a very good question: have you contacted the shop that did your “flush”? your antagonism is showing
What damage was done? What damage was found? The shops I’ve worked in have been using transmission fluid exchange equipment for the last 15 years and I have never seen a transmission damaged from new fluid.
Yes, I contacted the shop. They denied (“prove it”) the flush was responsible for my problems (slippage, hesitation). The symptoms generally occur only after the car has been driven a distance (>50 miles), so whether they were there right after the flush and I didn’t notice because I didn’t drive a long way, or whether they appeared after several thousand miles I can’t say. When I raised the probem with the shop, they test drove it and said I needed to replace the transmission (for almost as much as I paid for the car!). I bought the car with 112,000 miles on it, had the ATF replaced (non-flush procedure) at 120,000, and that’s all I know about the history of service on the transmission.
It would be interesting to know what percentage of cars experience problems like mine after a flush. I wrote BG Products asking if they had any statistics. Not surprisingly, no response. By the way, does anyone know if BG advises against doing flushes on high mileage cars when the history of service on the transmission is unknown.
Was there any indication of a problem before ?
Far too often the first time anyone checks the transmission, is when it fails. By then the damage has been done. The driver notices it may be having a problem. They replace the fluid and about then it fails. From then on they will never change the transmission fluid, thinking changing the fluid caused the failure. In reality they should have changed the fluid at say 30 - 40 thousand miles."The symptoms generally occur only after the car has been driven a distance (>50 miles),"
You have a minor problem that you can easily correct with a simple drain and refill with the correct, specified fluid. It appears from this statement that the fluid in there right now might be foaming after it gets hot enough. If you continue to drive this car under these conditions, knowing that you could mitigate the damage, you have absolutely NO CASE even if you can prove they are at fault.
Under the law, you have a responsibility to mitigate (minimize) any possible damage and you are not taking those steps. Knowing this, I have just changed my vote, if I was on the jury, I would no longer vote in your favor.
This would be like someone making a mistake in traffic and you hit them anyway, when you could have avoided the accident just because you had the right of way. If you don’t take all reasonable steps to avoid the accident, then you are just as responsible or even more responsible for the accident that the person who violated your right of way.
If the problem only occurs after 50+ miles I would suggest that you check the fluid level when the problem occurs. Over filling can cause the problem and the fluid level may be well above the acceptable level when hot but in the normal range when cooler during the first 40 miles.
Flush only the toilet.
You state that you did not notice if the symptoms were there after the flush or not so it’s entirely possible that maybe there were symptoms present before the flush and you did not notice them.
Once the flush was done, you’re more aware of the transmission and may notice things that were previously overlooked.
A hesistation may or may not be a transmission fault. That could be due to any one a number of things.
When the shop washed its hands of my problem, I took the car to a Subaru dealer who told me the transmission was overfilled (interestingly, the shop charged me for 16 qts. of ATF while my manual says the transmission’s capacity is 9.8!). They refilled the ATF to the proper level. I test drove it about 80 miles roundtrip and experienced the same problems, though less severe. As to symptoms prior to the flush, I drove the car about 120 miles roundtrip a couple of weeks before the flush and didn’t notice any problems. As to “any one of a number of things”, the shop owner says I need to replace the transmission. Who am I to argue with an expert!
@Kiask so after Subaru put in the correct fluid, the problems were less severe . . .
I suggest that you perform a few more drain and fills with the factory ATF.
Perhaps once every few months.
Perhaps you can even do this yourself to save a few bucks.
One of my colleagues bought a “company car” a few years back. It had been poorly maintained and wasn’t shifting well. He immediately performed a drain and fill. Then he performed several drain and fills over the next few months. It’s shifting perfectly again.
I WON… sort of. The judge had the shop owner refund the cost of the flush. As my transmission is behaving much better now (Thanks, db4690, for the advice), I’m not so worry about being out an additional $4000 for a new transmission. I am out about $400 in fixes and court costs for nothing, however.
I am stunned, but I’m also glad to see it happen.