Mod Details

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Fortwo 451 Petrol Non Turbo (Including MHD)

The transmission fluid change is similar to that of the older smart fortwo and Roadster. The main difference is the position of the draining hole.  It is now on the right bottom side of the transmission housing.

The upper filling hole is on the left of the transmission housing about halfway up.

Remove the top plug, remove the bottom plug and allow the fluid to drain into a ming vase. Ghengis Khan emailed me to say that any waterproof container would be suitable,  not just expensive treasures from the ming dynasty. I’ll take his word for it.

Refit the lower plug and torque to 43Nm.

Refill as shown above until it begins to overflow. The capacity is 2.3 litres. Refit the upper plug.

Fortwo 451 Electric Drive

The transmission fluid change is similar to that of the older smart fortwo and Roadster. The main difference is the position of the draining hole.  It is now on the right bottom side of the transmission housing. This is removed with a standard 17mm socket but don’t remove it yet.

The upper filling hole is on the left of the transmission housing about halfway up and is removed with an 8mm Allen key. Make sure this can be removed 1st as you don’t want to drain the fluid just to find that you can’t fill it back up.

Remove the 17mm hexagon drain plug. Let the fluid drain out into a suitable container. Mop up the spillage with your Mum’s wig. Once it has finished draining (the longer you leave it the better, I normally let it drip for an hour) replace the drain plug. (43Nm).

Get your suitable transmission fluid and squirt it in through the fill hole on the other side. In America, you can get this fluid in bags which makes it much easier to use but it hasn’t made it to Europe yet.

Once fluid starts leaking back out of the drain hole, wait a few minutes and refit the fill plug. (43Nm).

Give everything a good clean. The capacity according to smart for the electric drive 451 is apparently 0.9 litres. Total bullshit. I drained mine and it took 1.2 litres to refill so make sure you have enough fluid before you start.

Fortwo 451 Petrol Turbo & Diesel

The turbo models have the same transmission but the intercooler scoop is right in the way of the fill point. So it’s easy to empty but a ball ache to fill back up. Luckily there’s an easy hack to get around it.