Click here for original post with pictures
THIS THREAD IS ONLY FOR THE 6 SPEED AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION!! DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS RELATING TO THE MANUAL TRANSMISSIONS OR POST INFORMATION ABOUT THE OTHER TRANSMISSIONS AS IT WILL ONLY LEAD TO CONFUSION!!!
SIX SPEED AUTOMATIC ONLY!
With that said,
The AWTF-80SC is in 06+ Aeros as well as the 1.9 Diesel versions. It is also called the TF-80SC (AWF21, AF40-6, AM6, AW6A-EL) and TF-81SC (AF21).
Recommended Fluid: GM Part # 93165147. Or if you dont want to spend $25 a liter from GM then you can go for the Ford Motorcraft XT-8-QAW Transmisson fluid. Exact same stuff but much cheaper at $8 a quart from your local Ford dealer.
Saab, as well as Volvo and Ford all recommend fluid changes at 30K intervals on these transmissions. And they really do need changing every 30K miles because there is no fluid filter in these transmissions. Just a pickup screen, which is why the fluid gets so dirty so fast.
Step 1: Drive the car up on ramps, then jack the rear of the car up until it is level.
Step 2: Slide under your car and look for the drain bolt on the bottom side of the transmission near the drivers side of the car. Grab a pan to catch the fluid, as its about to come gushing out once that bolt is off. Get a Torx bit, a T40(Should be a T40 or T45) and un screw the inner bolt like so:
![]()
Once that is off fluid will come out of the middle and let it drain completely. Shoudnt take too long.
Step 3: Once its all drained out, get a 12mm hex bit and unscrew the drain plug.
![]()
![]()
I found these at Autozone. About $10 for all three.
![]()
This is where the majority of the fluid will come out. Careful cause this stuff is scolding hot. So hot it splashed on my sunburnt arm and gave me a second degree burn and made my skin peel and everything... Let that drain out completely. Be sure to measure exactly how much came out because that will be exactly how much to put back in!
Step 4: Refill. You have two options here. The hard way, and the hard way.
The first hard way involves unscrewing this POS of a bolt.
![]()
As you can see I stripped mine, because you cant get good angle on it because the turbo heat shield is in the way. You could take the heat shield off, but that involves unscrewing like 5 hard as hell to get to 10mm bolts.
So what to do now you may be asking with a transmission that has no fluid and no perciveable way to fill it back up?
Use the vent tube to fill it back up! Yes thats right boys and girls, The AWTF 80 has a vent tube attached to the side of the housing that SAAB was generous enough to attach a piece of 1/4" hose to and stick it near the ABS module. It looks like this!
![]()
The end of it should be hanging around the ABS module or brake booster/reservoir. The end of the hose will be pointing towards the ground. Find it, clean it off, and stick a tiny little funnel in it like so. I know its hard to see the funnel at first because its white and my Note 2 will sometimes over expose photos.
![]()
While you still have the drain plug open on the bottom, go ahead and flush about half of a quart of fluid through it to make sure youve got the right hose and if there was any debris in the hose it will flush it out.
Once clean fluid is pouring out of the drain plug, go ahead and put it back in and snug it all up down there. (sorry I dont have any torque specs for you by the book yellow bellies, I simply tightened it about the same amount I would the oil drain bolt. Be careful because it is an aluminum housing that can strip easily. Especially the little tiny one inside the big one.)
Anyways. Once its all tightened up, prepare to fill the transmission with clean new fluid. I did so by jamming the hose and funnel between the coolant reservoir and the brake fluid reservoir and stuffing a rag all around it in case I spilled any.
Go ahead and start slowly pouring fluid down the hose and prepare for the most boring thing you will ever do to your car. Throughout this process you will be staring at the tiny little funnel and start to question what you are doing with your life as the fluid takes its sweet time dripping in to the trans.
![]()
Be careful when doing this, because as you are filling the trans with a liquid, there is still alot of air inside of it that has no where to escape but out of the vent tube you are forcing fluid down. So, quite regularly as the fluid is draining, the transmission will burp and air will come bubbling up through tube. This will make quite a mess as you can see from the pictures so be sure to have some spare rags handy to wipe any up.
If you are impatient (like I am) then there is one thing you can do to speed it up. Remember that little tiny bolt inside the big drain bolt.
![]()
Yeah that one. If you take it out while filling up the trans, it will give the air thats trapped inside somewhere to go and it will fill up much quicker.
Now when I drained my trans I had about 2.75 quarts come out. So as I began to add it back with the little drain plug opened on the bottom I got about 2 quarts in the transmission before fluid began to pour out of the bottom. So obviously when that happens, you have no choice but to put the plug back in and just sit there and wait for it to slowly pour in.
All in all, the hardest part was jacking the car up in the rear and adding the fluid back was time consuming and boring as hell. I started draining the fluid at about 11AM and was all finished at about 12:45. So almost about an hour and a half if I knew what I was doing and hadent fought the dam stripped fill bolt.
So hopefully someone found this post helpful, and maybe it could even get stickied. Because it took me about a month to figure out exactly where that fill bolt was on the top of the trans and to find the dam fluid.
GM recommends doing a simple fluid change every 30K miles. And believe me, do it every 30K miles if you want your transmission to last. THESE ARE NOT "SEALED TRANSMISSIONS" FOR LIFE like some will say. The fluid in my car was changed at the dealer about 3 years ago at 64K miles by the previous owner. I changed mine at 93K miles and the fluid that came out was BLACK. Literally was black. Didnt smell burnt or anything it was just dirty as hell.
Ive drove about 300 miles on the new fluid so far and I can say that the downshifting has become ALOT smoother. These transmissions have sticking valve body issues and mine was starting to stick and clunk on downshifts. After I changed the fluid, I noticed an immediate improvement in shifting.
