if the fluid is dark has a burnt smell to it, thats clutch material, its whats keeping the car moving, if you flush it, you have new fluid and not much clutch disks left.
seen a few cars leave the lube express on tow trucks after getting flushed. my friend was the manager, had these people sign a release, because they did not want to do the flush because of high miles and dark fluid, guy still wanted it done, here sign this, and after it was done the car just sat there, nothing. my friend then goes you have a tow company you like or should i just call my guy.....
if the trans has been serviced properly its whole life a flush would be fine, but being that you probably don't know the maint history for its whole life. just be safe and drop the pan change the filter, and thats it.
i used to flush my 97 and 03 trucks every year, as i drove 30,000 a year. never had a problem as i had them both from the dealer new. and my friend ran the place, so i tipped the guy doing the work a 20 and thats all i paid.that covered the commission he would have made plus a few bucks.
