On a 5 speed its not too hard, kind of like changing your oil
If its a manual you will need to get under the vehicle and you should see two plugs on the passenger side of the transmission one is towards the bottom (which is the drain) and one is towards the top (which is the fill)
Of course first you take out the bottom plug first until its finished draining such as if you were changing your oil, then put the plug back in.
Now this is where is sucks if you dont have a lift and/or a curved neck filler with a pump
The I way i would do it with out the above equipment would be to actually take out the shifter and fill is through there and then just check periodically at the fill plug to see if its full yet
You should fill up the tranny until the fluid is level with the fill plug hole so basically until the fluid starts coming out of the fill hole
put the fill plug back in and re seal the shifter then you done
It's kinda messy but you have to drop the pan off the bottom of the tranny. Make sure you have a large catch pan(like 3 gallons or bigger) cause there's lots of fluid in there. Most guys will loosen but not remove all the bolts then pry down on one cornor of the pan so the fluid drains out of one spot rather than dumping all the fluid at once into the catch pan,usually resulting in a large mess on the floor. Once you've got the pan off,drill a hole about 1/2 an inch or larger and get a SHORT bolt to plug the hole. Use some thread sealant and put the bolt in,from the outside of the pan. This will give you a drain plug for next time. Bolt the pan back up with a new gasket if needed. Then remove your tranny dipstick. If you don't know your transmission dipstick from the oil dipstick,then don't do this job yourself,get a mechanic to do it! Using a funnel add the appropiate amount of trans fluid(check the owners manual for the amount and type of fluid). Take note of the fluid that came out of the car,if it's kinda brown(not red) and smells like burnt toast then that's an indication of larger problems within the trans and you will need to start looking into a rebuild.
It's kinda messy but you have to drop the pan off the bottom of the tranny. Make sure you have a large catch pan(like 3 gallons or bigger) cause there's lots of fluid in there. Most guys will loosen but not remove all the bolts then pry down on one cornor of the pan so the fluid drains out of one spot rather than dumping all the fluid at once into the catch pan,usually resulting in a large mess on the floor. Once you've got the pan off,drill a hole about 1/2 an inch or larger and get a SHORT bolt to plug the hole. Use some thread sealant and put the bolt in,from the outside of the pan. This will give you a drain plug for next time. Bolt the pan back up with a new gasket if needed. Then remove your tranny dipstick. If you don't know your transmission dipstick from the oil dipstick,then don't do this job yourself,get a mechanic to do it! Using a funnel add the appropiate amount of trans fluid(check the owners manual for the amount and type of fluid). Take note of the fluid that came out of the car,if it's kinda brown(not red) and smells like burnt toast then that's an indication of larger problems within the trans and you will need to start looking into a rebuild.
You do realize that this will only remove 6 of the 12.8 quarts of fluid from the tranny? You also need to drain the torque converter. There is a rubber plug in the bottom of the housing towards the front. Remove this and you will see the torque converter, you may need to turn the motor over until you can see the torque converter drain plug. Even with draining the pan and the torque converter you will still be left with the fluid in the lines. Between the pan and the torque converter, at best you can remove ~80% of the fluid.
Here is a good site with lots of information on the 4R70W.
Also, there is a pan you can buy with a drain if you don't want to drill it yourself. I have one on my GT. The part number is F8UZ-7A194-AA and I got it for $55.
Good point. There's really no way for the average home DIY'er to completely eliminate all the old fluid in the tranny. Some oil change places offer a tranny fluid flush and change that would work better to get all the old crud out. Obviously a little more expensive though.
Using the tranny itself you can pump all of the fluid out but, it may be beyond what a lot of people are willing to do. There is an article describing this method at the link I provided above. I don't want to discourage anyone from trying it as it can certainly be done.