A/T Fluid Flush Complete! Results Are In!

[Nemesis85]

Alright, so I've gotten my A/T Fluid completely flushed! I decided to go w/ Mobil 1 Synthetic DEX/MERC. I noticed a lot of you have posted saying u are using just the Merc formula which is made for Ford/GM motors. I did a lot of reading and also noticed a lot of people saying it can be dangerous to do a full fluid flush if your current fluid is bad/burnt, or if you are running higher miles. Well my fluid was like chocolate syrup! HAHA. And im @ 119k miles. I did the flush yesterday, and i can honestly say the performance improved 10 fold. Engine overall runs WAY more quiet! i noticed a 100 rpm drop @ idle, and already caught myself thinking the car was off, when it was actually on. I even noticed drastic decrease in throttle lag out of first, and it runs through the gears quite smooth now! So I thought I'd post this so those of you who were worried about whether or not doing the flush will cause more harm then good, will have something to go off of. And a note, i drive my car hard whenever I'm challanged haha. Here are some pics of the fluid! Looks like a topping for icecream! lol love to hear all your responses/questions =)

[sarki]

Dont be surprised if your tranny starts to slip. Its really not necessary to do full flushes if you take care of your trans imo. Your fluid looks like crap. I hope nothing happens but.........

[Dawgz]

y did u go for a flush?

[Nemesis85]

Well, as you can see... The fluid was chocolate haha. It needed a flush, as I noticed an increase is lag/jerk between certain gears. Also, an overall louder noise from a yr ago when i purchased the car. Plus, I wanted synthetic in there. So after the flush, I've noticed IMMEDIATE improvement in all areas. Considerably less lag out of first, and much more smooth through the gears. Plus i noticed a definite decrease in engine noise! only thing i can hear now is the belts (which are factory belts @ 119k) so needless to say, they need replaced next!

[Dawgz]

at that milage, i think a few drain/fills should have been looked into over a flush.

[02slera]

i hope that continues to work well for you.
When it comes to a flush, others should still use caution with vehicles of higher mileage, its not a guaranteed fail as we see from this car so far, but it IS possible to cause problems.

[Nemesis85]

Well i definitely will post updates as to the performance in the weeks to come... As of now, I'm happy i did the flush!

[Ruski]

damn talk about dirty fluid, have you checked for engine sludge ? if thats what your transmission looked like cant imagine the engine. . keep us posted on the performance of the transmission after the flush.

[Nemesis85]

Well she sat for a day, and i took her up some steep hills and onto the freeway today. First time since the flush. Punched it up to 70 and i notice more power through the gears and much smoother through the gears as well. and hitting the hills, when it switches into a lower gear, no jerk like there was before. SO far SO good! I will definitely keep posting updates. As for engine sludge, i've run SeaFoam through the oil twice and through the vacuum hose once, and in the fuel twice as well. Only thing left is to replace the spark plugs which i will have done in the morning! yay haha

[dug320]

The problem with AT fluid is that it is powerful detergent. When I worked for a dealer you could start a count down to failure within 6 months if the AT was not changed properly on higher mileage cars.

Fresh AT fluid will just loosen all the dirt stuck to the seals and cause it to circulate until it plugs one of the many pathways.

My experience has been a proper change involving 3 cycles of flush and fill is the only way to ensure success.

[lexmex]

The problem with AT fluid is that it is powerful detergent. When I worked for a dealer you could start a count down to failure within 6 months if the AT was not changed properly on higher mileage cars.

Fresh AT fluid will just loosen all the dirt stuck to the seals and cause it to circulate until it plugs one of the many pathways.

My experience has been a proper change involving 3 cycles of flush and fill is the only way to ensure success.

That's right. I do 3 drain and fills over the course of a week apart or about 100 miles apart, with the filter being pulled on the 3rd drain and fill.

As mentioned, you can start to feel the difference even after the first drain and fill, but this is a misnomer, as there can still be a lot of gunk in there that new fluid can help clean out (but not fully).

Even with a flush, the new fluid needs 'time' to clean out the system. There still will be a bit of gunk in there that the flow of the new fluid through the system will clean up over time.

My experience is I see a much bigger improvement about a week or so (100 miles) after I've done a drain and fill.

The Mobil 1 is not the most viscous of the Type IV compatible fluids, but it does do the job and is very close to the Mobil 3309 (i.e. Toyota Type IV fluid specs). Wolf's Head is also similar.

[CASTRO]

true to what people up there have said. A few drain/fills is better since it does clean things up but a flush is basically forcing all the ATF through your system. In theory its great, but those chunks may loosen and either show where seals are gone and start leaking or even worse will get caught in parts of the transmission itself.

3 drain/fills is better for higher mileage cars so that its less force for those chunks and gunk and hopefully it gets caught in the filter or settle to the bottom of the pan near the drain bolt to where it slowly gets removed.

[mpjp]

gents..so when we say high mileage what contsitutes "high"???? I am at 56K but the car is a 2003..flush and fill or drain and fill??? I agree with the experts but where do we draw the line?!?! Same thing with injector cleaner all it does is knock loose all the crap then plugs the injectors!!!

[CASTRO]

high mileage really depends on car condition and how it's been maintained. If it's 56k of "Taxi" stop and go driving then that is worse than 100k of all freeway cruising.

It's really up to the owner to gauge his/her vehicle but a drain and fill is safer overall across the board. (cheaper too!)

I've had a personal experience with my wife's old Camry @ over 200k. She did a flush and a month after the transmission started to slip and got random check engine lights. Guess the flush loosened up chunks which might have gotten to sensors and or places they shouldn't have been.

[reidcc]

I have driven my 2000 lara for roughly 3K miles mainly highway. I bought it at 133K- and I have ZERO service history.

My tranny fluid doesn't look ruby red, but its not dark chocolate either, and it doesn't smell burnt. However- I DO want to change it and probably go Synthetic.

Does the Drain and Fill method work using Synthetic? I realize I won't be getting full benefit- as I will have mostly regular fluid and now some Sythetic, and then a week or so down the road- be doing another drain and fill. I will probably never have all regular fluid out doing this method.
Its OK to mix?

Thx
Chris