tranny amintenance - neglected

[glenncof]

Here is my experience with 1997 Thaoe at 136K miles. Manual says light duty change AFT - never. Severe duty- 100K.

So at 100K it pulled the pan, cleaned it, and replaced filter. Only 1/2 of the fluid comes out and the drain plug on the torque converter was hard to find. So I replaced half of the fluid.

At 135K the torque convertor went out. Fluid was dark brown. The shop pulled the 4L60E apart and it was in surprisingly good shape although a couple clutch disc and bad forward gear needed replacement.

Recommendation: I would now have changed the ATF when I got the vehilce at 36K and REPLACED the pan with one having a DRAIN PLUG.

Then I would drain the pan and replace the fluid every 3rd oil change.

I did something like this on a Range Rover with a ZF 4-speed (it had drain plug) and sold it at 176K to a friend who is still running it today, probably now 187K.

Pan without a drain plug is a real mess. With a plug... just refresh fluid at oil change and it's painless.

Almost forgot - I have heard so many stories about good trannys having problems after a full, machine flush at a shop I would avoid that if you high miles already. Use this technique with more frequent changes to clean up the neglect slowly.