DIY DSG Fluid and Filter Change

Crud_muffin · Jul 21, 2018

Did this today too. At 25k mi. on 2016 GTI DSG. Its been 3 summers with 110F+ heat and tuned, so was curious how it looked and didn't want to wait to 40k.

Old fluid had color still but was dark. New Pentosin was light and transparent. With the car slightly front end up, drained 4.8L and filled 4.9L (extra for filter). Filled from hole at top filter area. Slow process. Will get something like the attached pic next time - slowly feeds on it's own propped up instead of numerous small pours. Holds a good amount and has on/off spout.

All in all, very DIY and less than $125 for fluid, filter, gasket, and crush washer.

Hoon · Jul 21, 2018

That fluid seems really dark, much darker than mine.

Did mine a few weeks ago, 35k miles, a few track trips, regularly beaten on during daily driving, tuned since 2k miles and IS38 since 28k.

Fluid that came out was the same caramel color as new fluid, with a very slight metallic flake in the bottom of the drain pan. Looked really good IMO.

4.5L came out, refilled with 4.65L. Did not do the VW procedure, seems like a complete waste of time IMO.

DAS_STIG · Jul 21, 2018

Mine was same color as Crudulous.

DAS_STIG · Jul 22, 2018

Is there any danger to "checking" the fluid level after doing a measure/fill? So letting fluid heat up to 35C then opening the plug to see if any drains out?

IDontLikeSpam · Jul 22, 2018

Dybz said:
Is there any danger to "checking" the fluid level after doing a measure/fill? So letting fluid heat up to 35C then opening the plug to see if any drains out?

IANA professional, but I’d guess not...You'd basically be doing the last step of the bottom-fill/VAS tool method. If you got the quantity spot-on, there’d be either no flow, or a broken stream. If you overfilled, you’d have a constant stream of overflow until the fluid drained to the top of the fill tube. So in that case, “checking” would be a good thing.

I’d suggest going through all the gears before opening the drain/fill port to check for overflow.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

DAS_STIG · Jul 22, 2018

IDontLikeSpam said:
IANA professional, but I’d guess not...You'd basically be doing the last step of the bottom-fill/VAS tool method. If you got the quantity spot-on, there’d be either no flow, or a broken stream. If you overfilled, you’d have a constant stream of overflow until the fluid drained to the top of the fill tube. So in that case, “checking” would be a good thing.

I’d suggest going through all the gears before opening the drain/fill port to check for overflow.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tried it out at as soon as temp hit 35C. Ran through gears as recommended for OEM method and as you mentioned had a very broken on/off flow. Maybe drained 50-100ml before calling it as flow was so broken. Makes me feel good about measure/fill that I hit the quantity right on.

Crud_muffin · Jul 22, 2018

Dybz said:
Tried it out at as soon as temp hit 35C. Ran through gears as recommended for OEM method and as you mentioned had a very broken on/off flow. Maybe drained 50-100ml before calling it as flow was so broken. Makes me feel good about measure/fill that I hit the quantity right on.

Nice follow up with the results of measure/fill method.

sshlyk · Jul 23, 2018

IDontLikeSpam said:
New fluid was caramel color going in. Old stuff (20k) was caramel with grey soot suspended in it. It has kind of an acrid but sweet smell.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you! My mechanic told me that DSG fluid smells terrible, maybe it was the case for older VWs

Summons · Jul 29, 2018

Has anyone done a 7.5 DSG yet?

I had mine up on a hoist a while ago, and noted a tunnel from the back of the tranny beside the drive and exhaust that might give access to the filter from under the car (the filter also looked like it was rolled on it's side rather than upright) rather than pulling the intake and battery...
If I interpreted what I saw right I guess no top fill method anymore, and a bottom fill tool becomes preferred.
Comments anyone?
E

MKVIISpec · Jul 29, 2018

Currently in the process of finishing this service, whenever I go into OBDEleven to check trans fluid temp, it just displays “not available”. Anyone know what the deal is? TIA

imthanick_a · Sep 14, 2018

This may be a really dumb question, but is it necessary to jack up the car to do this service or can it be reached without lifting? I hate lifting this car onto jack stands - scares the shit out of me.

imthanick_a · Sep 14, 2018

flipflp said:
Hi George,

Excellent write up, like you I never understood the bottom fill method because of loss of fluid and the slow gravity feed using the OEM tool. I ended up buying the DAP kit so I have the bottom fill tool if I need.

I wanted to add that someone on another forum suggested this funnel because the tip apparently fits directly into the filter hole:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EH4V0Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For ~$8 it's a great addition to your top fill tool kit.

I bought this funnel and it came broken. Blue part snapped halfway off at the neck. Nothing a little superglue (and a LOT of hot glue) didn't fix.

DAS_STIG · Sep 14, 2018

imthanick_a said:
This may be a really dumb question, but is it necessary to jack up the car to do this service or can it be reached without lifting? I hate lifting this car onto jack stands - scares the shit out of me.

If you have long arms or a long socket wrench, are relatively skinny, and can fit some mechanism to collect the fluid you're draining it can be done without lifting the car.

imthanick_a · Sep 16, 2018

Dybz said:
If you have long arms or a long socket wrench, are relatively skinny, and can fit some mechanism to collect the fluid you're draining it can be done without lifting the car.

Thanks. Verified it can be done just now. If I have to, I'll jack up the car enough to get in there to take out the plug and snorkel, then let it back down to drain for a while and again to put the plug back in and fill. I will be doing the top fill method. Where do you put the tube from the funnel? Is it obvious once you have the fliter out?

Edit: here's a picture. It's pretty obvious. Is this amount of fluid left in the "bowl" normal?

I measured 4.5 liters of waste fluid so I replaced 4.6ish because I'm sure I wiped the extra 0.1 liter off my hand and the ground. The car sat for probably 2 hours after driving to the parts store to get the 14mm and 24mm socket. The fluid was still pretty warm when I drained it so I'm hoping it's not going to make a huge difference on the measured amount that drained out and it will be accurate.
Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

rodon · Mar 6, 2019

Top fill - DONE

Thanks for all of the info, I did this successfully to my '15 GTI via the drain and measure/top fill technique.

Sticking it to the man and doing it yourself: $200 saved (approximately)
Satisfaction of knowing the job was done properly: no monetary value, but slept soundly and I hope to have the car when it hits 80k miles to do it again
Mistakenly ordering two 14mm hex drivers from Amazon and realizing it's hardly worth returning one because of shipping charge: high "Doh!" factor
'Christening' your brand new concrete garage floor with about 1/2 qt of old DSG fluid*: priceless

* plastic drain pan had a small crack in it and fluid crept out while I went away to let it drain for a bit. New house my wife and I just moved into. F me - oh well, I'm sure it won't be the last mess in there...

DIY DSG Fluid and Filter Change

Crud_muffin

Ready to race!

Hoon

Autocross Champion

DAS_STIG

Banned

DAS_STIG

Banned

IDontLikeSpam

New member

DAS_STIG

Banned

Crud_muffin

Ready to race!

sshlyk

Ready to race!

Summons

New member

MKVIISpec

Ready to race!

imthanick_a

Autocross Champion

imthanick_a

Autocross Champion

DAS_STIG

Banned

imthanick_a

Autocross Champion

rodon

Passed Driver's Ed