swanicyouth
New member
- Mar 3, 2011
- 9,388
- 0
Just my experience and my opinion, and YES this is off the original topic. My "credentials" are I worked as a flate rate Ford tech at a Ford dealer for 7 years and had ( it lapsed - I've moved on ) an ASE certification in automatic transmissions.
OK, now... Flushing a transmission with anything other than transmission fluid is not a great idea. The reason being, is because almost half of a transmission's fluid capacity sits stagnant in the torque converter (car off).
So, once any "flush" gets into the torque converter - it likely isn't coming out - just mixing with the new transmission fluid. As, the fluid from the torque converter is not released when you drain the pan. Also, flushing a healthy auto trans is just not necessary and will provide little if any benefit.
Why?
Because a healthy transmission is pretty clean inside. There shouldn't be any material in there that needs "flushing out". Any particulate material (friction material from bands/clutches) will be picked up by the filter and is suspended in the fluid. Flushing will just dislodge it back into the transmission (likely).
The best thing to do is change the fluid (and filter if serviceable) regularly. If it hasn't been done in a while, or the car's history is unknown, change the fluid - run the vehicle - then change it again with new fluid again. This will get much of the old fluid out of the torque converter and any left will be diluted out by the new fluid.
If the transmission is healthy, the fluid should be changed way before the end of it's service life. I change mine every 30k or so. Fluids today should go well over 60k in a healthy transmission. Actually, most (if not all) modern transmissions are not designed to be serviced. They are sealed for life. I'm not saying that is a good thing, but the modern synthetic fluid should go over 100k miles without issue if the transmission is healthy.
OK, now... Flushing a transmission with anything other than transmission fluid is not a great idea. The reason being, is because almost half of a transmission's fluid capacity sits stagnant in the torque converter (car off).
So, once any "flush" gets into the torque converter - it likely isn't coming out - just mixing with the new transmission fluid. As, the fluid from the torque converter is not released when you drain the pan. Also, flushing a healthy auto trans is just not necessary and will provide little if any benefit.
Why?
Because a healthy transmission is pretty clean inside. There shouldn't be any material in there that needs "flushing out". Any particulate material (friction material from bands/clutches) will be picked up by the filter and is suspended in the fluid. Flushing will just dislodge it back into the transmission (likely).
The best thing to do is change the fluid (and filter if serviceable) regularly. If it hasn't been done in a while, or the car's history is unknown, change the fluid - run the vehicle - then change it again with new fluid again. This will get much of the old fluid out of the torque converter and any left will be diluted out by the new fluid.
If the transmission is healthy, the fluid should be changed way before the end of it's service life. I change mine every 30k or so. Fluids today should go well over 60k in a healthy transmission. Actually, most (if not all) modern transmissions are not designed to be serviced. They are sealed for life. I'm not saying that is a good thing, but the modern synthetic fluid should go over 100k miles without issue if the transmission is healthy.