Hi all. I just purchased this vehicle and it's at 52,000 miles, so a bit early to do the complete fluid change. But I want to make sure my new baby has everything it needs to keep running for 152,000+.

I've read the various threads on tranny stuff and looked at Joe Black's excellent pix on how to perform a transmission fluid flush, so I'm pretty sure where to find the tranny fill plug. My question is, without a dipstick, how do you know when your fluid is low? And if you're trying to top it off, how do you know when is enough and when is too much? Aside from it spilling out, of course.

I don't know what kind of fluid is in there now (regular or synthetic) and if I need to top off, will it matter if I put synthetic in? I figured I should get a jump on changing over so put synthetic in now (if I need to) and then get the whole thing flushed in the next few thousand miles. This VX has been sitting for a while (only had 2,000 miles put on in the last two years) so will that make a difference?