So my excursion has 120K on it now, and i took it to my favorite shop (not the dealership, which i can't stand, but a shop thats done my plugs, IAC, etc...)

Anyway, a tranny flush is supposed to be part of this service. But we have had really bad luck with those (see note below) so my dad leans in and tells the guy behind the counter the whole story (below), and asks if he thinks dropping the pan would be safer.

Long story short, the guy leans in and says that he'd blown a transmission in his car (different shop did the work) right after a tranny flush, and recommended not doing anything (other than adding fluid if necessary) until the transmission chewed itself up and needed to be raplaced. He said one of the mechanics at the shop had over 150K and no tranny services on his ford truck and was running fine.

What do y'all think? It would have been in his best interest to upsell me on the flush, which makes me think maybe he's just being honest, but I don't know.


THE NOTE:
at 30K mi, transmission starts slipping on a road trip (we are out of the country) we pull over at the local ford dealership (lucky, I know). They check the fluid (its burned) so the pop in a rebuilt transmission and send us on our way.

15 minutes down the road, same symptoms, so we turn around and this time the say that it WASN'T the transmission, but the CPU/GEM/whatever-its-called was toast, so we got a new one of those too $$$$$$

Fast forward to 90K on the truck (60K on the 'new' tranny) and I take it in for a flush at the local dealer (no work on it in between) and a week later, blown front pump seal, and I have to get it towed to the dealership.

Thats why I don't like messing with trannys...

 

I was gonna have mine changes tomorrow now ya have me scaird lol its gonna be on a road trip 1200 mile road trip starting Friday i am at 40K

 

Transmissions get blown soon after a flush all the time. What happens is that people ignore the trans until it starts having problems. Then they get the fluid flushed hoping that the problem will go away. It won't go away, because it's already failed. New fluid won't save it, and it dies. It would have died without the flush, too.

If the trans is in good shape a flush can only help extend the life of the trans. If it's already damaged a flush won't repair it, but it won't kill it, either.

 

I agree flush it when it has no issues and there is no problem,but doing a flush or pan drop with new fluid will not save a trans that has issues. So if you have had no issues with your trans i would say you would be fine. I had mine flushed about 20000 miles ago no problems. Just my .02

 

Mark K,
Is the 'flush' more appropriate or the fluid change that has been written up on FTE (disconnecting the cooler lines and running until clean, while adding fluid)? Or is there any real difference?

 

You'll get more fluid out with a flush but that's really not to important. It's not like motor oil. I own a tranny shop and do pan drops on most cars/trucks because i like to change the oil filter, inspect the pan for metal,clutch material, etc., clean the magnet & use a new pan gasket if it's not a reuseable. Also drain the torque converters that have drain plugs. Mixing new fluid with some of the old fluid with not hurt anything.

 

Unless the existing fluid is already burnt......

 

If this is the case then you need more then a service

 

I flush mine every 25k. I havent heard of ppl blowin trans after flushing them, but i have heard people blowing transmissions after changing the filter. Is that true? Ive nv had my filter changed and i have 134k.

 

Guess I was just unlucky, because the trans seemed to be running fine before it was flushed. My only thought was that it dislodged some gunk that moved around until it caused a problem.

 

ask the shop what kind of tranny machine they have.

there are 2 kinds

one just sucks out the old and pushes in the new

the other kind, that my shop used, adds a cleaner, runs the truck for 20 minutes to circulate the fluid and suspend the particulates, then flushes out the old and pushes in the new.


I would recommend going for the cleaning & flush

 

Good thought. I'd imagine it was just the first variety.

The real pisser was that the dealer said there was no way the flush could have caused the blown front pump seal, so the entire rebuild was out of pocket...

 

FWIW I will never allow cleaners to be run through my transmission. I don't know what that stuff will do to the trans and it's just not going in there.

Your mileage may vary, that's just my opinion.

 

The procedure in the article I wrote was designed to mimic a flush without the flush machine. It should be just as effective as the flush machine in changing the fluid.

 

I can't imagine how the flush could have harmed the front pump seal, unless a fluid or cleaner was used that wasn't compatible with the seal.