Well I finally had a decent day on a weekend to get my flush done. I dropped the fluid out of the plan, then dropped the pan. I was told by Jim Ellis Mazda that there was no filter only a metal screen that could be cleaned and then reinstalled. Well, they were wrong. Turns out the 04 2.3L has a filter that is inclosed in a black plastic housing like the write up done not to long ago. So all I was able to do was let it drain as much as I could and then poured fresh RP thru it. I cleaned the pan off using SeaFoam cleaner. The magnet had a gray scum on it...but no real metal shavings so that was good. No sludge in the pan, but the oil was a bit brown. I used a paint stripper in a small bucket and a sponge type paint brush to dab the stripper along the gasket surface on both the pan and the trans. That stuffed worked well and it bubbled the gasket stuff right off...it did take some of the paint off as well but I wasn't too concerned about that since it's only the gasket surface. I bought some Black RTV Hitemp oil resistant sealant. I put a 1/8th inch beed all the way around the pan and around each bolt hose. Put the pan up but didn't put it against the trans., I put all of the bolts in a couple of thread each...then used 2 bolts to pull the pan in. I then went over each bolt but didn't fully tighten them as I wanted a small amount of the RTV to build a seal. If you fully tighten the bolts too soon you'll squish all of the RTV out and it could leak. I waited about an hour and a half before I put any tension on the bolts...keep in mind they were not too tight to begin with so I didn't put a whole lot on them either. I then poored in 3 qt. back into the fill tube...as I measured (using a 2qt. bucket I had) the oil that came out of the pan when I drained it. I unhooked the hose off the right side (looking at the front of the car) trans., this is the output hose. I hooked 3/8" ID hose...(there was a write up about doing this and he used 5/16" ID and it just wasn't going to fit when I tried so I went back and bought the 3/8" ID clear hose from Home Depot and bought a hose clamp just in case. The 3/8"ID fit with a little snug just like it should. I then taped the other end into the drain pan and eyeballed 3 qt. from draining the pan earlier. I started the car and it started pumping oil out into the pan. I went Park, to Reverse, to drive, to 2nd gear...but couldn't go further up in gears. Once I got 3 qts out I stopped the car and drained the pain and refilled 3 qts back in the fill tube. I repeated this one more time before I started getting fresh RP thru the clear tubing. I removed the hose and reinstalled the original, and put in the same amount of oil that I removed, and then checked the dip stick and it looked to be spot on but I will check it again tomorrow after I take it for a drive. I chose not to drive it tonight because I wanted to give a full 24hours for the RTV to setup and cure fully. All in all this was very easy and only took me about an hour and a half to do and that was looking at everything and seeing what was what. I was pissed that the dealer kinda screwed me but what else is new...I'll just drop the pan next engine oil change and change the trans filter. I'll post back tomorrow any changes I notice using RP.