i was at the dealer today talking with the tech there, and he told me that there is a change in the owners manual that he was just informed of. the manual suggests that you change your tranny fluid every 42k, but apparently that's been changed to every 18k now, which is a huge difference.

so everyone that's near or over 18k, go change your fluid if you haven't done it already!

 

On all my cars I usually have it changed every 14k anyhow....Thats odd that they'd go from 42k-18k wow...big difference.

 

Did they ever tell you why? If that is the case then we should be receiving a memo about it through the mail.

 

Yeah i was thinking the same thing. With the 01-02 stratus coupes (v6) there was a vaccuum hose diagram thingie that was wrong, so everyone got a thing in the mail STATING that it was wrong with a letter by DCX and a new sticker for under the hood.

 

thanks for the info psichick.

 

i'm sure that something will come soon enough. this was a very recent change, the tech only discovered it a few days ago. dcx likes to take its time informing us owners.

as for why the change was made, apparently the fluid is not holding up to the use in our trannies. the fluid is breaking down in an excellerated way, and to be safe it should be changed more frequenty. really everyone should be changing it at least once a year if not more anyway, so this shouldn't impact most people too much. they still recommend atf+4 (add fm for lsd).

 

I just think its a bit odd, that now that the 2005 models are coming out, the 2003s (which some already have way more than 42k on them, and even some 04s do as well) haven't been informed of that. So if those people were following their manual, and the accelerated breakdown of the fluid causes them transmission problems, is that gonna be covered?? Ahdunno why they'd wait till the LAST year the car's came out to tell us this.... It makes more sense noticing it when the 2003's hit 18,000 miles, then applying it. Whats the use now when more than 1/2 are way over that number without knowledge of such a problem? Sometimes DCX just sucks.

 

Since it's going to be awhile before I see 18k on the car, I'll do the once a year thing. Cheap insurance, just like oil changes.....

 

At the rate my car's NOT moving, its not gonna see 18k until 2006 comes around! How expensive are the flushes fro these cars? I know I paid like 180 dollars for a flush on my Stratus R/T that I could've done myself.

 

just do it yourself, don't pay for it. atf+4 is about $12 for 3 quarts, and it takes about an hour. you can do it in the driveway even, no need to pay for it to be done. i haven't a clue what it costs though, never paid for it to be done.

as for why they're doing it now, well that's beacause they're just realizing it now. if you look at the "normal" driving that the companies go by (about 12k/year), even the 03's shouldn't be too far past the 18k mark (went on sale about march 03, so 1.5 years puts you at 18k). so as far as dcx is concerned, there shouldn't be a problem. also, this is a very recent change, so you will hear about it, it just might take a few weeks. now if they turn this into a "recomended" change rather than a mandatory one, we as owners might never get notice, only dealerships would.