Transaxle Drain Plug Size

New owner of a 2011 here, wanting to drain and refill transaxle soon. Wondering if someone can tell me the actual size of the treaded hole so that I can replace the drain plug with a fumoto valve. I drive a lot and plan on flushing this fluid at least 1x per year and I like to keep my garage floor as clean as I can. Already have one on my engine oil pan as well as on all my other cars and I love them.

 

Thanks for the replies so far.

Yes I understand this doesn't have to be done often, however I drive about 1500 miles per week and will have to /want to change the fluid regularly

Not quite sure the point about the gasket being at the bottom of the drain plug, I Assume the gasket will work the same way it does on the valve I installed on the oil pan

I have been using the valves on oil sumps on my cars for years and place a great deal of value in being able to attach a hose to the nipple and drain the contents of whatever directly into the container I'm going to recycle it in all with no risk of it going all over my garage or driveway

I managed to spill a good portion of the engine oil on my garage floor this past weekend when doing my first change on it since I was forced to rely on the original drain plug and was caught off guard by the gusto that hot TGMO 0w-20 exits that dump plug when the front wheels are up on rhino ramps.

Thus reinforcing my desire to install a valve on the transaxle plug port if at all possible

Yes I had considered the fill port as well and while I would consider installing a valve there as well it's not as critical as I feel I can do a cleaner job of installing the new fluid via a pump I have or a long funnel tube combo than I can of trying to catch the hot fluid draining out

I suspect what I may have to do if no one can offer the thread sizes is that I'll have to remove the plugs, take them to lowes/HD and use their measuring nut/bolt things to figure it out and then wait until the second drain/refill cycle to fit the valves as I won't be able to have the car down long enough to wait for the valves to come in, even with prime shipping, if nobody can give me the sizes ahead of time.

Thanks for the discussion so far.

 

yes, that is true, I hadn't considered doing that before, do you know what the part number might be?

 

This is great, thank you very much!

And yes, I'm a total fumoto valve fanboy, no mess, no worries about stripped oil pan threads, no need to buy additional drain plug gaskets, etc. I will put them on anything I own and sometimes on stuff I don't own but work on regularly, like other family members cars.

 

OK, update time:

One step forward one step back, I got around to changing my transaxle fluid this weekend with almost 30,000 miles exactly. I followed the step-by-step guides here on PC and they were a huge help. I took a sample of the fluid to send off to the lab and will post the results for everyone's benefit once I get them back, I'm not sure if there's a low-mileage original fill analysis floating around.

Now, as far as the Fumoto valve goes, you were spot on with the size, I ordered the F-104N for M18x1.5 and it would have fit, if not for some pesky bracing webs/kickouts in the transaxle casting which prevented it from spinning to tighten. I also tried it in the fill plug location, just for curiosity, and it doesn't fit there either.

Now I have to decide if I will order an adapter to push the fitting away from the transaxle body a little more, in hopes it will spin freely, or just lick my wounds and use the drain plugs like everyone else.

 

Indeed they do, I was going to order one in advance, but I thought, based on pictures of the transaxle I wouldn't need it. How wrong I was. and after looking at it in person finally, I'm not sure if one adapter would be long enough. I'll give it more thought in another 30k or so when it's time for the now fresh fluid to come out again. Thanks for your support!