auto tran fluid "wears at 100,000 miles?

[camrydriver111]

I think Mercedes-Benz says to change it once after 40k miles, and it's lifetime fill after that.

I think the logic is the first change removes all the contaminants from when the transmission breaks-in. After that the fluid should last a lot longer since the transmission is broken-in and should be generating less contaminants.

This makes a lot more sense to me than BMW's version of lifetime fill, which is to never change it. It seems like it's designed to make the car maintenance-free rather than to extend life.

I think most people who changed the fluid in their BMW are glad they did it.

There are guys who drove over 200k miles on their factory fill in their BMWs, but I bet the transmission doesn't work as well as in cars where the fluid was changed.

15k or 30k is on the opposite side of the spectrum and changing it too much.

 

[Hamburgler]

I prefer the "use inexpensive lubricants but change often" philosophy, as opposed to stretching out refresh intervals of expensive synthetics.

 

[camrydriver111]

Fluids have improved though. For example even cheap Dexron VI is supposed to be at least semi-synthetic.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
On my ZF that "cheap insurance" would cost me $740.

No thanks I'll put my trust in with the engineers and go by what they recommend.



Many recommendations in the above posts are way overkill and will result in 100s if not 1,000s of dollars being wasted by the car owners who cannot do it themselves.

 

[wjli]

just did a couple of drain and fills on the Toyota sienna U660E transmission. Had 80K on the factory fill. Trans was shifting fine I just wanted to freshen up the fluid. The first drain (bout 2qts) left a noticeable layer of "stuff" in the drain pain. it was a thick pasty residue, but very fine, not gritty. I assume that this is quite normal for a factory fill at 80K. Drove the car for a couple days and did another 2qts and this time there was little to no "stuff" in the pan. All in all Im glad I got all of that out of my trans. It stills is shifting great and I feel a whole lot better about it. Im sure the WS fluid had more life left and could of went further but I wouldn't have felt too good about it. If it makes you feel better, change it.

 

[Al]

New ATF is around 7.5 cSt@100C In 25K or so it will drop to between 5.4 and 5.8 cSt @ 100C. That's what 5 analysis on 3 vehicles has shown me (Mobil 1)

 

[buck91]

The Mercon LV in my F150 is rated for 150,000 miles service. I will be changing it "early" at 100,00 though. Also, last year a UOA revealed it was still in tip top shape.

 

[edwardh1]

my camry has a white sticker on the trans dip stick that says "not necessary to change the fluid in normal use"

 

[wtd]

My 2014 Mustang GT has the automatic 6R80 transmission that has the 150,000 mile change interval but I've seen a few Ford Techs recommend changing the fluid and filter out at 60,000 miles due to the shift solenoids in this trans not liking any type of contamination.

That is when I plan on changing mine out.

Wayne