DOES THE NEW TRANNY FLUID MACHINE THAT REPLACES TRANNY FLUID DO A GOOD JOB? WHAT ABOUT FILTER AND PARTICLES THAT ARE USUALLY FOUND IN TRANNY FLUID PAN ON THE MAGNET?
I wouldn’t do it unless flushing is the only way to do a fluid change on your car. It’s easy to pretend to flush the transmission too. Try not to go to a fast lube place to get it done. You could end up walking.
I recommend the old fashioned fluid and filter CHANGE as opposed to flushing an automatic transmission. There are too many horror stories associated with flushing.
[b]You’re going to hear from people about the horror stories of transmissions failing after they’re flushed. But when this happens, it usually means there was a problem with the transmission prior to the flush, and the transmission was going to fail anyway. Or the transmission was never serviced for 100,000 miles and then they try the flush. Or the pan wasn’t dropped and cleaned and the filter wasn’t cleaned or replaced prior to the flush.
You know how many thousands of transmissions are flushed each day and never have a problem afterwards?
Another urban legend!
Here’s a couple of links that explain what a flush entails so you can make an intelligent, informative decision.
http://www.brakeandfrontend.com/ Click on Automatic Transmissions
http://www.import-car.com/ Click on Fluid Flush.
Tester[/b]
I believe in dropping the pan, replace the filter, clean the magnet, assemble and refill. That’s what I have done on my 93 Sundance. I do this about every 15-20 thousand miles and I have 162,000 miles on the original transmission.
My son’s 2003 Honda Accord does not have a replaceable filter or a pan to drop. The magnet is on the drain plug. All you can do with it is drain, cleam the magnet, and refill.
One of the common mistakes is the use of the wrong trans fluid for the flush. Hondas and Chryslers 4 speeds, to name two, are very sensitive to the type of fluid used. Use the manufacturer recommended fluid and don’t let anyone change your mind.
Most car makers recommend a fluid & filter change. Drop the pan,drain the fluid & replace the filter. Sure about only half the fluid is replaced, but the most important part, the filter, is serviced.
IMO problem with a flush is that they do not drop the pan and change the filter after the flush which is the only way that makes sense to me. they consider that too expensive and time consuming to do which is why I also prefer the drain and fill with or without a filter change depending on age, is it a filter or just a screen etc.
Bruce,
Flush machines will get about 98% of the fluid out of a transmission while simple draining and refilling gets 40-50% depending on the transmission. If you service your transmission on a regular basis (Every 25k) a simple pan drop and filter change will be fine. Transmissions made it this far without flushes and will continue to do so. Really, the only time I would flush is if the fluid is contaminated. I guess you can say that this is the flush era… Shops are trying to sell you everything from coolant flushes, brake flushes, power steering flushes even engine flushes. I have many transmissions cross my bench on a weekly basis due to improper servicing (Mostly flushes). Under the right circumstances, a flush can be beneficial. I would never let ANYONE but a trained transmission technician perform ANY kind of service to an automatic. I recently rebuilt an Allison transmission from a Chevy truck which was the victim of a fast lube flush machine. The overhaul kit alone lists for $1400… The shop owner was not too pleased with my bill… He asked me to review with his techs on how to use the machine properly…
transman
The proper transmission service really depends on the type of vehicle you are talking about. Many cars don’t have filters that you replace, they have screens. A regularly drained and filled transmission shouldn’t need a flush. Also as mentioned before, make sure the proper fluid is going in. Quick lube places will never use the correct fluid for Hondas or Toyotas, and no, additives don’t make them the same. Just do what you owners manual calls for, nothing more and nothing less and you won’t go wrong.