Changing Transmission Fluid too often????
- Thread starter HACCOFFICER
- Start date
- Status
JTK
$100 Site Donor 2025
Originally Posted By: Trav
Sounds like a good plan on the little Suzuki transmission,it will probably never need a flush and out live the rest of the car.
Good maintenance IMO.
It's actually an Aisin-Warner AT and Daewoo engine. Suzuki never made an AT that I'm aware of. Most A-W's have drain plugs and large dipstick tubes which make drain/fills easy.
Joel
Sounds like a good plan on the little Suzuki transmission,it will probably never need a flush and out live the rest of the car.
Good maintenance IMO.
It's actually an Aisin-Warner AT and Daewoo engine. Suzuki never made an AT that I'm aware of. Most A-W's have drain plugs and large dipstick tubes which make drain/fills easy.
Joel
You could install a Magnefine inline filter to constantly catch clutch and steel material. Then the change interval could be extended to 15 or 20k if you want. With your change schedule, the trans is probably clean enough that you wouldn't have to change the Magnefine, at least for quite awhile.
Originally Posted By: HACCOFFICER
I have a 2007 Aveo with 90K on it. I have changed the transmission fluid every 10K since new by drain/refill. Is there any such thing as changing it too often? The reason I ask is my father claims I will kill my trans cause the fluid contains inportant clutch material that I am getting rid of when I change the fluid. I have also changed the silverados fluid quite often as apposed to doing a flush. Is there any truth to if I change the fluid too much I will kill my trans. Or am I safe to change away. BTW the AVEO shift as good as it did the day I drove it off the lot with 4 miles on it.
Thanks
Dan
Since you only have 90k on the Aveo, a lot of people will tell you you're wasting money doing it that often.
If you were to post the same question but you have 250k on the transmission, most would say keep doing what you're doing.
My vote is to keep doing what you're doing and post back when you are over 200k.
I have a 2007 Aveo with 90K on it. I have changed the transmission fluid every 10K since new by drain/refill. Is there any such thing as changing it too often? The reason I ask is my father claims I will kill my trans cause the fluid contains inportant clutch material that I am getting rid of when I change the fluid. I have also changed the silverados fluid quite often as apposed to doing a flush. Is there any truth to if I change the fluid too much I will kill my trans. Or am I safe to change away. BTW the AVEO shift as good as it did the day I drove it off the lot with 4 miles on it.
Thanks
Dan
Since you only have 90k on the Aveo, a lot of people will tell you you're wasting money doing it that often.
If you were to post the same question but you have 250k on the transmission, most would say keep doing what you're doing.
My vote is to keep doing what you're doing and post back when you are over 200k.
30k flush is ample. 30k drain/refill since usually 2 the capacity is negligent.
10k drain/refills, depending on capacity of transmission & amount drained, is pretty much perfect maintenance. So what are the amounts fluid amounts and whats it costing you?
A filter will also help if you feel the need to increase the intervals.
Point of diminishing returns?
Unless you know the expected life of the transmission, then you can't calculate that. And, millions of transmissions are rebuilt every year. I've always thought the cost/time of a $20 drain/refill once a year or every 10k would save the inevitable $3000-$5000 cost of a new transmission. $3000/$20= 150 years or 75 years with maintenance twice a year. Whats your warranty?
And, every shop I know takes Visa/Mastercard. Whats the payment & interest on that transmission when you charge it, since who has $3k burning a hole in your wallet?
My ol' ZF had a useful life of about 30k miles. These units were swapped by dealerships, under warranty, like watching popcorn pop. The techs could do the r&r with their eyes closed. I laughed at the dealer parts guy 'cause they usually stocked the transmission! Great expectations!
And, once the warranty expired, the vehicle was usually at the recycler since the repair cost was excessive and book value dropped too quickly. Mine never failed. Last I checked, it was approaching 300k on the transmission but the new owner was negligent so it was slipping. You can explain maintenance but can't force it. Simple drain/refill 3-quarts of ATF at EVERY oil change(I knew the issues with the transmission) and it kept chugging along. No maintenance meant failure was imminent very early.
Other than OE miss-engineering, the only other thing that brought transmissions into the shop was owner negligence. So, remove the owner negligence and most transmission shops would be out of business. And, some mild upgrades, along with the maintenance, can usually make up for some of the engineering you're stuck with.
10k drain/refills, depending on capacity of transmission & amount drained, is pretty much perfect maintenance. So what are the amounts fluid amounts and whats it costing you?
A filter will also help if you feel the need to increase the intervals.
Point of diminishing returns?
Unless you know the expected life of the transmission, then you can't calculate that. And, millions of transmissions are rebuilt every year. I've always thought the cost/time of a $20 drain/refill once a year or every 10k would save the inevitable $3000-$5000 cost of a new transmission. $3000/$20= 150 years or 75 years with maintenance twice a year. Whats your warranty?
And, every shop I know takes Visa/Mastercard. Whats the payment & interest on that transmission when you charge it, since who has $3k burning a hole in your wallet?
My ol' ZF had a useful life of about 30k miles. These units were swapped by dealerships, under warranty, like watching popcorn pop. The techs could do the r&r with their eyes closed. I laughed at the dealer parts guy 'cause they usually stocked the transmission! Great expectations!
