Hi everyone,
I work for a small but fast growing company that provides convenient maintenance service to privately owned vehicles. Something like Meineke or EZ Lube, but we are not a franchise.
I know this is an old topic, but my searches didn’t yield the answers I need.
As you know, most people have to keep their vehicles for a longer time than they used to. They have also become more concerned about the correct maintenance of their older cars.
Because of this situation, it is very important to separate myth from fact about the possibility of automatic transmission failure if the ATF is changed when the vehicles' mileage is high (65.000 miles or more) if it has never been done before.
It is a widely spread notion that changing automatic transmission oil in such conditions will cause the automatic transmission to fail because the fluid that has been in the transmission for a long time has become dirty and gritty. According to this notion, this gritty fluid is actually providing needed friction for the worn internal components of the transmission. Therefore, changing the fluid would remove this added friction supplement that the internal transmission parts now need to operate properly, which would cause the transmission to slip or suffer some type of catastrophic failure.
This concern relates both to older models using Dexron type automatic transmission fluid and also to newer models which use different types of synthetic, mostly proprietary, automatic transmission fluids.
Because this type of idea is so deeply imbedded in people’s minds, we would very much appreciate your replies or comments pertaining to the following questions:
1. What would be the best position on this issue?
2. Can the automatic transmission fluid be replaced on vehicles with high mileage when it has never been changed before?
3. Could you please provide a technical explanation to sustain your position?
Why do we ask? We ask because we need as much information and arguments as possible to provide proper and accurate replies and advice to our customers, particularly those (most of them) that believe in that ATF should not be changed in high mileage cars, as explained before.
Thank you in advance for your valuable insight on this matter.
Note: Sorry for the long post. Also, please excuse if my poor English makes reading this message difficult or unpleasant in any way.
I work for a small but fast growing company that provides convenient maintenance service to privately owned vehicles. Something like Meineke or EZ Lube, but we are not a franchise.
I know this is an old topic, but my searches didn’t yield the answers I need.
As you know, most people have to keep their vehicles for a longer time than they used to. They have also become more concerned about the correct maintenance of their older cars.
Because of this situation, it is very important to separate myth from fact about the possibility of automatic transmission failure if the ATF is changed when the vehicles' mileage is high (65.000 miles or more) if it has never been done before.
It is a widely spread notion that changing automatic transmission oil in such conditions will cause the automatic transmission to fail because the fluid that has been in the transmission for a long time has become dirty and gritty. According to this notion, this gritty fluid is actually providing needed friction for the worn internal components of the transmission. Therefore, changing the fluid would remove this added friction supplement that the internal transmission parts now need to operate properly, which would cause the transmission to slip or suffer some type of catastrophic failure.
This concern relates both to older models using Dexron type automatic transmission fluid and also to newer models which use different types of synthetic, mostly proprietary, automatic transmission fluids.
Because this type of idea is so deeply imbedded in people’s minds, we would very much appreciate your replies or comments pertaining to the following questions:
1. What would be the best position on this issue?
2. Can the automatic transmission fluid be replaced on vehicles with high mileage when it has never been changed before?
3. Could you please provide a technical explanation to sustain your position?
Why do we ask? We ask because we need as much information and arguments as possible to provide proper and accurate replies and advice to our customers, particularly those (most of them) that believe in that ATF should not be changed in high mileage cars, as explained before.
Thank you in advance for your valuable insight on this matter.
Note: Sorry for the long post. Also, please excuse if my poor English makes reading this message difficult or unpleasant in any way.
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