Thread: Changing Transmission Fuild

Originally Posted by EJOUIE

Well in that case i will leave it be. Instead I will put the money towards the very distant 4t65e swap.

my fluids all brown too, thats why i aint touching it either, not knowing the history behind it, just going for a new one down the road, and it shifts just fine too, no problems as of yet. but im sure if i mess with it ill be asking for trouble.

Mine needs changed. My pan is leaking. I have a cookie pan under my car because of it. It kinda changes its self.

Originally Posted by IAGXP

but you would put in a shift kit that will stress the seals more with worn out fluid, well 12qts any way dropping the pan doesnt even get half out. I want a serious reason not to flush a trans with old/bad fluid with new after "X" amount of miles? I had a trans with 12,000miles burn up, miles mean very little to transmissions(to a degree, abviously 1,000,000 miles is going to have a signifcant amout of wear) fluid condition, temp and amount of abuse are how transmissions should be serviced. Also the best way I can describe it is would you after 100,000 miles just change the filter and 1 qt of engine oil, I hope not.

shift kit only increases line pressure in the trans, witch tightens up the clutch packs, a good thing, and transmissions run on ATF "trany fluid" not oil, once your fluid is all brown and burn up, its already on its way out, and if you remove all the fluid and put new fluid in there, it will most likely stop working, very fast.

why? because all the clutch material thats in the brown burn fluid is all thats holding the trans together, so dropping the pan and replacing 8 quarts its a nice trade off, and the shift kit will tighten up the shifts for ya.

but like i said if its brown its already on its way out, cars with lots of miles and burnt up brown fluid, some never leave the shop bay after a flush some get lucky and its fine for a while, so flush it you want, but best left alone.

if you got over 100,000 miles and the fluid is nice and red and dont smell, by all means do a flush, the fluid tells the whole story here. red fluid means someone took care of the car and had the fluid changed over the years, brown fluid means neglect and abuse.

and if you blew a 12,000 mile old trany up you really beat the crap out of your car, or the last owner did, well someone did lets say that.

and im sure it blew due to hot operating conditions from beating on it. heat is one of the killers for a automatic transmission, next is not doing regular fluid and filter changes.

I flushed my trans at 189k without knowing the previous maintenance of the tranny no problem shifted better than ever then did a pan drop with filter at 207k fluid was a little brown but still doing well at 211k.

I don't know who mentioned it but the torque converter doesn't hold 9 quarts of ATF. According to my owners manual, it needs about 7.4 quarts after filter replacement, and lists the total capacity at 10 quarts right below it.

Originally Posted by jspangler22

so my car has 167,000 should i change it dont know if its ever been changed i was going to change it with trick shift tranny fluid and lucas tranny fluid

let the fluid tell you if you should or not, if its all burn up and dark and smells bad, don't do it, if its more on the red side do it, only you can smell it and see if its bad or not.

if you honestly cant tell, find a friend who's got a newer car and do a side by side with their dipstick and compare the two.

If you do a flush and your trans goes out it was boned anyways.

Trans capacity is 13 quarts per the ATSG manual and GM FSM's.

I'm all for pan drop and filter service. No matter mileage/fluid. It's a simple fact that automatic transmissions shoudl be serviced. If your fluid is horrible and clogs the filter, then you screwed yourself.

Screwing yourself usually hurts... either financially or labor wise.

The trans in my Bonneville was redone at 176K. It was still running fine, sloppy but fine.
The trans in my Regal is at 181K and exhibited a little odd behavior at 173K. Occasionally does, best I can figure the input piston sleeve is worn...but it hasn't stopped the car yet. Get on it and it's pretty darn good. I'm building it a new trans right now.

Either way though, anything over 150K miles on a car and an automatic trans doesn't owe that person anything.