"Transmission Flush": Required ?

Nobody is saying that you "have" to have your transmission flushed. What some of us are saying is that it is a perfectly legitimate way to maintain your transmission, as is doing a tried and true "transmission service". Anything new comes along and it throws all you "old dogs" for a loop! Try to grow up and realize that there other ways of doing things.

Ian

Literally millions, even if it only saved two dollars per vehicle. Over seventeen million new vehicles are sold annually in the US.

mike hunt

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The difference in cost between flushing vs. changing fluid & filter: You could change the F&F more times for the money...it wouldn't get ALL the fluid, but would provide a fresh filter every time. Flushing changes all the fluid but not the filter, and is more expensive. Right? Just do one or the other. But I will say that if a tranny is waaay up there in miles without having been serviced--fluid really dirty, etc.--I wouldn't be surprised if a flush took it out within a short time (if you had such a car, would YOU flush it?)

Yes, I most assuredly would flush it. About 4 years ago I found a '79 El Camino for my son that seemed to have been well-maintained by a mail carrier. All work done by a dealer and all receipts. I neglected looking at the trans. fluid, however, which was a mistake. When I got it home, I pulled the stick and it was worse than any trans. fluid I'd ever seen. I spent some time as an auto mechanic back in the '70's and I'd seen some bad fluid. This stuff stunk_bad_and looked like pink mud. The trans. was slipping some between shifts, not to the point that I wouldn't have bought the car, though. (THM-200 trans., 305 4 bbl.) I had it flushed at a place locally that I trusted. The fellow running the machine told me when he was finished that it took 32 qts. of fluid to clean it up. That's not a misprint. I asked him,"Man, how much is this going to cost me?" He replied,"Don't worry about it." If his boss knew he threw that much fluid at a job without tacking on an extra charge, he'd probably have been fired. Anyhow, that trans. shifted much better and lasted many, many more miles until we swapped it out for a THM 350 and a 400 small block. So the internet myth about never flushing a trans. that has been neglected is, in my opinion, total horseshit. I have all the trans. flushed regularly on all my cars, and change the filter when I get it home. They work good and last a long time.

Garrett Fulton

How many miles did the El Camino have on it when you did that? How did long did it run afterwards? Having the trans fluid need changing that badly seems like a pretty glaring omission for a car that was otherwise serviced well. You actually didn't just have it flushed--you had it flushed about five times consecutively :-)

As close as I can figure, from the records with the car, it had approx.

160,000 miles on it when I bought it. Plenty of reciepts for everything, all dealer work, but I didn't find anything about trans. fluid or filter changes. I could only assume it had the original fluid in it. I believe it got in excess of another 60,000 m. on it after the flush. Was shifting fine until the day we pulled it out. A THM-200 is not the trans. you want behind a heated up 400 small block.

Garrett