At 170,000 miles on the original ATX? I mean on a previous Escort I used to change it every 30,000 miles and it was never dirty. At 170,000 miles, I'm less sure of that. Anyone else shcnge thr transmission filter on a high mileage car and find it to be dirty?

I would change the filter and replace the fluid that you drain out. I wouldn't flush the tranny but a fluid and filter change won't hurt. You may want to consider putting in a can of Sea Foam too just to loosen things up.

seafoam in the tranny? i hear alot of people talk about this product how so how do you use it in both tranny and a motor? I just bought a replacement escort for the one I lost this on is an automatic tranny with 125k miles not sure if it has ever had a transmission service should i have one done?

The fluid has been changed, I do have a siphon. I just want to know if the filters ever get dirty since my previous experience tells me that they don't (at least at the 30,000 mile interval, they look like new).

I'll have to look into the seafoam thing. It gets good reviews for use in the engine, but I don't need it there. I'll post a summary of seafoam in the transmission reviews if I can find enough of them to form a consensus.

At 170,000 miles on the original ATX? I mean on a previous Escort I used to change it every 30,000 miles and it was never dirty. At 170,000 miles, I'm less sure of that. Anyone else shcnge thr transmission filter on a high mileage car and find it to be dirty?


By "dirty" do you mean the color has turned a dark red (versus pink for new fluid)? Tranny fluid will darken as it ages and its color is not an indicator of its health. Smell it; if it smells burnt, then you can figure the stuff is shot and it *all* needs to be exchanged. Simply dropping the pan will only change a very small percentage of the fluid in the transmission. SeaFoam is supposed to do a good job of cleaning the insides of a transmission ...if you do add the SeaFoam, you should change *all* the fluid and the filter ..in fact I think it says to use it just prior to a complete fluid change.

Mike
95LX

I rebuilt the F4EAT in our 92 at 192,000. While the ATF was a very dark red, I found ZERO bits of material in the pan, no fragments of anything. It was all liquid. There was a small amount of slime that was on the magnet of course. The filter itself looked fine, and the entire inside of the tranny looked clean. Im pretty sure that filter was the original, as the car had been in our farmily since it was new - and my sister in law didnt worry about maintenance.
I think draining the oil via the pan removes nearly half of the fluid.

I rebuilt the F4EAT in our 92 at 192,000. While the ATF was a very dark red, I found ZERO bits of material in the pan, no fragments of anything. It was all liquid. There was a small amount of slime that was on the magnet of course. The filter itself looked fine, and the entire inside of the tranny looked clean. Im pretty sure that filter was the original, as the car had been in our farmily since it was new - and my sister in law didnt worry about maintenance.
I think draining the oil via the pan removes nearly half of the fluid.

It's alomst exactly half, or maybe even a little more using the siphon. I've gotten about 2 + 1/4-1/3 quarts with a siphon.

Trans fluid ages and it can show few tell tale signs that it isn't good. The burnt/color/feel only goes so far. It lasts optimally about 50k.
On a 97 the other day it is too hard to tell if the filter is dirty. Even when it is off. There is just not enough of it visable through the inlet and outlet. It did look good at the inlet and outlet put judging from how little fluid came out of it when I pulled the pan and how much came out when I pulled it off and turned it over..along with crap..I figure it was done.
About the only way to get the bulk of the crap out of the pan on an automatic is to pull the pan. If there is enough crap in there it will end up plugging the filter. Flushing won't get much if anything out of the crap in the pan..might just mix..and keep mixing the new with the old fluid,crap..ending up with more crap in the trans and in the filter.
Seafom tranny stuff.Aggressive. Put it in. Drive it for about 5 miles(use reverse too) Change the filter and fluid.
I would not change fluid that way. Unless there was no other way. I have posted about that before.
I siphoned 4 quarts out of a 93
Pulled the pan on a 97 the other day and got the same.