One other point that I forgot to mention. Remember that when doing a 3 x 3 change, you have to drive the car for a few kms, or at least start the engine when the car is on the hoist and operate the transmission through all gears to circulate the fluid (a mixture of, old and new) through the system.
This will also flush the new mix through the transmission cooler. So opening the system up between the transmission and the transmission cooler is not going to achieve any benefit, other than dropping out more of the mixed fluid.Also, the transmission is not a sealed, pressured system and vents to atmosphere via the dipstick tube. There will be some air in there at all times.
As regards Valvoline Maxlife. It is still here in Oz. I used it in my 1st 3 x 3 change, just after I bought the car 11 months ago and have just used it for the 2nd 3 x 3. But rather than looking for 4 litre containers of the stuff at Auto Accessory Shops, I got my local garage, who use Valvoline products across the board, to do the changes (with me in attendance) when they did the last normal 10,000m km interval service. They stock it in bulk and use it in quite a few different makes of vehicle (I also use it in my SAAB's Auto Trans.)
They did not mind me taking the car off the hoist between fills and disappearing for 15 minutes to do the prerequisite drive arounds.
Now that I have done two lots of 3 x 3 changes, I am confident that pretty well all of the original factory initial fill fluid has been removed and I will also be doing as Freedops says, a single drop/refill annually.
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