Pay for a flush? Or Drain and Fill?

[Y_K]

Originally Posted By: 01_celica_gt
Originally Posted By: supton
Originally Posted By: Trav

Most Japanese cars use hoses with clamps at the radiator so its no big deal to remove the return and let the transmissions pump do the job for you.

Let it pump till you see air bubbles then stop the engine and refill, repeat until the fluid coming out is the same as going in.
Fill the transmission to the correct level and that's the job done


If you get bubbles, isn't the pump run dry, and thus it's a bad thing?

this is my main concern too, running things dry, so can someone clear this up for me?


You could do 2-3 shorter start-stop cycles and add fresh ATF before the bubbles start, and when the new fresh color starts coming out, finally stop the engine and add new ATF to the required levels.
That being said, I have done a ton of drain and refill jobs on panthers with or without U-Haul pans with the drain plug, also mightyvac only and replenish. Nothing went wrong ever. Replenishing is not that bad being that motor oil or ATF in my limited experience.

 

[Trav]

That's it. Just use a piece of clear plastic tubing and have the helper turn it off as soon as you see a few bubbles.
We are not talking about running it dry.

 

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: meborder
Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp


I devised my own way to do it by taking down the filter, pushing a hose to the hole the filter goes into, and letting the transmission suck the fluid out of a bucket. Once clean fluid is running down into the drain pan I leave under the transmission, I reinstall the filter and fill the trans like normal.



I had forgotten about this until you wrote down your procedure. My brother worked at a Pennzoil quick change station for a while and this was the method they used to do transmission service.

they had a slightly fancier setup, but the basics of it was exactly as you described. they would always "burn" a couple extra quarts above the listed capacity to ensure a complete fluid exchange, since you do lose a bit of the new fluid at the beginning of the exchange.

I would highly recommend this type of procedure to anyone that needs to do a fluid exchange as a DIY way for a vehicle with a thermostatically controlled transmission.

Thanks for posting!


It's a real gem, because Ford's answer is to literally run the fluid until transmission destruction, and buy a new transmission.

 

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: 01_celica_gt
Originally Posted By: supton
Originally Posted By: Trav

Most Japanese cars use hoses with clamps at the radiator so its no big deal to remove the return and let the transmissions pump do the job for you.

Let it pump till you see air bubbles then stop the engine and refill, repeat until the fluid coming out is the same as going in.
Fill the transmission to the correct level and that's the job done


If you get bubbles, isn't the pump run dry, and thus it's a bad thing?

this is my main concern too, running things dry, so can someone clear this up for me?

using a transmission cooler line, start car and let it drain until bubble, and run & turn off the car immediately? this is where I'm confused, by doing this, wouldn't it run it dry and cause some sort of damage? I never could get past this question to even attempt it, if this truly causes no damage in a Toyota transmission, I would love to do this in all my cars, as fresh fluid would be the best route.

Then repeat this process until the fluid coming out of the cooler line is same as new?


You only have to the bubble watch one time in the entire life of the transmission.

Best way is to use an oil jug with that clear gradient strip on the side for the output from the trans. First time you begin the exchange, let the fluid come out until you see bubbles. Shut the engine off. Go look at the jug, and see how much fluid came out. Once you know how much fluid comes out, you just cut the engine off just before it reaches this level, while adding that exact amount to the transmission each time before you begin an exchange.

This is how I do things. Then when you have filled each old oil jug, stick the cap on, and take each jug to the auto parts store to recycle your oil. Easy as pie.

 

[07titan]

My nissan service dept. doesn't recommend a tranny flush on my 07 titan. Tranny holds 12 qts., last 2 oil changes I've drain and flush my tranny fluid, carefully measure the fluid that comes out,,4 qts. each time from the pan. I then replace the 4 qts., run and recheck the fluid. In a few days will do a drain and fill again. 3rd time, each change done at about 4500 miles apart. Just thinking after this drain I'll do a drain and fill every other oil change, figure it's all good for the tranny. I use amsoil blue jug tranny fluid OE. No towing or hard driving.

 

[07titan]

Also, my 08 jeep grand cherokee has a lifetime powertrain warranty,transmission case and all internal parts,torque converter, drive/flex plate,seals gaskets and other parts are covered. Because of this I have the dealer change the fluid and filter, for peace of mind. It cost me $149.95,parts and labor,I probably could do it for about half, but again, peace of mind is important to me.

 

[KrisZ]

For the cooler line flushes I bought a several feet long, clear plastic tube, long enough to reach the driver side. Sitting behind the wheel, I put a big jug on the ground, beside the driver's seat, put a tube inside it and start/stop the engine as needed.

 

[JTK]

Last time I tried a DIY cooler line pump out was on our 2005 Chevy Trailblazer 4x4 4L60E. I didn't run plastic tubing quite long enough so I couldn't see the gallon plastic jug from the driver's seat. That particular 4L60E filled and massively overflowed a gallon jug in under 10sec. Those cooler lines were hard tubed with the push-release fittings. Kind of a pain. Thankfully, all the ATs I've drained/filled since had drain plugs, fill plugs and/or dipstick tubes for refill.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: ryanschillinger
Fluid flows through the cooler lines anyway. As long as you aren't talking about a reverse power flush, there should be no problem doing the cooler line flush yourself.


What is a reverse power flush?? I do not believe there is one since the transmission's own pump does the flush and it only goes one way.

 

[cjcride]

Donald, I read that some shops have a machine that gets hooked up to the transmission and it pumps the fluid in a reverse fashion through and out of the system.
The engine would be not running.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: cjcride
Donald, I read that some shops have a machine that gets hooked up to the transmission and it pumps the fluid in a reverse fashion through and out of the system.
The engine would be not running.



If you push fresh ATF backwards you will end up at the transmission pump which while a little may leak past is going to be a dead end (engine not running) for the flow of ATF. If the pump was removed maybe then, but who wants to get into that for what purpose.

 

[ryanschillinger]

I understand there used to be machines like that, that ran a reverse pressurized flush of the trans system. Those are supposedly the ones that caused many trans failures.

 

[cjcride]

Originally Posted By: ryanschillinger
I understand there used to be machines like that, that ran a reverse pressurized flush of the trans system. Those are supposedly the ones that caused many trans failures.

They are the ones then. The concept works well for cooling system. That is probably why they came out with the AT reverse flush.

Drain & Fill has worked for me for over 20 years no problem.