I recently contacted the dealer about having the filter changed on the transmission, truck has 36K on it now. I was told they no longer change the filter, just flush the fluid out. Is this the correct way to service the transmission?

 

Yea just let them change the fluid, it will be fine.

If you ever have to change the filter due to it being clogged you have a much bigger problem.

 

Was told the same by dealer when I asked to have trans oil & filter changed at 85000 Km
they said flushing it is better as all fluids including the converter are back flushed and all new oil added
all is well after the flush

 

i know this is how they do it, but if you think about as stuff wears and breaks in you always get some particals, and the filter is designed to catch them, so back flushing if you think about it, it washes all these particals backinto the tranny and torque and who knows where they end up. i'm still doing it the old way of dropping the pan and changing the filter (i havent done it on my 05 only had it for 4 months)

i guess getting the filter changed and then a flush would be ideal

 

My friend owns an STS TIRE AND AUTO. He flushed my system out which after he cleaned and filled his machine with my AMSOIL it was 16 qts. He told me the same thing, that there are only metal suction screens in there, and that flushing the system takes all the old out while replacing it with new. There are no more paper filters; probably the reason you dont see any drain plugs as much any more. As far as the metal particles; Stick a strong magnet in the system somewhere to hold any particles.

 

The term back flushing is a sales term, when you use a machine it does not back flush, it cant, the transmission pump pumps it out to the cooler where it is diverted to the machines old fluid tank. From there the machines pump pumps new fluid back to the transmission in the same place where it would go if was to come from it was to come from the cooler. It cant go backwards, it cant force fluid backward through the pump when its pumping. The fluid never flows backward through the filter, it always filters fluid moving from the pan to the pump.

Sales people use the term backflushing to help with the concern of not replacing the filter, they just dont know how it works and it pleases the customer. The filter is large enough to handle any debris caused by normal wear and tear, if it ever fills up to a point where it needs to be relaced the transmission has serious problems.

Honda has never made a auto trans with a filter that could be changed without dismannaling the transmission, same with Fords CD4E trans, Saturn, and a few others that come to mind. The point is dont worry about the filter, it defenatly wont hurt to replace it and it does give you a chance to look in the pan to get an idea if something is going on.

I hope this will help clear up some confusion with flush machines and filter replacement.... party on.

 

All I know is that I have had 2 vehicles transmissions flushed. My '95 F250 with a 460 and a '93 Taurus. Both of those cars had the transmission fail within a year of the flush.

I no longer flush the trans. I drop the pan, drain the fluid, and refill. If there is a filter I replace it. My '02 Powerstroke auto trans had a drain plug in the converter so I could drain all the fluid. It also had a filter.

Might be coincidence on the failures but I am not going to have it happen a 3rd time.

 

I 'flushed' mine at 30K not too long ago. The short of it is you can do it yourself in about 30~45min, and it's not hard at all. I think I spent more time removing and reinstalling the zillion bolts that hold up the pan.

- Disconnect the transmission cooler lines and direct the pipe from the tranny side into a container big enough to take up to 12qts, or do the next step a couple times with smaller containers..
- Idle your engine for about 5-10 seconds to pump out most of the fluid.
- Drop the transmission pan, dump out whatever is in there, wipe clean it out. Throw out the plastic plug that's on the bottom of the pan.
- Remove and replace the transmission filter. make sure the orange colored ring gasket comes out of the tranny hole. Mine was stuck in there when I pulled the filter out.
- the pan gasket is made of a polymer and reusable. You don't need to get a new one unless it's messed up. I wish I knew this before I bought myself a new one. Could have saved a few $$
- Put back the pan, fill in about 5qts of new fluid.
- Run the engine a few more seconds until you see new fluid come out.
- Fill up as much new fluid as what came out minus what you put in already.
- You're done and you've saved $200-$300 bux for a flush.

Make sure you use Mercon5, not Mercon3.

Doing it this way saves you the mess of all the tranny fluid dripping out all over the place as the pan comes off too.

I think my total capacity is 12qts of oil. About 9 came out before the new fluid started coming out. The old stuff was still pretty clean. The filter looked fairly clean too, but I replaced it anyways. It's been 6K miles since, and still no problems.