transmission

[vipermanz]

has anbody else heard this, if you haven't changed an automatic's transmission fluid by 60k miles, Don't change it??

[HPRookie]

No, but I have noticed that when you start trying to fix stuff that ain't broke it sometime goes tit's up! I have also heard of tranny's burning up with old nasty fluid!

Maybe new trans-fluid will disolve varnish build up and send big chunks of it through the system clogging valve bodies & stuff? Like used to happen when you switched to high detergent oil from regular in the 50's & 60's. That was a real fast way to burn up your engine.

I wouldn't let these fears stop me from performing maintenance.

[Sandy]

Well depends on how many eons back that statement goes. In modern times with modern designs (since dexron) the lubricating qualities of the tranny fluid plays a much larger part than it used to. Soooo, if you have a relatively new vehicle, it does need occasional change out. How often? That's up for discussion, but whether to do it or not isn't. Not at $2,300 and up for auto trannies anyway.
Could be "if you haven't changed fluid by 60k miles, don't bother", (sarcasm included).

[vipermanz]

it's a 97 mustang with 73k miles, i would think having it flushed and then changed might work

[Packrat]

I was just talking with a fello employee... He use to rebuild them for a living. His advice.... Drop the pan, wipe it out, change the filter, new gasket, and filler up again. After that many Miles, it wouldn't hurt to drain the torque converter too.

[Sandy]

it's a 97 mustang with 73k miles, i would think having it flushed and then changed might work

Yeh that's plenty new enough to fall under the more rigid maintenance routines. If you go by the manual or the quickie lube shops you'd be changing the fluid every other day. I'm sure that's way overkill but the newer ones really do rely a lot on the lubricating qualities of the fluid, much more so than the older ones we grew up with. Alot of the rate of maintenance has to do with your driving habits also.

The new trannies are so expensive it makes things like this a little more critical now. The age of a used tranny for $325 at the junk yard are gone.

The quickie lubes can pump through new fluid with an exchanger pretty darn easily, and that takes care of the torque converter issue. It isn't unusual for them to leave you down about a pint tho. If you do that just check it after you run it for a day.

Packrat does have a point. There is a filter that can't be gotten to unless you drop the pan. Might be worth thinking about.

[Tinker]

I've got a recent story.. My son was given an '87 Chrysler Fifth Avenue for sharing truck driving duties on a long distance move. It had a rebuilt motor but the details and the overall mileage on the vehicle weren't known. It seemed to run OK but the tranny seemed to balk sometimes in the 2-3 shift. Before we put the effort into getting the thing smog checked and registered here in CA it seemed like a good idea to get the tranny checked so off to Aamco it went for one of their free checkups. Well they confirmed the symptom during a test drive then pulled the pan for a look see. They told us it was shot and they would rebuild it for $1,500. Not a good bet for a "free" car with unknown chances of passing smog so we passed on that. Son went to pick up the car and it was now slipping so bad that he couldn't even make it up some small hills to get back home.

Raised hell with Aamco and they told us that the tech probably used some new fluid to top it off after putting the pan back on. They said that the old fluid was probably just thick enough to keep things running with the bad clutch disks. They offered to rebuild for $1,000. No thanks.

So did some research on the tranny and took a chance on a rebuild kit and manual from a shop up in Oregon, about $100. To make a long story short, I'd done a lot of mechanical work but never had the nerve to work on an automatic. The worst part of the job was getting the darn tranny out, way too much old grease and dirt. The rebuild was pretty easy. Most of the friction material was worn off the clutch disks so it was no wonder that the thing slipped like crazy. The car passed smog with flying colors and it's been on the road for several months.

After that experience we're adding the fluid and filter change as well as any recommended adjustments at the suggested intervals. My daughters Durango was the first at about 72K miles and I was glad not to find any clutch gunk in the bottom of the pan :)

[FSC]

Depending on level of service, 60,000 is a good time to do a transmission service.
Drop the pan and change the filter, change what oil you can, as most cars do not have a drain on the converter.
If the oil is not severely burned or contaminated, the portion of oil left in the system wont be an issue.
If the oil is still dirty, you can change it again or have it flushed.
The practice of flushing without changing the filter is ill advised because when you are finished, the dirt is still in there, also, examining the debris in the bottom of the pan can reveal, to a large degree, the overall health of the transmission.

[flippedranger]

Drop the pan and save the old fluid. If there are big shavings or plastics pieces in the pan clean it out replace the filter and pour the old tranny fluid back in it. Cuz tranny fluid has a high detergent it will wash away the the crap that holiding it together. But if it has small amounts of shavings its normal

[Randy448]

change the fluid every 30K While pan is off get drain plug kit from NAPA or Pepboyz or Auto Zone and put it on for next time.