Do you send your trans fluid to Blackstone Labs?

[Ed_Flecko]

Since towing, in particular, with your vehicle puts additional strain on the automatic transmission, I was wondering if any of you have sent or routinely send your automatic transmission fluid to Blackstone Labs for analysis? What did you learn?

Maybe I'm completely wrong, but I think a lot of people don't give much thought to the state of their automatic transmission fluid. They might be really precise about the state of their motor oil, but overlook their transmission fluid.

Especially for people who tow with their vehicles, I've got to think it might be a shock to learn how quickly the fluid degrades and how much more often it should be changed just to keep the transmission in a good state of repair.

Ed

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

30-50k between drain & fills if you have a normal vehicle. 15-30k if you have a Honda. ATF+4 if it calls for it, other than that you can pretty much use Valvoline MaxLife ATF. This will get 99% of vehicles that don't get wrecked over 200k regardless of usage. Fluids and OEM coolers these days do a really good job.

Sure, it's a generalization, but it's pretty accurate. Today's trucks are set up pretty well for towing, and ATF does not have to deal with combustion byproducts.

 

[Donald]

I have sent transmission in to be analyzed. But to NAPA or Polaris. Blackstone will charge extra for the TAN which is what you want for lubricants that are not engine oil.

Synthetic ATF will help tremendously when it comes to dealing with heat caused by towing. So will a 3/4 ton pickup.

 

[Talent_Keyhole]

Developing a good transmission fluid is much more difficult than an engine oil. Manufacturers have varying min and maxi requirements that often cannot be met by one single fourmulation. ATF has to function as lubricant, hydraulic fluid, must provide sufficient friction to other parts of the unit, is tortured by the torque converter, and these days filtration is an option or non-serviceable in some applications, and some are deemed filled for life.. Likewise, monitoring the condition of the fluid and transmission is critical, especially for towing applications. The general rule of thumb I have seen is to half the change interval. I would sample at the half way point. I sent a sample of my fluid in after 13K (86k total) for my SUV, no towing. It was toast after that short period. i suspect that the previous facility only dropped a few quarts from the sump and called it good. I did a complete 14q flush and the last sample was looking good.

Call Blackstone and see how many samples they have for your transmission, in developing their averages. They will share the data if you ask.

 

[Rat407]

I've sent mine to Dysonanalysis. Might send some again, since it has been close to 100k on the fluid. The 2002 Silverado has 188k on it and has been towing a 4k trailer the past 2 years.

 

[nascarnation]

If you're a consumer, spend the money on oil changes instead.
Or put in TES-295 and run it forever.

Did anybody on BITOG ever pull their trans based on particle counts?

 

[DuckRyder]

I sent a sample recently.