or tie the shifter cable out of the way.
Remove the G38 sensor from the trans. I don’t uplug it from the sensor. Just remove it from the trans and fold it with the entire trans harness into the battery tray area.
I also remove the multifunction switch from the trans, because once I broke one while removing the trans it because it brushed against the car and broke it.
Remove negative battery cable end from stud on top bell bolt
Then remove front upper bell bolt
Then remove front rear bell bolt.
Power steering line has this bracket on it. Don’t remove the PS line bolt in this pic. It’s a pain to reinstall. Just remove the entire bracket from the bottom starter bolt stud later when you are under the car. Also in this pic is the harness carrier that bolts to the top starter bolt. To remove the harness carrier there is a “latch” on the bottom. Release the latch and push the harness carrier towards the battery area. It will slide around the harness to give you room to take out the top starter bolt.
Here’s what it looks at when the harness carrier is pushed aside.
After the harness carrier and harness is pushed out of the way, you’ll get a little more room to remove the top starter bolt by getting the solenoid wire and starter cable out of the way. First remove the cap from the starter cable. Then unplug the solenoid wire.
Then remove the starter cable nut and then take the cable off and fold it into the battery tray area.
The 13mm nut that retains the harness carrier bracket is hidden behind the harness carrier bracket in the picture.
Remove the nut off then remove the top starter bolt. You can do this from the top with a ratchet, or from the bottom with a impact and a swivel, after removing the belly pan, splash guard and wheel.
Remove the cooler and wedge it up out of your way.
Don’t remove the mount bolts at this point. You want to keep the engine/trans supported by the mount as long as possible. Now jack up the car and remove the front wheels. Be sure to support the car safely with jack stands and I would suggest putting the wheels under the car, as a secondary safety. Remove the belly pan and left side splash cover.
Later in the process you’ll be pulling the down pipe off the exhaust manifold or turbo so first thing you should do after supporting the car with jack stands is to spray the flange bolts down with PB Blaster or some other penetrating lube because you don’t want the studs to break off.
Then take the power steering line bracket off the stud on the bottom starter bolt. Then remove the starter bolt and remove the starter.
Remove the ball joint on the left side. I don’t remove the right side ball joint or wheel. The holes that the bolts pass through are slotted and you’ll need to bolt them back up in the same location. Usually you can reinstall the ball joint in the same location during re-installation by looking at rust pattern witness marks. You might want to paint mark to locate the bolts for reinstallation. Or you can remove the ball joint nut instead of the 3 bolts.
Note: it’s entirely possible to remove and reinstall the entire transmission without removing the axles or ball joints. But without at least one side out of the way it’s difficult to work around it. I do this to make it easier.
Here’s a pic removing the LS axle bolts with the XZN (triple spline) tool. After you remove one rotate the right side tire to get access to the next one. If I was doing this on jackstands I would use my foot to turn the tire while working on the left side.
I usually take the bottom bolt out of the Left sway bar link. This allows you to fold the axle out of the way, behind the A-arm. You could just remove the axle, but then you’d have to have the 30mm 12 point axle socket.
Axle moved behind the A-arm. Note: it’s entirely possible to remove and re-install the entire transmission without removing the axles or ball joints. But without at least one side out of the way it’s difficult to work around it. I do this to make it easier.
Remove the Cv boot leak shield.
Then take the XZN bolts out of the right axle. Leave the rear bell housing bolt alone. It will hold the trans in place till last.
To see the torque converter bolts while I work there I like to put a light here near the RS A-Arm.
Up behind the right axle stub there is a small round plastic cover. Remove the cover then use a 15 mm to remove the 3 torque converter bolts.
To turn the engine over to access the toque converter nuts, use a 19mm 12 point shallow socket on the crank pulley. If you went out of order and pulled the mount and the motor is lower than its supposed to be then you won’t be able to fit the ratchet in there without raising the motor.
At some point in here you need to remove the pendulum mount. There are 2 bolts going into the “K-member” and 2 going into the trans. These are stretch bolts and should be replaced on reassembly.
There are 3 bolts that bolt the bell housing to the engine oil pan. The one in this picture is under the pendulum mount. Then remove the other in this picture to the left of the one being removed.
Here’s the third bell housing to engine oil pan. Make sure that the rear bottom bell bolt is still in place and tight. You don’t want the trans falling out on you.
At this point you’ll need to support the motor. On the lift I just put a stand under the oil pan but if you working on jack stands its best to use and engine hanger. Then pull the 2 mount bolts in this pic.
The remove the 3 mount bracket to trans bolts, and pull the mount out the top.
I don’t have a pic but you’ll need to remove the down pipe to turbo or Exhaust manifold nuts. This is to allow movement in the engine as it hangs. The engine must move forward give the trans clearance past the “k-member” or else you’ll have a real difficult time getting the trans down and out.
Finally support the trans with a trans jack. Take a ratchet strap and strap the trans down to the jack to make sure it doesn’t fall on you.
Before you install the new trans make sure the threads on the torque converter studs are not damaged by starting a nut on each one. It would be a shame to install the trans then end up having to pull it back out because a nut wont go on the torque converter
Make sure there are no cracks in the flywheel, or major chips in the teeth. Check or replace the engine rear main seal. Make sure both engine to trans alignment dowels are in place. Note: add pic later. If they are not then your converter hub may wear out the bushing causing pump fail or front seal leak.
Make sure the converter is in all the way. See my page on converter installation depth. Also after you mate the engine to the trans you need to confirm that you have clearance, by wiggling the converter. If the converter is in all the way then the converter move freely with just hand effort, and as you wiggle and you will hear the converter studs bang back and forth inside the flywheel holes. If not pull the trans back out!
If you’re replacing the trans be sure to use the cooler off of the new trans. The old cooler could be contaminated our clogged from clutch material or metal from the failing trans, and you don’t want that causing problems with the new trans.
For filling see the 01m fluid and filter change information.