Transmission shop booked to January 3rd. Can I drain and replace transmission fluid?

Transmission shop does not do transmission oil flushes, claiming such causes more problems than just drain and fill.
Can one periodically drain and replace the exact amount drained?
Eventually most of the transmission fluid will be new.

Addendum:
No transmission dipstick.
Will I have to suck fluid out and pump the samexact amount of fluid back in?

Would cutting the line to the transmission cooler and draining and filling through it be any better? Then use a hose with clamps to reconnect the line?
Unknown if I can find a hose which would fit onto the cooling line.
Also if the transmission fluid would chemically reacto the hose material.

Thank you.

My daughter had a 2005 Honda CR-V. It had an in accessible tranny filter. The manual said no flushes. The procedure was to drain and refill and drive for some miles and repeat two more times. It’s probably overkill on a properly maintained tranny with a screen, but still a lot closer to a flush.

Sure! what is the color of the fluid? I usually perform a drain and fill on my car but it will not replace all the old fluid. I do it a second time a few month after to make sure its bright red.

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I doubt it.

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Our old SAAB had a drain plug but no replacable filter. I did fluid changes every 3rd oil change. Worked well.

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The questions that I would want to answer are:

Do I have a space/area where I can do this work? There may be fluid spills involved.

How do I get the old fluid out?

How do I get the new fluid in?

How do (or can) you get rid of the old fluid?

Based on my own experience having old oil spilling all over my garage floor on a Saturday afternoon… I personally don’t do anything with “car fluids” anymore. But that’s just my perspective.

If I were you I’d keep looking for another shop to do the work sooner. You don’t have to go to a dealer for this kind of thing.

Absolutely. I always measure what comes out and pour the same amount back in. All of my cars have dipsticks, but after I refill it and check the level, it’s always where it’s supposed to be. If the level was good when you started, you measured what came out and put that same amount back in, I don’t see how the level could be off when you’re done. Measuring the old fluid is going to be a little tricky if you replace the filter, though. So I’d either skip the filter or look up the procedure to check the trans level without a dipstick.

When I did mine here is what I did. Drew a line on a 5 gallon bucket at 12 quarts. Disconnected line going to the radiator and ran a hose to the 5 gallon bucket. Started engine and added fluid as it was draining out until 12 quarts went through. I did have an extra jesus clip, and ended up needing it to reconnect the line. I did have a dipstick to check the level. Sure a hillbilly flush, later had a shop do a change and filter. The change only gets 6 quarts. Not sure if anyone would recommend this method, but found it on the trailvoy website. (Trailblazer forum)

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That’s what my 2001 Taurus’s manual said to do.

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Check you tube channel,I have 14 Camry to have no dipstick/sealed.One I see that make sense without using thermometer is ATF toyota WS bottles on garage floor beside the car so with same temperature and the car on flat surface then drain and fill it from there ,measure and put back,also to take plastic straw off the drain plug.Using new washer and torque wrench.That to try on my Camry next year.

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Thank you.
Why do they make it so difficult?
Letsuck dealer says transmission fluid temperature is critical and must be measured with a thermometer and recorded.

Manyears ago I drained our Ford Galaxy 500 Station Wagon transmission fluid.
New fluid up to the filline. Drove for few days. Repeated.
Drove another week. Repeated.

Do you think measuring the temp then waiting for a trickle of fluid to pour out of the trans is more accurate than measuring what came out of the trans when you pulled the drain plug? I kinda don’t.

I read the service procedure at one point on Toyota’s with no dipstick. Honestly, it seemed like it had some judgement calls in there regarding exactly how much fluid was supposed to come out of that check plug at the proper temp and I’d trust myself measuring the old fluid more than I would trust an unknown tech following the procedure and getting it right. That’s just me, my personal confidence in my DIY skills and personal attention to detail border-lining on anal, and my past experience with letting someone else work on my cars.

As far as why they make it difficult, I have no idea. It seems to me that the most straightforward way of checking the fluid, even with a dipstick, would be to check the level cold with the engine off. But, no. You need to check it hot in park in a GM, hot in neutral (if I remember) in a Dodge because the pump doesn’t operate in park. Would be just as easy to mark the dipstick at the corresponding cold in park level, unless I’m missing something. And then you’ve got the whole no dipstick thing, probably because most buyers of new vehicles never check it anyway. They just trade it off at or before 100k miles.

Our (or my wife’s I guess, since I titled it to her) Toyota has a dipstick (thank goodness) that is marked “sealed for life” :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

We bought a used acadia Limeted, couple weeks later I checked trans fluid, nothing on the dipstick while in park and warmed up, took it in, service guy checks, calls tech, Tech says put it in drive with the brakes applied, reading was fine. There is not one standard it seems. No I did not rtfm. Had fluid changed at 30k as it was tan not red. Maintenance schedule said 100k! All happy now!

Exactly! Would be nice if there was a standard check procedure, preferably cold engine trans in park (like the engine oil). You’d think that level (in your case, in gear, not sure if cold or hot) would translate to a “full cold in park” level on the dipstick, no? I seem to remember older Ford’s having a “full cold” and “full hot” line. Maybe I’m mistaken, though. Seems to me there should be a corresponding level cold in park to the “hot in neutral” Dodge fluid level check.

At any rate, they’ve stopped putting didsticks on the trans anyway as of late and in Robert’s case. “Get it up to 205 degrees and wait for a trickle, but not a stream, to piss out of the check orrifice”. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:. Something like that. I don’t remember. I’m just glad I have a dipstick on our Toyota. One year later and I would not have one. Perhaps there’s a reason I’m cheap and buy leftover vehicles at the end of the year lol.

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