Before my 00 GT i had a 96 mitsubishi. In august I had the trans flushed at Jiffy Lube. 2 months later BYE-BYE tranny. My buddy had his trans flushed in his 98 Taurus, 2 months later BYE BYE TRANNY. Coincidence???

Everyone I know that doesn't worry about maintenance like that get's 150 K out of their trans...these were both about 100.

 

I have been told by more than one transmission man (two own their own shops) not to mess with them unless they are slipping. As the clutches wear the fiber stays suspended in the fluid and if you change the fluid out; all of the fiber goes with it. I am a mechanic at the city garage here and we don't change the fluid in much of anything (transmissions.) Cop cars go well over 100,000 miles and you know how they drive those cars. It is very seldom that we have a problem. Change oil, air and fuel filters and drive.

 

uh oh.....changed soem tranny fluid last night

 

thats silly.. you need to change it BEFORE it starts to slip..


Tranny fluid has both lubrcants and solvents. Over time the lubracation proprties will go way and the solvents will go to work. it will be come gritty and abrasive., This will wear the fluid pasages and comonents. What happens then when you put new fluid in thats nice and slick again, because of the wear it will slip past the passages and not build up and pressure. Then your tranny will not move.

unless the tranny fluid is black black black and really burnt you will be ok. Usualy a flush will be alright. replacing all the fluid is key rather then just the about 4 quarts that you get when you drop the pan. There are usualy 10-13 quarts in the whole system. I did a flush on a toyota on monday that was REALLY bad. It sliped when it shfited and the fluid wasn't even remotely pink anymore. there is a site glass on the mechine that alows you to see the fluid coming out. it was a good 5 mins before it started to cealr up and finaly turn pink.


My sugestion. Get the flush before it's too late.

BTW, jiffy lube can be morons. They might have done it wrong.

 

Change it every 20-25 thousand, or don't change it at all. That seems to be the consensus here at work.

 

ive had my trasmission drained and refilled a few times sense ive gotten the car a little over a year ago. all three times were to put different parts in (i.e. shift kit, rebuild, converter). its been a few months sense the last time it was opened at its working the best it ever has...of course all three times the trans was worked on by a ford trained tech

 

I don't like those jiffy lube crap as it uses your trans pump...best thing is to drain the convertor if it has a plug and the pan..new filter..fill it up.. if you don't do the convertor you'll wasting your time but atleast the filter gets changed.. that why back in the 70's they did away with the plug as shops were just draining the fluid and refill and charging for the filter...

 

Do not flush on high mileage, on my old BMW, I drop the trans pan, new filter, than top of the fluid. 300K+ on the same trans and engine on the BMW.

Capri is a 5 speed......two clutchs in its life to date,

Later,

 

I would NEVER EVER "FLUSH" a transmission. You drain, change gasket, change filter ( alot of people dont push it all the way in so it falls down and ruins the trans) then fill it back up. It youre converter has a plug then you better plan on about 11 qts. But i would NEVER flush a trans, and it is silly to hear someone say not to service the fluid. That would CAUSE the trans to slip, clunk, shift erratic. Proper fluid levers is another problem, some people dont fill it all the way, or put too much in. You cant do that. When you flush youre putting pressure much higher than line pressure through the tranny. So youre removing alot of the debris in the lines, and clutch disks, and one-way clutches. youre putting all of that into other parts that are not going to operate with pieces of debris in between them and make it act differently.

 

I have heard the same thing from many mechanics on this tranny flushing deal. If you dont start doing it early on (20k miles or so) and wait till 100k your better off just leaving it alone. I never actually seen this urban myth at work on a vehicle but I have seen it before where I work. I run CNC machining equipment and some of these machines are very old and have had the same hydraulic fluid in them since... well, since they were first built. Then a new manager decided we should start doing prevenitive maint. on the machines to prevent machine down time. Guess what happened after the fluid was changed? Yep, lines started blowing out, seals started going and there was all this oil all over the place that was never there before! Dont know how this would relate to a auto tranny with 50k miles on it compared to a CNC machine with over 200k hours on it but its worth a thought since the hydraulics on these machins sorta relate to how a auto trans works.