tbirdscwd

Actually per the service manual, you can pull the cooler feed line and let all the fluid run out of the trans with the car running in park. This will drain the entire transmission including the converter. Then you can pull the pan, replace the filter, put the pan back on, and fill. There is no need to pay a grip ton of labor on a trans flush. 9 times out of 10, the service at a shop will not include the replacement of the filter anyways.

Here is a run down of the process on TCCoA
http://www.tccoa.com/articles/tranny/flushing.html

WhiteFoxGT

I dont care what the book says, Im not going to recommend to anyone to pump their trans dry as a bone with the car running. It may not hurt anything but its a mess and time consuming. 160$ isnt that bad considering that includes the cost of almost 15qts of fluid in most cases.

WannaBeGearHead

Does it actually hurt the trans if no fluid is in the trans even if it is in park. Nothing is actually engaged when in park, right"

Hangwire

+1 thankyou if you do that you deserve the heat scorched transmission internals that you get.

As has been stated above just draining your pain doesn't do anything to help overall. You need to bring it to a shop with a dialysis machine(same technology used to keep kidney failure patients alive). $160 is not a high price at all for that job. That $160 every 10,000-15,000 miles is going to save you a hell of a lot more than replacing failed parts as a result of overheated and overused fluid will. The service manual suggests a ridiculous amount of miles until you change the fluid. Thats because they want service at their dealerships.

WhiteFoxGT

Well things are still spinning. Just not everything. The parking pawl is engaged and the only things moving is the pump and converter. But still its not a good idea to run a trans low on flui let alone bone dry. Plain and simple

tbirdscwd

As long as you shut it off as soon as the fluid stops coming out of the line, there is no risk. Like you said, there is nothing engaged or spinning except the pump and converter. We're also talking about idle....you aren't building hardly any heat in the trans in neutral (park) at idle, let alone enough heat to smoke a transmission