cottman says don,t change it.=

98 lumina with 70,000 miles. i called cottman for advice about a/t fliuid change. he said don,t change it. it should have been done every 30,000 miles. do it now and risk some gummy stuff breaking loose and causing a/t trouble. i do know a mechanic that changes like one quart every time he does oil change in his personal car. what,s you guys opinion about this? should shops recommend a/t fluid change when they notice 30,000 miles on any a/t car being serviced?

How does the fluid look and how does the trans perform? A few years ago, I serviced the filter and fluid on a Camaro with 107,000 miles and it had never been done before. All the seals started leaking and the trans started slipping. We got sued, yeah SUED. I wasted a half a day in court explaining to the magistrate what was done to the vehicle, and that we weren't the ones that had neglected it during it's lifetime. I even brought up that we offered a trans re-seal job for Cost, just to keep the customer happy. We did win, but man o man, I'd like to give away with every repair free coffee and a serving of common sense. If the oil furnace blows up on a winter day, is it the fault of the guy who delivered the oil last week? Bottom line here buddy. 70K is right on the threshold of being "way too long" for a trans service. 30K is normal. If you do service it, be prepared for that new fluid to leak, and the remnants of the old stuff to casue a symptom or two, and be prepared to deal with it. Instead of a regular fluid and filter swap, goto a place that has a fluid flusher or exchanger. Doing a traditional fluid and filter just out of the pan will only change 1/3 of the fluid, while a flush will change at least 85% of the fluid. Good Luck.

How does the fluid look and how does the trans perform? A few years ago, I serviced the filter and fluid on a Camaro with 107,000 miles and it had never been done before. All the seals started leaking and the trans started slipping. We got sued, yeah SUED. I wasted a half a day in court explaining to the magistrate what was done to the vehicle, and that we weren't the ones that had neglected it during it's lifetime. I even brought up that we offered a trans re-seal job for Cost, just to keep the customer happy. We did win, but man o man, I'd like to give away with every repair free coffee and a serving of common sense. If the oil furnace blows up on a winter day, is it the fault of the guy who delivered the oil last week? Bottom line here buddy. 70K is right on the threshold of being "way too long" for a trans service. 30K is normal. If you do service it, be prepared for that new fluid to leak, and the remnants of the old stuff to casue a symptom or two, and be prepared to deal with it. Instead of a regular fluid and filter swap, goto a place that has a fluid flusher or exchanger. Doing a traditional fluid and filter just out of the pan will only change 1/3 of the fluid, while a flush will change at least 85% of the fluid. The one quart an oil change is not a bad idea. Good Luck.

My 1990 buick century back when I bought it had 162,000 miles on it and had never had a fluid or filter change and it was having trouble even moving so I changed the fluid and filter and when I put the pan back on and fluid in it I started the car and gave it a minute running just to circulate and after about two minutes I tried to put it in reverse and back out of the bay and IT WOULDN'T MOVE. I floored the car and it slowly started creeping back, so I finally got it out of the way and went to the parts store in another car and bought two bottles of Luscas Transmission fix and put the first bottle in there and it started trying to move and so I put the second bottle in it and it drove fine until 195,xxx miles when I flipped it. The only problem I had out of it was the Torque Converter Clutch kept wanting to lock up prematurely at like 35 and 45 MPH, don't know of any leaks and I saw it upside down twice.

it's never to late to change the trans fluid...especially at 70000 miles. do a complete flush though, remove the pan, new filter, etc.

if you able to do this yourself, drop the pan and do everything, then in about 500 miles later, do it again. this will help to get rid of the other junky gummy stuff that might come loose.

you don't not want ot change the trans fluid. its a good idea to at least change it once a year. small price to pay to not have to drop $2500-$3000 on a new trans.

check into a small trans cooler also, helps reduce temp which is a major killer of transmissions