Just curious, since I just got the truck, but how do y'all change your transmission fluid? The reason I ask is I've gotten in the habit of putting a drain plug in the pan of all my automatic transmissionsand changing the fluid in the pan every other oil change. It doesn't get all of it at once, but over time it will get almost all of it, and the fluid stays fresher. I pull the pan and change the filter on the normal schedule.

I don't know how much this practice really helps, but when I sold my 1999 GMC it still had the original transmission at 283,000 miles, and my little Sport Trac has 145,000 miles on the original trans.

Anybody else do this?

 

Spread a BUNCH of newspaper on the ground under the truck, put a wide-mouth catch pan under it and carefully drop the pan. I may spring for a PML pan with a plug at the next change, but that's probably three years away. I'll probably just do a drop 'n' drain next time, since I won't have it to do again after that. I'll probably trade this one on an '11 in'13.

I'd say you have a good routine there, so no reason to change it. I wonder what an "aftermarket" drain plug would do to the warranty?

 

You probably already know that there are two filters. You really need to get the flat pan filter on correctly because it plugs right into the tranny pump. I did a complete flush and really loved the results (disconnect the return line). 16 quarts.

 

I'm not sure what an aftermarket drain plug would do to the warranty, but I'll fight them if they try to deny a warranty for a drain plug! Probably no more than an aftermarket pan would, though!