Tranny fluid

I was changing my radiator last night and when I disconnected my upper tranny line the fluid that came out of it was brown. It didn't smell burned but I am a little worried about it. My wife has had it for 5 or 6 years and I just started driving it. I don't know what she had done to it before and she doesn't know either(been married about a year) . I want to change the fluid but I have heard that changing burned fluid is bad. How can I tell? And what should I do?

do a search!

this has been discussed THOUROUGHLY in the past.

basically (my opinion) i would see how many miles it has been since the last tranny fluid change (if ever) and report back to us on here.

if it has been too long (some say over 100k miles) since fluid change that you should NOT change the fluid for risk of doing more damage than good.
-if u want to know more about reasons why, just ask.

ummm, also, if u are just finding out that the fluid is brownish cuz u pulled one of the tranny cooler lines.......darei ask when was the last time u checked the dipstick?

get back to us after your search and with a lot more specifics about miles, year, engine, driving style/climate etc etc etc and we'll try to help!

CaptTrev

Yeah I read through all of it. I still don't really understand why it is bad to change it if it has been a while. Its a 93 4.0L with 183k miles and I can't tell you if it has ever been changed. So I guess what I am asking now is why would it hurt it? I read through everything about transmissions and fluid etc last night and all that I can find is that some people think that it is bad to change really old fluid because it might be helping the tranny.

IMO, just change it. I don't agree that brown fluid helps. Mine was brown when I bought it, and I changed it out...drives just fine and it's been ~8k miles since. I bought mine used with no service records.

Take 2 quarts of Dex-3 out, add 2 back.
Drive XJ till it is hot.
Repeat twice.
Drain plug makes it easy.
Recycle the oil at a parts store.
That will get it much cleaner easy way.
1 hour + 25$ for oil at jeep parts department.

Anyone want to comment on the #4 fluid as an additive would be appreciated.

I also would like advice on this question. I have a 2000 xj classic w/ 76k miles and my tranny fluid is brown. Was going to change it, but have not got around to it yet. I have heard some people say I need to take off the bottom cover of tranny, completely flush it, replace filter and reseal. And some people say I just drain and fill, about 3 different times. I need to prof. advice from someone who knows what they are talking about.

I can tell you this about an auto trans.

The system on an xj hold somewhere between 10-13 quarts of fluid. when you drain the pan and replace the filter you may get 5-6 out of it. The only way that you can inssure that all of the fluid was changed is take it to someone that does auto trans work and tell them you want to have the trans flushed. What they do then is they pull the pan off and drain out the 5-6 qts they then hook a machine up to it that forces clean fluid through the rest of the system. and i think they run clean fluid thourgh it tell they get clean fluid out. witch means that the they have removed any loose debris or sludge. and then they will refill the whole thing after they have replaced the filter and all.

Using this method is the only way you can really be sure that ALL of the fluid was changed. And i'm like some of the rest of you i don't understand how it harms a transmission to change the fluid if it has been a while? I would like it if some one could explain that one to me.

HTH

Jerm S.

take off the pan, remove seal, fluid, filter, put it through the gears a few times to loosen up stuck shit.
then unbolt tranny, pull torque converter, drill a small hole in it, drain fluid, thread hole, plug hole, replace tc
add new filter, new seal, replace pan, fill with atf and drive the fucker. :variety:


edit: might as well do the seals while you're there :wave:

I had my shop unhook the end that goes into the cooler and then just dump new fluid in the dipstick till it comes out red.

And yes change it. I flushed mine with reg. fluid and it truned brown right away so I did it again usign Redline ATF and it's been red ever since.

And the ideas behind not flushing the tranny because of mileage are BS.

Weasel said:

And the ideas behind not flushing the tranny because of mileage are BS.

Click to expand...

Jerm S. said:

And i'm like some of the rest of you i don't understand how it harms a transmission to change the fluid if it has been a while? I would like it if some one could explain that one to me.

Click to expand...

This is a good thread from this past summer that should pretty much sum up everything.


trasmission oil change
http://www.naxja.org/forum/search.php?searchid=26615

"(the old fluid, which contains much of the worn tranny material in it, helps to add (contain) friction to the fluid mixture=better behaving tranny, whereas if you CHANGE the fluid in a worn out tranny you are removing all the needed material that tranny needs to shift....or so i was told"

Qoute from the last post. This is a perfect of the example I of BS I was talking about. A tranny does not need old whatever floating around in it to help it preform better, thats what causes wear on the tranny.

Weasel said:

"(the old fluid, which contains much of the worn tranny material in it, helps to add (contain) friction to the fluid mixture=better behaving tranny, whereas if you CHANGE the fluid in a worn out tranny you are removing all the needed material that tranny needs to shift....or so i was told"

Qoute from the last post. This is a perfect of the example I of BS I was talking about. A tranny does not need old whatever floating around in it to help it preform better, thats what causes wear on the tranny.

Click to expand...

do you have physical proof of this?

As I said in the original thread. at work we had a very high mileage auto tranny, in which the fluid was never EVER changed. we changed the fluid, and within a week the tranny DIED.
the tranny EXPERT we brought it to explained how the fluid change killed the tranny.

my $.02
as always, anyone can take it or leave it.

CaptTrev

You can flush virtually all the fluid out without anything special. First dump the fluid in the pan, change the filter, and refill by the same amount you removed. Next disconnect the cooler hose that is going into the cooler and put it in a jug. Start the engine and dump fresh fluid down the dip stick at about the same rate it gets pumped out into your jug. Flush about 10 quarts worth in this manner and you will have replaced pretty much all of the fluid. This is much easier with two people so one can be in control of the "pump" operation.

Another vote for changing it.

I'm sorry but I can't stay out....

Any EXPERT who says changing any oil in any mechanical devise is bad, ain't no EXPERT!

Come on lets get real, what kills things is wear, wear comes from crap in the oil running by all the nice parts inside.

Because something died after you worked on it just means you didn't work on it SOON enough. It's call maintenance!

Change your oil as much as you have time and can afford to, it WILL make things last longer, period!

hinkley

Definition:
oil=atf or whatever it calls for

ditto what Mark said. I've heard to many of these so called Tranny and whatever else "Experts" give so much bad advice and are filled with so much BS it isn't funny. Like the expert that said not to change the fluid cause the clutch packs absorb the fluid and changine it would ruin them. Right, they aren't sponges.