Pan drain and refill on transmission fluid

agesilaus wrote:
I'm fairly sure the interval on my truck is something over 100K...BUT they want a transmission flush when that happens.

According to the newest bulletin from Ford. They no longer suggest Flushing the trany. They now say to drop the pan, and change the filters

road-runner wrote:

Chum lee wrote:


IMO overdoing maintenance is potentially just as harmful as under doing it or not doing it at all. Unless you have specific reasons not to (heavy towing, racing, operation in extreme cold/dust/humidity, etc.) follow the recommendations in your owners manual and use the appropriate fluids/parts.

I agree for the cases when the owners manual information is correct, but how do you cherry pick what is good and not good advice from the owners manual? For instance, Volkswagen and Audi use automatic transmissions built by Aisin and ZF. The owners manuals say the ATF is "lifetime", "sealed for life", etc. There's no way provided to check the ATF level, and adding fluid is beyond reasonable without a lift and vehicle-specific code reader. The same model transmissions are used by other auto makers that specify an ATF change interval. Which owners manual is right?

Funny you should mention that. Yes, I have also owned several Audis and VWs over the years and put well over 500,000 combined miles on them. I know all about Audi's "lifetime" automatic transmission fluid and I agree with you. Changing it at 100,000 miles (no track use, sooner if you do) seems to be about right unless you are a very spirited driver. It is a very special fluid (read expensive) and changing it along with the filter and cleaning the pan does help aging shifting performance. Unless you consider "lifetime fluid" to mean the lifetime of your $10,000 ZF automatic transmission. That is why I mentioned "specific reasons" in my initial post. This is definitely one of them. That said, changing 18 quarts of ATF at 15,000 miles in my RV is not. Audi also recommends changing the timing belt, tensioners, and water pump on some models at 105,000 miles too. ON INTERFERENCE TURBOCHARGED ENGINES. I think they are a little off on that too! But hey, that's just me. Don't get me started. My performance days are over.

Chum lee

I have a new-to-me audi Q7 with a bit over 100k miles. I wanted to get the atf changed, and the dealer gave me the same lifetime story. A few months later I noticed a small atf drip, coming from a leak at the electrical connector. $35 part, and 5 to 10 minutes to install once the trans pan is dropped. So I got my atf leak fixed and the fluid/filer changed as a necessary side effect. Cost a bit over $1k at an independent place, would have been ~$1.6k at the dealer. The atf has to be filled from the bottom with the engine running. Ford uses the same transmission but adds an under-the-car dipstick and fill hole. Still a pain to add atf, but much less of a pain.

My dad had an Audi a6
Tried several times to get the dealer and independents to change the ATF fluid. Dealer said no, it was 'lifetime'

Independents did not want the hassle associated with doing it on that vehicle. at 155K miles a bad shift flare began.

While the vehicle was in otherwise immaculate condition, replacing the TX would have cost 3x the bluebook price of the vehicle.

Lifetime indeed, it caused the end of its life.

He replaced it with a leased Cadilliac but preferred the Audi

Chum lee wrote:


IMO overdoing maintenance is potentially just as harmful as under doing it or not doing it at all. Unless you have specific reasons not to (heavy towing, racing, operation in extreme cold/dust/humidity, etc.) follow the recommendations in your owners manual and use the appropriate fluids/parts.

I agree for the cases when the owners manual information is correct, but how do you cherry pick what is good and not good advice from the owners manual? For instance, Volkswagen and Audi use automatic transmissions built by Aisin and ZF. The owners manuals say the ATF is "lifetime", "sealed for life", etc. There's no way provided to check the ATF level, and adding fluid is beyond reasonable without a lift and vehicle-specific code reader. The same model transmissions are used by other auto makers that specify an ATF change interval. Which owners manual is right?

jeeperdude10 wrote:
We have 2016 Bounder and being somewhat over the top on preventive maintenance, I am thinking of draining the transmission pan and refill only. I have 15K on the unit, and being full timers, and cannot do a lot of maintenance at a lot of places we visit, I would like to take advantage of the one we are in now. Figure, I would make this a 'yearly' park (for the purpose of maintenance) if feasible to do. I understand that some old fluid will remain, but changing yearly should not be detrimental in my way of thinking. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

IMO overdoing maintenance is potentially just as harmful as under doing it or not doing it at all. Unless you have specific reasons not to (heavy towing, racing, operation in extreme cold/dust/humidity, etc.) follow the recommendations in your owners manual and use the appropriate fluids/parts. IMO, removing threaded fasteners, clamps, etc. gives you more opportunity to cross thread/strip/break/lose them. When that happens, YOU cause more issues than you solve plus you waste resources unnecessarily. This is just my opinion based on +50 years experience. Your experience may vary.

Chum lee

delete

Sounds like the OP's Tranny pan has a drain plug.

While one will only get 1/3 of the total capacity out, it does not require removing the transmision pan.

I added a drain plug and an external filter and was hoping to exchange some percentage of the ATF on a regular basis.

Some would argue this is better than a full exchange on a high mileage TX.

No harm but you will only get about a third of the fluid swapped.

Once a year sounds like an overkill to me. Also, someone recommended drilling a hole in your converter to install a plug....sounds like a clever idea but way too many things can go wrong trying this.