wyche89

Ok, my transmission fluid was brown before I just recently did a drain/fill and a transmission flush a little bit ago with about 10 quarts of mobil 1 synthetic ATF (using the 2 quarts in, 2 quarts out method), and it has improved. The shifting is smoother and the fluid color is redder, but it's still not as red as it should be, as there is still a bit of a brown tint to it. My question is, should I do a drain/fill or another flush with about 4 quarts? Would those 2 things have the same effect? I want my tranny fluid to be in the best condition possible. Thanks.

A33Black

You've changed out the majority of the fluid. You could try driving for 1K miles or so, then just do a normal drain and fill. That single drain and fill will change out 5 Quarts of the fluid (letting it drain overnight). Drive another 1K and check what the fluid looks like. If you are still worried, do another drain and fill.

You should send your ATF into a testing lab like Blackstone and get it analyzed. Your fluid could be OK now.

I do 5 QT drain/fills ever 10-15K and seems to be fine.

Niznos

iTrader: (1)

In general, automatic transmissions have a lot of fluid in the lines, cooler and torque converter. A drain-and-fill would replace about half the fluid and not the filter. The best thing to do is to take it to a reputable shop and have them drop the pan and replace the filter, fill it back up, then do a flush with a transmission fluid flush/replacement machine.

For example, Jiffy Lube has a machine called a T-Tech. I am in no way recommending Jiffy Lube though, I've seen horrors happen in them too many times to tell anyone to go there. I'm just using it as an example. The machine has a full tank of fresh ATF, and an empty recovery tank. They will disconnect a cooler line and put the output side on the empty recovery tank, and the input side on the full tank of fresh ATF, then start the car. If you can picture this set up; what it will do is pump out the old fluid into the empty catch tank, and pump in the fresh ATF at the same time, never allowing the transmission to be without fluid. That's a true full ATF/filter change.

After this is done, you can get away with alternating between the machine flush, and a drain-and-fill with a filter replacement (which requires the transmission pan be dropped). I think an interval of about 50,000 miles or so is OK.

Love_00_Max

I would strongly discourage any flush machine including T-Tech.
I would strongly discourage you visiting a JL shop.
I would strongly discourage you to drop the pan in the idea of removing the filter (which it isn't, it is a metallic screen).
I would discourage u from using a syn fluid, since JATCO trannies have a propensity to chew up the ATF pretty soon. Use a good multi-vehicle ATF with frequent exchanges.

I would strongly encourage dropping the pan and cleaning the magnets.
I would strongly encourage you to read the thread on transmission fluids and do a return line flush. It is real simple and these days I don't even depend on my partner to help me out (2Q's comes out of return line every 30 sec of running the car). Drains and fills remove 50% of the tranny capacity which is good, if you are inclined to do a flush do it but I don't see a world of difference between a flush vs drain/fill every 15K miles, i.e 3rd oil change.

MichMaxFan

I agree w/ ^^^^. I do have a question, however, on frequency of changes. My thinking is that if one does NOT do a T-tec change, and does drain/fills, then more frequent changes are necessary to purge the old out within the ~30K mile life expectancy of traditional ATF, as many have stated. SO, am I too conservative in thinking that if I am doing drain/fills, and considering that only 50% comes out, that I should do it every 6K miles or so (1change=5 old left, 2=2.5left, 3=1.25 left, 4=.6 left, 5=.3qts left) to get it all purged within 30K miles or so.??

wyche89

just so u know.. i did the full flush about 1k miles or so after the original drain/fill (which did nothing) all with synthetic fluid.. the flush successfully got my fluid to be more red.. i read the sticky on flushing tranny fluid, and pretty much everybody recommended using a synthetic transmission fluid during the process, and thats why i did it.. (despite the advice of the pep boys employee who told me not to).. what do you mean it chews up ATF?

wyche89

anybody have a response?

Trurida18

iTrader: (4)

I need to make a switch to SYNTHETIC......

How is valvoline sythetic????

heynow

iTrader: (1)

just switch to Mobil 1 Synthetic

ROCKART

iTrader: (23)

are you checking the color of the tranny fluid from the dipstick?