quick question..30,000 miles servicing

When all was said and done, I got the trans fluid changed at 31k. What I will take away from this is...going forward I will change trans fluid every 25K. Sounds like the best way to avoid issues later. Thanks All.

No such thing as a 'quick question' -

but there are *LOTS* of quick (and easy) answers!

Follow your owner's manual.

Oops - did somebody already say that????????..:h

.

Synthetics are great and many can easily withstand very high temps without breaking down or burning the fluids… that is all well and good and enough reason to switch in itself…

Still the temps need to stay within the normal operating range for that particular tranny, even if it has been switched to synthetics… running a tranny hot isn’t ok because of the change to synthetics…
while the fluid might survive, other parts and seals can be warped or ruined from temps to far out of the normal ranges…

+1

Flush it, have it changed to synthetic, and repeat every 25k miles. Far cheaper than a new transmission, and one can worry less about transmission temperatures when towing (or just moseying) up and down elevations.

Why not do it. It's cheap insurance and it can't hurt.

Changing fluids at specified service intervals is one of the least expensive ways to extend transmission service life. Also, if you travel over long and high passes as we have in the west, using synthetic fluid and adding a transmission temperature gauge will pay dividends well above the cost.

My previous coach (which my son now owns) has a mid-nineties F-53 chassis with an E40D transmission. Currently the motorhome has well over 80K miles on the original transmission with no sign of problems Addtionally, this coach is just below the GVWR of 17K Lbs and always is towing either a car or boat.

However, I added a transmission temperature gauge, synthetic fluid, extra deep transmission pan with cooling fins, and a True-Cool transmission cooler in addition to the standard cooler.

I don’t think I would flush the tranny fluid from one that has been neglected for long intervals or abused, but otherwise IMO flushing the fluid is a good practice and one that I prefer… it has sure worked well for me, for many miles and years…

Not to deter anyone from following the Mfg's recommendations on service intervals (there are teams of folks that figure this out) but I treat my tranny fluid differently.

What I do is drain the pan every five or so oil changes (3K-4K mi.) and replace that fluid. That amount is about half of the total fluid in the transmission. If I do this four times, I've replaced just about 100% of the original fluid by dilution. I gain the benefit of introducing new fluid more regularly and hence, the surfactant and wear modifiers that are good for the transmission. I don't pay anyone to flush and replace the entire amount, either. Downside is that I may carry some dirt or particulate longer than an entire flush but I don't see the amount as a problem, considering the overall life of the tranny.

The first time I changed mine was at 30k miles. It had a magnet in the bottom of the pan and was covered with a what looked like iron filings and the fluid was dark. Also the filter had some lager pieces of metal and other black material. When I changed it at 60k miles the magnet and filter were clean as was the fluid. It is due to be changed again with with 97k on the odometer. My conclusion is that the first change is the most important one to do at 25-30k because the transmission is getting broken in.

dodge guy wrote:
I do mine every 25k regardless. It's cheap insurance compared to a replacement trans.

Same interval, same reason.