I recently bought a case of Amsoil ATF from talkinghorse, great guy and awesome service BTW! I took it to my local mechanic, who dropped the pan, replaced the screen/filter, cleaned the magnets, and did a flush via the radiator return line. So far the tranny shifts great! My somewhat hard 1-2 shift is gone, and everything just feels smoother, good to know that my original old 4 yr old fluid is replaced.

HOWEVER, the mechanic told me he only used 7 qts, as he said the fluid was new afterwards. Can this be right though? Others' experience I've read said they used about 10-11 qts?

I was thinking of running the fluid for a month, then do a drain via drain plug, and use the rest. Will this be overkill? Suggestions? Thanks!

 

the capacity is 10qts. unfortunately you have 3qts dirty fluid that mixed with your expensive fresh Amsoil. I would not be happy with your mechanic. I'm guessing he removed the wrong cooler line and missed the old stuff in the cooler. in any case, do not drain/fill again - save the rest you have for a proper flush 20k miles from now.

 

I don't think there is a wrong answer here, but a total flush at some time in the future would be the better of the two alternatives. Like sky jumper says, I'd be a little upset with your mechanic. He should have run at least the capacity of the transmission thru the system, and probably a little more.

If you do a drain/refill now, you will raise the concentration of synthetics in the system to ~85%...not perfect, but not bad either...your transmission will continue to lead a happy life. However, a properly done flush at some point in the future will give you the optimum benefit of the premium fluid.

 

If I was to go back tomorrow and tell him to run the rest of the 5 quarts, would that be better? Or too late and just wait for the next flush?

 

as talkinghorse stated, the resulting fluid would be incrementally better (fresher) if you finished the job now, but it would still be a mix, and that's not worth the additional $40 in fluid you'd use in the process. just live with what you have for 20 or 30k miles and then do a real full flush.

btw - what is the previous maintenance history of your ATF?

 

None, I just hit 20K miles, and figured I do a flush since the original fluid is 4 yrs old.

 

so the original fluid had only 20k on it?? well geez you're fine. and that's why your mechanic thought clean fluid was coming out - because it certainly did look clean with only 20k. don't bother with any further service at this time. wait at least 25 or 30k before your next flush.

 

OK, thanks for the help. I was going by the rule of 30K miles or 3 yrs for tranny fluid.

 

Sometimes you need to change the fluid regardless of the mileage, that's why they have a mileage or a time interval. However, @ your mileage and time, you're fine w/ the ATF. I changed mine for the 1st fine 2 months ago, and I have a 2000, low mileage @ 32K. I should've changed it 2 years ago, but that's when my wife had our 2nd child, so my car got the back burner. Anyhow, my fluid looked somewhat decent when I changed mine, but for a mechanic, he should've known, I would be a little disappointed.

Like others said, draining and refilling now is a waste of expensive good fluid, it's all mixed up now. Wait it out ...