Tranny flush

Have my truck at firestone for AC service, and I figured while I was there I may as well have a trany flush. the truck is new to me, so I have no idea what its got in there.

anyway, after reading here quite a bit I was skeptical to have them do it because of the stories of what exact fluid should go in there.

I asked the guy and he said they had something that was good for all vehicles. "his tech drives a jeep and knows its ok"

anyway, any comments on this? I wanted the flush as opposed to just a drain/fill.

its an 01 with 95K miles on it.

Thanks!

Should be fine. I did mine at around 80,000.

Well, his tech guy might have the perfect fluid for all trannys; but are you going to be comfortable with that? You are the customer, and it's your money. Find out what works best, and tell them that's what you want.

Use DexIII thats what I used in mine. I dont understand what the big deal is? And take the fluid into them and Watch them put it into your Tranny!

Dropping the trans pan and changing the filter, changes out less than half the fluid. More than half the fluid is trapped in the Torque Converter and hydraulic circuits. The flush will change almost all the fluid in the trans.

Some people are of the school of thought that an older trans/engine is being held together by the gunk, sludge and dirt accumulated within. If you change the type of motor oil or flush the trans, it will be break free that gunk/sludge/dirt and make the motor/trans fall apart.

Granted, it can happen, accumulated dirt comes free and causes a leak or floating debris causes damage, becuase you switched to a better quality motor oil or flushed the trans. But its unlikely and if such a thing happened, your motor/trans was living on borrowed time anyway, and you just brought on the failure only a few miles ealier than if you had done nothing at all.

I have heard the stories about people that had trans problem and change their fluid only to have the trans fail just after changing the fluid. I've never experienced it myself NOR met anyone that that happened too, changing the fluid only has resulted in the same performance as prior or a slight improvement.

Some shops also buy Dexron II in bulk, because it is the most common, and use it for everything. If they do anything at all to address the type of fluid the trans needs, its to add a bottle of additive that advertises it changes Dexron II into Dexron III or Mercon or ATF+3, etc. That doesn't really work, the best thing to do is too use the exact fluid recommended for your vehicle. Thus the advice, to be very particular with the shop about what fluid they will use with the trans, unless you know for sure, there is a good chance the shop will just use the DexronII they bought in bulk.

Rick Anderson said:

I have heard the stories about people that had trans problem and change their fluid only to have the trans fail just after changing the fluid. I've never experienced it myself NOR met anyone that that happened too, changing the fluid only has resulted in the same performance as prior or a slight improvement.

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Hiya!

It happened to me. I had a 1990 Pontiac Transport with the 3.1 V6 and 3-speed automatic tranny. The fluid was off-colour, so I changed it and the filter. After refilling the tranny, the darn thing would slip and bang, lurch and stumble about like a drunken sailor. I wound up tossing three bottles of Lucas Tranny Treatment into it to get it to work again.