THIS THREAD IS ONLY FOR THE 6 SPEED AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION!! DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS RELATING TO THE MANUAL TRANSMISSIONS OR POST INFORMATION ABOUT THE OTHER TRANSMISSIONS AS IT WILL ONLY LEAD TO CONFUSION!!!
SIX SPEED AUTOMATIC ONLY!
With that said,
The AWTF-80SC is in 06+ Aeros as well as the 1.9 Diesel versions. It is also called the TF-80SC (AWF21, AF40-6, AM6, AW6A-EL) and TF-81SC (AF21).
Recommended Fluid: GM Part # 93165147. Or if you dont want to spend $25 a liter from GM then you can go for the Ford Motorcraft XT-8-QAW Transmisson fluid. Exact same stuff but much cheaper at $8 a quart from your local Ford dealer.
Saab, as well as Volvo and Ford all recommend fluid changes at 30K intervals on these transmissions. And they really do need changing every 30K miles because there is no fluid filter in these transmissions. Just a pickup screen, which is why the fluid gets so dirty so fast.
Step 1: Drive the car up on ramps, then jack the rear of the car up until it is level.
Step 2: Slide under your car and look for the drain bolt on the bottom side of the transmission near the drivers side of the car. Grab a pan to catch the fluid, as its about to come gushing out once that bolt is off. Get a Torx bit, a T40(Should be a T40 or T45) and un screw the inner bolt like so:
Once that is off fluid will come out of the middle and let it drain completely. Shoudnt take too long.
Step 3: Once its all drained out, get a 12mm hex bit and unscrew the drain plug.
I found these at Autozone. About $10 for all three.
This is where the majority of the fluid will come out. Careful cause this stuff is scolding hot. So hot it splashed on my sunburnt arm and gave me a second degree burn and made my skin peel and everything... Let that drain out completely. Be sure to measure exactly how much came out because that will be exactly how much to put back in!
Step 4: Refill. You have two options here. The hard way, and the hard way.
The first hard way involves unscrewing this POS of a bolt.
As you can see I stripped mine, because you cant get good angle on it because the turbo heat shield is in the way. You could take the heat shield off, but that involves unscrewing like 5 hard as hell to get to 10mm bolts.
So what to do now you may be asking with a transmission that has no fluid and no perciveable way to fill it back up?
Use the vent tube to fill it back up! Yes thats right boys and girls, The AWTF 80 has a vent tube attached to the side of the housing that SAAB was generous enough to attach a piece of 1/4" hose to and stick it near the ABS module. It looks like this!
The end of it should be hanging around the ABS module or brake booster/reservoir. The end of the hose will be pointing towards the ground. Find it, clean it off, and stick a tiny little funnel in it like so. I know its hard to see the funnel at first because its white and my Note 2 will sometimes over expose photos.
While you still have the drain plug open on the bottom, go ahead and flush about half of a quart of fluid through it to make sure youve got the right hose and if there was any debris in the hose it will flush it out.
Once clean fluid is pouring out of the drain plug, go ahead and put it back in and snug it all up down there. (sorry I dont have any torque specs for you by the book yellow bellies, I simply tightened it about the same amount I would the oil drain bolt. Be careful because it is an aluminum housing that can strip easily. Especially the little tiny one inside the big one.)
Anyways. Once its all tightened up, prepare to fill the transmission with clean new fluid. I did so by jamming the hose and funnel between the coolant reservoir and the brake fluid reservoir and stuffing a rag all around it in case I spilled any.
Go ahead and start slowly pouring fluid down the hose and prepare for the most boring thing you will ever do to your car. Throughout this process you will be staring at the tiny little funnel and start to question what you are doing with your life as the fluid takes its sweet time dripping in to the trans.
Be careful when doing this, because as you are filling the trans with a liquid, there is still alot of air inside of it that has no where to escape but out of the vent tube you are forcing fluid down. So, quite regularly as the fluid is draining, the transmission will burp and air will come bubbling up through tube. This will make quite a mess as you can see from the pictures so be sure to have some spare rags handy to wipe any up.
If you are impatient (like I am) then there is one thing you can do to speed it up. Remember that little tiny bolt inside the big drain bolt.
Yeah that one. If you take it out while filling up the trans, it will give the air thats trapped inside somewhere to go and it will fill up much quicker.
Now when I drained my trans I had about 2.75 quarts come out. So as I began to add it back with the little drain plug opened on the bottom I got about 2 quarts in the transmission before fluid began to pour out of the bottom. So obviously when that happens, you have no choice but to put the plug back in and just sit there and wait for it to slowly pour in.
All in all, the hardest part was jacking the car up in the rear and adding the fluid back was time consuming and boring as hell. I started draining the fluid at about 11AM and was all finished at about 12:45. So almost about an hour and a half if I knew what I was doing and hadent fought the dam stripped fill bolt.
So hopefully someone found this post helpful, and maybe it could even get stickied. Because it took me about a month to figure out exactly where that fill bolt was on the top of the trans and to find the dam fluid.
GM recommends doing a simple fluid change every 30K miles. And believe me, do it every 30K miles if you want your transmission to last. THESE ARE NOT "SEALED TRANSMISSIONS" FOR LIFE like some will say. The fluid in my car was changed at the dealer about 3 years ago at 64K miles by the previous owner. I changed mine at 93K miles and the fluid that came out was BLACK. Literally was black. Didnt smell burnt or anything it was just dirty as hell.
Ive drove about 300 miles on the new fluid so far and I can say that the downshifting has become ALOT smoother. These transmissions have sticking valve body issues and mine was starting to stick and clunk on downshifts. After I changed the fluid, I noticed an immediate improvement in shifting.
