Yay or Nay?

Have heard alot of conflicting opinions..

Some say it can cause problems, some say its good..

I need to change my fluid soon, was wondering If I should flush too.

 

skip the flush, do the filter.

If you want to exchange your fluid, get a trans pan with a drain plug (or install while it is out). Doing so will allow you to drain the fluid as you please. Doing 5/6 qts now on your filter change, and draining it again next weekend or whenever you want without having to drop the pan again is a huge time saver and convenience. Add another 5/6 next weekend, and maybe do it one more time later on and i'd say your close enough to new. Really it is up to you how you want to do it, but I frown upon trans flushes.

 

Why is that?

Not criticizing, im just curious.

 

No problem. To give the short version, two out of two family vehicles that had had a trans flush have failed around 10k later. One of them being my dodge at 80k that never pulled a trailer a day in it's life. I got a good deal on it after that

From a routine maintenance stand point the flush sounds great, but once I had an understanding of what a flush was actually doing, it wasn't so much. Another thing to watch out for is what type fluid they are exchanging it with. odds are they don't have atf+4 in there, and don't buy into we add a bottle of friction modifier to convert dex 3 to whatever your type is. That was with the other car failure that was to take type F. You live and learned... and needless to say I am glad that I learned from others expensive mistakes

 

Alright, Ive never changed tranny fluid before In my life....

Should I just take it to an oil change place and tell them to just change fluid but not flush? and make sure they use atf+4?

Or should I try to do it myself? it kinda scares me....



If you have a sec, what exactly IS it doing?

 

If you are going to quick lube place for trans service, you might be better off not do it at all... pay a little extra, Buy urself few bottle of ATF +4, pan sealer, and filter, bring it to ur Mechanic. that will ensure it gets done right!
I dont trust those Universal ATF they used. I've also saw a few CVT trans gotten destroyed that doesnt take even ATF.

do it urself first time might be quite messy. not sure if the money is worth saving for u.

 

Nah, just do it yourself. Its just an oil change with a bunch more bolts. Last time I checked, it was like 80 bucks to have it done, and you can do it yourself for less than half that. Save you pennies, learn something new. Take a bath in trans fluid. (wait, I didn't really type that......)

When you drive, you trans gets nice and toasty warm. That has the tendency to cause the fluid to leave a varnish, or, even sludge, on various parts of the inside of the trans. Flushing your trans breaks all that crap loose, and it likes to accumulate in the WRONG side of the filter... so, the next time you drive, it circulates it all nicely thru the valve body. You know, that thing with all the neat metal parts the have tolerances measure in thousandths of an inch? Yeah. The results are rather predictable. Things get gummed up, and your trans stops working right. Rebuild time.

If a trans if flushed on a regular basis, its not really a big deal, but, if you have a bunch o' miles on your truck, and it has never been done, or, if you don't know if it has ever been done, DON'T do it. Unless you WANT to rebuild your trans.....

 

How much fluid can I expect to come out? and how do you even drain it? I dont have a drain plug.

 

Anywhere between four and six quarts immediately. Then, it just depends on how long you let it drip......

To drain it. Leave four corner bolts in place. Remove all the rest. Get yourself a LARGE drain pan.... and stick it under there. Remove the two bolts on one side, and then just barely loosen the two on the other side. (doesn't really matter which way ya go here... just gotta let the pan hang down a bit on one side.) You might have to pry the pan a bit to get the seal to break loose.... and if you do it too suddenly, you get a waterfall.... you want to just barely crack it loose, so you can sorta control the flow rate.... Once you have done this, all we be clear. (after it's too late..... and you are a mess......)


Just be careful. Don't get the fluid in your face. Tastes forking terrible.

 

^^^
On top of that, you have to scrap off all the residual sealers off the mating surface with a Razor blade patiently, Clean the Pan real good with a bottle of brake cleaer.

now apply the Sealer back on the Clean pan, wipe off ATF at the Trans side mating surface, reinstall the pan.

the worst part comes after you are done with the job... CLEAN UP UR GARAGE~~