School me on transmission service

[DaveS903]

The oil change place said my fluid is dirty and needs to be changed. And for only $174 blah blah blah. I'm sure it does need servicing but that place is always trying to upsell a bunch of stuff.

What all needs to be done and what should it cost?

[JLivi1224]

Called around yesterday for same and $99 seemed to be average.

[MadHatter]

Depends on how regular you perform maintenance on your transmission. If the vehicle has 150k+ and it hasn't been serviced since 60k, I wouldn't do a flush. Good chance you might wind up without a working transmission.

[SwineAssassiN]

There was just a thread a while back about how most guys never touch their trans fluid. There was even someone that claimed to have worked at a mechanic shop and he said there were several vehicles that never had trans problems, came in for a fluid change and the trans never worked right again after they changed it

[WItoTX]

Not sure your make of truck. However, I noticed on my '12 Superduty, the fluid would get "dirty" at about 40k. The first time, when they told me, I had it replaced. A mechanic friend of mine said yeah, they all look dirty around 40-50k, but if you actually analyze the fluid at a molecule level, it's perfectly fine. He basically said the heat turns the fluid colors, but that is about it. He suggested every 100k only because of the trailer I pull, otherwise fluid would be fine for the life of the vehicle.

He also said essentially the same thing for the t-case and differentials.

[2014FusionM]

Like stated above if you never pull a heavy load then you should be good to 150K miles or more.

On my Dodge back in college it started shifting funny and I thought that I might need a new transmission. I ended up just changing the fluid and filter at 200K miles and it fixed itself. sold it at 250K miles and so far I think it is still on the road rolling.

Always do your research before going in to the shop and being convinced that something needs changed by the "Salesperson". You can usually stick to the cars manual and everything will be fine. When 100K comes around on my truck I will probably go ahead and change the transmission fluid just because when I do haul a trailer, a couple times out of the year, it is usually fully loaded down.

[jlinville]

PM sent!

[SaltwaterSlick]

First thing you need to do is FIND A NEW PLACE to take your vehicles if you KNOW they're always trying to up-sell you on stuff!

[Fordnandez]

I put a big magnet on the bottom of the pan to collect all the small shavings day 1 and changed the filter and switched to amsoil trans fluid at 50k. Truck has been tuned and deleted with over 500 hp and over 1k ft lbs and I have not tore it up yet in 130k miles. I brought the fluid to the trans shop and I believe they did it for around 100 bucks. But that was 6 years ago. I am going to send a sample to a lab and have them analyze it and see if I need to change it.

[basskicker24]

Just have the filter changed and new fluid added to top off. The flush can cause more issues like stated earlier.

[Mike Fangman]

My last truck, 2000 Chevy 2500, I drove it to 300,000 miles and never serviced the tranny, added fluid a few times. Traded it in still going strong, but, I also seldom pulled a trailer.