I was planning on taking my wife 13 grand caravan up to our local mechanic and have them flush it and install new atf+4. The van has 104,000 miles and since we bought it recently I figured it would be wise to flush it and then drain and refill every 30k after that. I posted on a local caravan Facebook page and was told not to use the flush machine. What do you guys think? The van was originally owned by enterprise and then by a children's home before we bought it so the maintenance was kept up on it. The fluid doesn't look real dark or anything just looks like about what it should look like when a maintenance conscience person would plan on change it.
Any harm in having a shop flush trans fluid in 62te
- Thread starter wheelman
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I always do a pan drop and filter change on mine at 60K mile intervals. Filter is always dark, but no chunks. Magnet needs to be wiped off too.
Ultimately, your van, your call. It's a good transmission. Mine has 180K miles on it and it works fine.
Ultimately, your van, your call. It's a good transmission. Mine has 180K miles on it and it works fine.
The term "flush" is really a very old term and is misused everywhere. What the machine will likely do is exchange the old transmission fluid for an equal am amount of new transmission fluid. It's not a "flush" it's an exchange.
I don't drink the BITOG Kool-Aid. A pan drop and filter change IS NOT NEEDED. The only way your filter would be in bad shape is if your transmission is failing-and then the filter would be the least of your problems. Even the post above said his filter was in OK shaped.
FYI-my position (on your asked question) is not/and will not be popular on here.
If its driving and shifting OK I would stick to just a pan drop and filter change. You want to keep good fluid in there but you dont want to flush out all the worn clutch material particularly if your not positive it has been maintained or you might find it starts slipping right after the service.
FCA says to perform a fluid and filter replacement at 12 years or 120,000 miles under normal service or 6 years or 60,000 miles under severe service. This is from the owners manual.
You can't be serious.
As long as the machine used just exchanges old fluid for new fluid, I wouldn't have an issue. Otoh, if some cleaning type chemicals are in involved in the "flush" process, that would be a no go for me. So basically, I'd be ok with a fluid exchange, nothing other than new ATF used.
I would and do agree if a vehicle at least has a drain plug in the AT pan.
You can drain out most of the break in crud that’s stuck in the pan out that way.
The smaller stuff that passes the screen can be flushed out through cooler line or what have ya.
Our 2019 grand caravan doesn’t have a darn plug or dipstick. So that worries me that the crud stuck below the filter could eventually accumulate enough to plug it.
I think if the break in is allowed to drain out 1 time the filter is very unlikely to plug up apart from a pending transmission failure.
Yes I'm serious. They maintained it I have the service records.FCA says to perform a fluid and filter replacement at 12 years or 120,000 miles under normal service or 6 years or 60,000 miles under severe service. This is from the owners manual.
You can't be serious.
Like said, there's no harm in doing a fluid exchange, if indeed that's what this "flush" is.
If a pan drop and filter change is also being done and you plan on keeping the van long term, while doing your own fluid changes, you may as well pickup an aftermarket pan that has a built in drain plug. Doorman actually makes a good one.
I owned a 2013 Grand Caravan some years back with the pentastar and 62TE. I paid a local transmission shop to do a pan drop and fluid change at around 60K miles. It looked like the tech applied RTV with a mop to put the pan back on, but it didn't leak afterwards.
If a pan drop and filter change is also being done and you plan on keeping the van long term, while doing your own fluid changes, you may as well pickup an aftermarket pan that has a built in drain plug. Doorman actually makes a good one.
I owned a 2013 Grand Caravan some years back with the pentastar and 62TE. I paid a local transmission shop to do a pan drop and fluid change at around 60K miles. It looked like the tech applied RTV with a mop to put the pan back on, but it didn't leak afterwards.
If you want to do it yourself, I used a suction machine, 12 volt off the battery. To do tain- suck and fills.
If you point the nose down a driveway you can easily get out almost 4 quarts.
I did this times with atf+4.
Shifted amazing after.
Filter could go 100k miles easy.
Much less mess than a pan drop.
Usually Enterprise only does oil changes at minimum intervals, and no other maintenance. Not even filters.Yes I'm serious. They maintained it I have the service records.
The basic flush machine should be called a fluid exchange machine. Some shops add a flush chemical and run the engine 20 minutes then connect it to a flush machine. Some also add a conditioner after the fluid exchange.
I say skip the chemicals and just do the plain flush. Maybe install a Magnefine inline filter.
I say skip the chemicals and just do the plain flush. Maybe install a Magnefine inline filter.
They had it maintained mostly at the dealer every 5,000 or so. A few were closer to 7500 but yeah the records were decent. I actually have a friend who works for enterprise and deals with the shops to get their cars serviced etc. They do a decent job in this area from everything I know and have seen.
I have a fluid extractor. I wonder how well that would work on the transmission just down the dip stick.
I've used a machine to exchange ATF on hundreds of units of varies makes without issue, It's when a Ham Fisted mechanic doesn't clean the cooler connections well before disconnecting them & introduces Dirt/Debris into the Cooler Return/Lube Circuit is where problems can arise.
Found a small rock lodged in a 4L80E Sun Gear lube orifice once.
Some units create more wear debris than others, Units with highly loaded Thrust Washers like the Chrysler 46/47/48RE need regular filter changes.
All transmissions create some debris during break-in, Dropping the Pan, Cleaning the magnet/s & changing the sump filter at least once in the units life is a good idea.
Then there's units that can have the Sump Filter Seal harden/shrink & either suck air or let the filter fall into the pan. 5 speed Allison 1000's are notorious for this.
Sounds like you might have a well maintained vehicle there.
That’s one of the most important things when buying a used vehicle is having an idea if it was properly taken care of.
I bought my 2019 from Avis with 35k.
Boiughr it for ridiculously cheap as it was right at the height of the initial Covid scare and nobody was buying cars. Figured they probably haven’t wrecked it in 35k.
Even if they only did just a couple oil changes it probably wasn’t gonna be a great issue.
I didn’t get service records like you did.
So far so good at about 70k.
You were able to do this with a 62TE? If I remember right on my 2013 Grand Caravan, anything shoved down the dipstick/refill tube hits up against a stop well before it reaches the bottom of the pan. You could still suck out some fluid though.
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