this post was submitted on 23 May 2025
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My wife has a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The AC condenser got a leak in it and it was going to be over $2k to fix in a shop. I took it on myself to save money. The condenser mounts to the back of the radiator, so I had to get at it by removing the bumper and everything between that and the engine block. Also attached part of the radiator is the transmission cooler. Unhooking everything meant that I was going to lose some fluids, but that was fine, I'd top them off and pay to have refrigerant added.
After I reassembled, I when to check the trans fluid levels, and couldn't find the dipstick. It turns out, like you said, if you crawl under the vehicle, on the back of the trans pan is a bolt you can remove, and if you have a special dipstick that you buy separately for this sole purpose, you can stick it in there to check levels. There's not way to add fluid without pumping it in there, but at least you can see how much you have.
Since I only lost less than a quart, I took it into the shop, explained what's up, and asked for it to be topped off. The shop guy calls back later, and told me that to do the trans fluid, the filter is only sold with a whole new pan, and because Chrysler, the fluid cost like $40 a qt, and I needed like 15 to fill it. It still cost more than $800 to just do that, then more than $500 for the refrigerant. I still saved about $500-1k in parts and labor for what I did, but, the lack of dipstick and fill tube was an extremely inconvenient and expensive thing.
You don't need a disptick, you just fill it until it starts coming out of the hole. Lots of heavy equipment works this way.
You just check it with your finger. Then you use a container with a tube and squeeze the fluid in until it overflows.
Jeremy Hunt knows what's up
And if you manage to position yourself right you can get a face full of gear oil.
Note: make sure you're further away than you think you have to be, oil doesn't always flow how you'd expect.
I love this design, this way when your radiator starts to fail you get water in your transmission and destroy it with the strawberry milkshake of doom.
Like 99% of automatic transmission vehicles have a radiator built this way. Even my 1995 Camry had a radiator like that (manual transmission though).
Well the good news is your trans should last a little longer now that some of the fluid has been replaced.