I have a 2020 Kia Rio with 54K miles. The dealership has said go ahead and do a transmission service, because it’s needed more often with CVT’s. That might be wise advice, because a friend had one of the Nissan’s with the early CVT’s that crapped out before 75K miles. But… mine’s still going fine, and non-dealership mechanic told me that he only goes for the transmission service if there’s real symptoms, since as most of you probably know, what you’re flushing out isn’t pure liquid and can cause damage. My warranty runs to 100K and I plan to sell it before that, but I don’t want to leave someone with a ticking time bomb of a poorly maintained vehicle. Am I creating a problem for the next owner by selling at 95K and never having it serviced? Or worse, am I risking stranding myself at some point even though the performance is great?
Do you go to the dentist for a cleaning and exam before you have a toothache or after?
People say that servicing a transmission can cause trans failure. That’s only true if the transmission is on its way out anyway. I would service it now.
Thanks everyone… Yeah, I am always a little suspicious of someone saying you don’t need a service when his shop doesn’t provide that service anyway, which was the case with the guy advising against.
Not exactly true anymore. With so many different ATF types out there, the wrong type can certainly damage your transmission. Beware of shops that use a “universal ATF with vehicle specific additives”. Also be careful with shops that service different models with the same machine even though they may use the factory ATF for each vehicle servced. The ATF may be contaminated with other types of fluid which may or may not do harm.
As I understand it, Generally speaking, you are NOT supposed to flush a CVT transmission using a normal pressurized flush machine, only drain and fill, or pan drop if it has a pan and filter if applicable, or the dealer/shop might have a CVT ATF exchange machine that is designed to exchange the CVT ATF… So a flush machine is taken out of the equation… Think of it like pulling the cooler lines and sticking the inlet line/hose in a big bucket/barrel of clean fresh CVT ATF and the outlet line/hose in another big empty bucket and run the engine and run 12-15 quarts of the proper CVT ATF, so even if a different branded CVT ATF was in the lines, the lines would basically self flush themselves…
Mechanic spent a lot of money for a flush (fluid exchange) machine and needs to amortize that cost over as many vehicles as possible. You are not supposed to do a lot of things, but when it comes to doing those things or lose a lot of money, people will do it.
