Will the torque converter flush simply by starting the car and running through the gears while draining or do I need to drain/fill then get it up to highway speed for a minute and drain/fill a couple more times? My trans is making a little noise and I want to make sure the torque converter gets flushed.

 

You can only do drain/fills to flush the transmission. Anything else will ruin it.

The only way to drain the tq convertor is to remove it from the tranny.

So do like you said, drain/fill, drive it for a while then drain/fill again.

 

after draining from the drain plug,
can you use a squeeze pump and tubing attached to the cooler line
to extract some extra fluid?

i think i,ve done this before i dont remember how much extra fluid i got out
or if i thought it could be bad for it though.

 

you do not need to remove the tranny to drain the torque converter. the guy that works on my car switched mine to Royal Purple and modified my tranny so that he was able to drain the torque converter as well. took him around 30-45 minutes in total

otherwise IIRC you just keep flushing until you get most of the old stuff out of the torque converter

 

If you were to drain the tq convertor you would have to fill the torque convertor or else it would be ruined. So your mechanic was probably BS'ing you. So do as everyone else and just do regular drain/fills.

 

Unless this guy fitted a drain-plug to the TC, there is no way he actually drained it at all ............... and fitting a drain-plug while the TC is assembled and in the car is about the worst idea I can think of

You have been had - simple as that

 

Do we really refill the tranny via the little dipstick tube???

I need to change my fluid as well.

 

Yes.

There's a few write ups here and elsewhere on how to flush the trans. Here's the process in a nutshell:

1. Buy 10-12 quarts trans fluid, a long narrow mouth funnel and get something to collect the fluid like a drain pan.

2. Jack up car if you wanna and place drain pan under trans drain plug. Remove plug and allow fluid to drain (several quarts) Empty this used fluid into some marked container so you can determine how much you've drained. I used an old antifreeze bottle with markings on the side. Clean and replace drain plug. However much drained add that much through the dip stick hole using the funnel.

3. Locate the return line from the radiator (on my 91 VG30E it's the one that exits the drivers side of the radiator). Where this line enters the trans pull the hose and aim it at your drain pan.

4. Get in the car and start it up and let it run for 10-30 seconds and it'll start pumping old fluid from the rad return line into the collection pan. You can cycle through gears if you want but only do this for half a minute or so until 2-3 quarts are drained. Empty the old fluid into a maked container and put in that much new fluid into the trans.

5 Repeat several times until you see clean, new, red fluid getting pumped out of the trans.

6. Replace rad return line and clean up mess. Check for leaks and top off trans using the usual tip stick measurement method.

I did mine yesterday and It quieted down my old 200K trans noticeably.

 

Thank you!!!!!!!

I did see one little drip while under the car today, but I've never needed to add any so I'm not too worried (yet).

 

It could always just be a loose line. I had to tighten all of mine while I was under there. I was surprised how loose they had become over the years.