I have a 3/4 ton chevy silverado. It has 106,000 miles. I have not had the transmission fluid changed yet. I’ve read it is best to change fluid between 60,000 and 100,000 miles and to change this every 30,000 miles. I’ve also heard that if I have not had this changed prior to 60,000 miles that it is too late to change this now. Is this correct? Recently, I’ve noticed the transmission slips when shifting geers(this is automatic transmission). What do you recommend.
Those recommendations about 60, 100k, or eternity transmission fluid changes are ill advised to put it in the politest term possible.
Changing the fluid and filter will not hurt anything. What you heard about this issue is an old wives tale.
It’s always preferred the transmission pan be dropped and cleaned and the filter changed.
With the pan off one can look it over and determine whether or not to stray far from home or keep the vehicle close to the ranch.
If the pan is full of metallic particles and/or has an excessive amount of brown or black debris in it then odds are the transmission is on the way out.
(A very light dusting of grunge on the bottom of the pan is generally nothing to worry about.)
Hope that helps.
When an automatic transmission begins to slip, the damage is done and is accelerated. And changing the tranny fluid ain’t goin’ to save it.
Tester
People often mean different things by slipping. Slipping would be when the engine revs up between gears without delivering any power.
If that is what you mean - actual slipping, then Tester is right about that. ok4450 is right about the pan/filter/fluid changing. But frankly if the transmission is actually slipping then it will be a waste of time & money.
Perhaps you best local transmission shop is your best bet. They can evaluate it and then do the pan/filter service if that makes sense (or rebuild it if it doesn’t).
I agree that once it starts slipping damage is being and has been done to it. What year is your silverado??
transman
I’m in agreement that if the transmission is slipping and especially if it hss been doing this for even a short time then it’s damaged goods.
Dropping the pan will at least provide some insight into the problem because if the goo can be spooned out then the bitter end has arrived.
An example of how quick they can go is a Chevy I once owned, and wished I still had. It was a black on black '72 Monte Carlo and one weekend my wife and I got a wild hair and decided to trade it off on a Camaro strictly on a whim. Before we even finished the paperwork a salesman wanted to buy the car himself and asked some questions about it. I handed him the keys and told him to feel free to test drive it all he wanted to.
He took a 15 minute drive and came back gushing about great the car ran, trans shifted smooth, A/C ice cold, etc.
Deals were done and a few weeks later I hear the salesman is badmouthing me for knowingly selling him a car with a bad transmission. Off I go to the lot to iron this out and apparently he decided to bug out before I got there.
Come to find out he bought this car for his 16 year old son and Junior had his hands on it for a few weeks. The used car manager told me that the salesman’s son was “hxxx on wheels” and while he did not want to say much else, he did infer that this kid was a bit of a troublemaker and had a few run-ins with the law already.
Point being that this kid took the transmission out in 2 weeks time and on the day we traded the car off it was fine. Matter of fact, we had just gotten back from a near 2000 mile trip the month before.
After you get the current trans fixed, rebuilt, or replaced - go to the 30K trans service in the future.
[b] I've also heard that if I have not had this changed prior to 60,000 miles that it is too late to change this now.[/b]
That advice comes from the many people who have ignored maintenance of their automatic transmissions. They don't get maintenance so when it starts showing problems they run to have the fluid changed. Then when it fails in a few hundred miles they blame it one the fluid change.
The real problem was the lack of regular fluid changes (like every 20 - 30,000 miles), that could have prevented the damage.I agree with the previous answers.
The it’s too late to change this now crowd has caused the demise of countless transmissions. It’s nonsense to believe in this philosophy.
I forgot to ask the obvious question which is whether or not you’ve checked the transmission fluid level. If you were to develop a relatively small leak and your fluid got low you would start to notice strange behavior on the part of the transmission. If you catch it early enough - before you let a lot of slipping go on then fixing the leak and bringing the fluid back up to level may be all you need to do (in addition to the full transmission service).