And, once the warranty expired, the vehicle was usually at the recycler since the repair cost was excessive and book value dropped too quickly. Mine never failed. Last I checked, it was approaching 300k on the transmission but the new owner was negligent so it was slipping. You can explain maintenance but can't force it. Simple drain/refill 3-quarts of ATF at EVERY oil change(I knew the issues with the transmission) and it kept chugging along. No maintenance meant failure was imminent very early.
Other than OE miss-engineering, the only other thing that brought transmissions into the shop was owner negligence. So, remove the owner negligence and most transmission shops would be out of business. And, some mild upgrades, along with the maintenance, can usually make up for some of the engineering you're stuck with.
That is conservative even for petroleum oil. 20K would be fine, 50K for synthetic with a full flush.
If the car were mine, I'd evaulate my driving first. Lots of city driving, I'd change it every 20K. A mix of city driving and highway driving, I'd change it every 30K. Mostly highway, every 50K. In any case, I would never let ANY atf go past 50K.
Actually replying to Undummy
Quote:
30k flush is ample. 30k drain/refill since usually 2 the capacity is negligent.
10k drain/refills, depending on capacity of transmission & amount drained, is pretty much perfect maintenance.
Sounds good to me. Any studies showing this? I did 10k drain refills on my 2002 Honda Odyssey 5 speed auto with only Z1 but still broke. I will continue 10K d and r but maybe not with Z1. I am one of the very many who have had Honda failures and wonder if other ATF is better than Z1.
Quote:
A filter will also help if you feel the need to increase the intervals.
Did this and an added ATF cooler only after the Honda transmission failed. Slipped badly in 3rd gear at about 70 thousand miles. The dealer advised against adding a filter or cooler years before it failed.
Quote:
Point of diminishing returns?
Unless you know the expected life of the transmission, then you can't calculate that. And, millions of transmissions are rebuilt every year. I've always thought the cost/time of a $20 drain/refill once a year or every 10k would save the inevitable $3000-$5000 cost of a new transmission. $3000/$20= 150 years or 75 years with maintenance twice a year. Whats your warranty?
And, every shop I know takes Visa/Mastercard. Whats the payment & interest on that transmission when you charge it, since who has $3k burning a hole in your wallet?
I do not have enough information to calculate benefit. Also, I can not know whether more frequent changes to ATF would have delayed failure. 10,000 mile ATF changes are more often than anyone outside of a car forum. AT did not live very long with frequent maintenance.
Quote:
And, some mild upgrades, along with the maintenance, can usually make up for some of the engineering you're stuck with.
I wish I knew what upgrades could help my Honda. Installed the filter and cooler and might stop using Z1, but that is all I know to do. I did read in Honda documents, that in failing Honda Acura 3 shaft 5 speed auto transmissions, ATF temp recorded if shifting under stress conditions exceeded the Flash Point of old dino ATF . I do not know if an external cooler could prevent overheating internally. Not letting the transmission shift would avoid overheating and solve the Honda problem. Stay in D2? Not a realistic way to drive a car.
Quote:
30k flush is ample. 30k drain/refill since usually 2 the capacity is negligent.
10k drain/refills, depending on capacity of transmission & amount drained, is pretty much perfect maintenance.
Sounds good to me. Any studies showing this? I did 10k drain refills on my 2002 Honda Odyssey 5 speed auto with only Z1 but still broke. I will continue 10K d and r but maybe not with Z1. I am one of the very many who have had Honda failures and wonder if other ATF is better than Z1.
Quote:
A filter will also help if you feel the need to increase the intervals.
Did this and an added ATF cooler only after the Honda transmission failed. Slipped badly in 3rd gear at about 70 thousand miles. The dealer advised against adding a filter or cooler years before it failed.
Quote:
Point of diminishing returns?
Unless you know the expected life of the transmission, then you can't calculate that. And, millions of transmissions are rebuilt every year. I've always thought the cost/time of a $20 drain/refill once a year or every 10k would save the inevitable $3000-$5000 cost of a new transmission. $3000/$20= 150 years or 75 years with maintenance twice a year. Whats your warranty?
And, every shop I know takes Visa/Mastercard. Whats the payment & interest on that transmission when you charge it, since who has $3k burning a hole in your wallet?
I do not have enough information to calculate benefit. Also, I can not know whether more frequent changes to ATF would have delayed failure. 10,000 mile ATF changes are more often than anyone outside of a car forum. AT did not live very long with frequent maintenance.
Quote:
And, some mild upgrades, along with the maintenance, can usually make up for some of the engineering you're stuck with.
I wish I knew what upgrades could help my Honda. Installed the filter and cooler and might stop using Z1, but that is all I know to do. I did read in Honda documents, that in failing Honda Acura 3 shaft 5 speed auto transmissions, ATF temp recorded if shifting under stress conditions exceeded the Flash Point of old dino ATF . I do not know if an external cooler could prevent overheating internally. Not letting the transmission shift would avoid overheating and solve the Honda problem. Stay in D2? Not a realistic way to drive a car.
Last edited:
- Status