Just wanted to share a little personal experience with my '04 Xfire (which continues to be a great car, by the way!).

As my car will soon have been in existence for 4 years - and, even though it only has about 16.5K miles on it - I decided to change the transmission and differential fluids.

If you haven't done this, then I strongly recommend it - both were terribly dirty (no performance issues) and in bad need of change! The magnetic plug out of the transmission looked like Gabby Hays' beard, so I was pleased to see it was doing its job!

Replaced transmission fluid with synthetic M&B Slick Shift and the diff fluid with Mobil 1 gear fluid (75W-90).

 

Hey, great. How about a few pointers. Like (1) How to get that funny cap off the Auto tube, and (2) Where to fill the differential. Thanks-a-bunch, Jim down-under in New Zealand.

 

Don't really have any words of wisdom, except it is a straightforward process... Obviously, it will be necessary to put the car up on a rack...

1)Transmission: I have a manual tranny, so there is not much to it - a drain plug on the bottom and a fill plug on the right side... Torque specs are 60 N-m on drain plug - 50 N-m on fill plug

In looking at the shop manual, the auto is somewhat more involved as the tranny has an oil cooler and there are more things to move... Recommend locate a shop manual and look for the appropriate service info.

2) Differential: Again, 2 plugs - drain on the right, lower rear of the diff housing - fill plug on the left, high and forward... both have torque specs of 50 N-m

Good luck! It is worth the effort to service these items!!!