LubriMatic 55-001 4CC Mechanical Fluid Pump for Quart Size Bottles

Recently worked great on a Miata manual trans and differential fluid change. I will provide a few tips that would probably solve some of the complaints I read about. Just about any manual fluid pump, including suction pumps, will have trouble with 80-90 weight oil if the fluid is cold. Even room temperature can be difficult to pump. I transfer 90 weight regularly on farm equipment, like bushhog gearboxes, and it is really hard on a cold day unless you heat the fluid you are pumping. When I remove fluid out of a gearbox with my manual suction pump, I make sure I have run the equipment to warm the oil and even put a heater on the gearbox for a while before suctioning. To heat the fluid in new plastic or metal containers, place the containers either in the sun in warm weather for a while or best of all in front of a small convection or IR type heater -- for maybe 10 to 15 minutes or until warm. Of course use common sense and place the container about a foot or two in front of the heater or whatever you consider safe so it doesn't catch fire. After the fluid gets warm, these little fluid pumps work great. The Plews is one of the better ones I've used as it pumped a fair amount of fluid with each push, but it still takes enough pumps to make some of my older muscles burn a little. If the fluid is too cold, the pump spring will take a while to return to the extended position, slowing the process down. One thing I like about the little pumps with short hoses is that you aren't losing a bunch of fluid in the tube as you would with a long hose stretched up and out the side of the vehicle. The dog-gone trans fluid was over $20 per quart, so I'm not not going to let much of that stuff hit the floor or get left in tubing if I can help it. The Redline bottles, from those I've used, are not standard quart size and thread (they are slightly smaller diameter), so the Plews will sit over the top without sealing. Therefore, take your time to make sure it doesn't spill. And one last thing if you are picky like me. Buy multiple pumps for different types of fluids so they don't mix. I'm not sure why you would try to clean them out, as that risks residue and contaminants. Another way is to pump the new stuff thru to clean the old stuff out, but we're back to the problem of $20 dollar quarts. This isn't such a big deal on farm implement gearboxes and cheap gear oil, but with modern cars it's better to pay a little more for the right tools. When done, place them individually in a ziplock and label them with the type and weight for the next time.

I bought this with the intention of filling my transmission fluid after I dropped the pan and changed the filter on my 2011 F-150, which uses Motorcraft Mercon LV. This was my first experience doing this sort of thing; never used one of these before.I had no trouble fitting this pump onto the Mercon LV quart bottle. Even with fitment issues, the pump will still work without a proper seal, which is a good thing because the best way to clean it after use is by sticking the straw into a bucket of water and pumping the water through it.Something to note is the photo is NOT accurate. The bottom portion of the pump is not flexible tubing, it's a solid straight straw which is roughly 6" in length. The straight straw worked perfectly fine, after tilting the bottle a few ways while pumping I was able to remove all but 1/2 tablespoon of fluid. I ended up adding too much transmission fluid and had to take some out, this pump worked great for that too. It did require 3/8" tubing to be added to the straw end, which is just a tad larger than the tubing that is on the out spout.It took me roughly 4 minutes to pump out the entire quart, but I didn't have the truck raised, was laying half way under it and had to pump the bottle with my arms over and behind my head with minimal room to work with. I imagine if you had proper room to work, or better yet a lift, it would take less than 2 minutes per quart.I found the tubing to be adequate in length, roughly 17" inches; if anything it was a little too long for what I was doing, but again the truck wasn't raised. It's easy enough to unclasp the tubing and add a longer or shorter piece if needed.The one thing I found slightly frustrating, there is no way to release the suction in order to empty the fluid in the tube. This isn't a big deal if you plan to empty the entire quart because as you begin to pump air the tube begins to empty. It can get messy if you need to check the fluid level part way through a quart bottle. What worked for me was raising the tubing as high as I could to gain a few inches of empty space in the tube, then I wedged the tube between the trans lines which held it in an upright position. When it was all said and done, I'd lost about 1 tablespoon of fluid between drips on the pan, ground and my hand.

No issues

ok

Great

Great idea! Worked awesome to fill my transfer case on my 2011 Chevy Silverado.

So this worked for what I needed it to. However, the transmission fluid I purchased (Motorcraft Mercon LV) came with the large opening/cap instead of the smaller opening/cap like this is designed for. So I ended up transferring fluid to another bottle of the correct size in order to make sure this screwed down tight and didn't have any issues. The pump works great, while it doesn't pump a lot of fluid on each pump, it's not overly difficult to go through a quart in under 2 minutes or so. A higher flow rate would be nice but for the $7 I paid for it, I can't complain too much. Overall it made filling the transmission fluid an easy, clean process. (Insert sarcasm here) Thank you Ford for putting the transmission fluid fill/dipstick under the truck on the transmission instead of having the old dipstick tube in the engine bay like before. Definitely makes it more difficult than it needs to be.UPDATE:The pump didn't seem to last as long as I'd hoped it would. I was using it for replacing the fluid in my rear differential with it just fell apart. I attempted to get it put back together but it just wasn't worth it. I broke down and bought another one just for the convenience that it provides, especially since the Expedition requires it for getting transmission fluid into it, unless there is a better pump out there, this will have to do.

Working as it should