transmission flush?

[tozier9]

96 jeep cherokee has slow shifts from 1st to 2nd. I went to a garage and they said i have contaminated tranny fluid.

They said it costs 150 for the flush and 18 for a filter.

Should i do it?
or can you do it your self.

[IdahoJeeper]

You can do it yourself. I'll let others give you input on the value of the total flush, but I too have a 96 that had the same problem, and I dropped the pan myself.

Dropping the pan is the hardest part of the whole affair. I will say the drain plug makes it easier than most filter replacements because you don't have oil sloshing all over you as you drop the pan. Which is a really good thing being that the dipstick tube is a pain to get loose. If I had a pan full of oil while I was trying to wrestle the upper part of the tube away from the lower part, I'd have been drenched! Just take your time, squirt a little WD-40 or seafoam on that slip joint between the tubes and then twist and shout (I found myself shouting at the clown who came up with that set up).

Once the pan is off, everything else is a snap. My 96 used the most expensive of 6 possible filters used on XJ trannys, but cheap or expensive it just bolts in there. You then put the pan back on, and fill 'er up. Make sure you look at what fluid is recommended for yours, mine used the ATF+3, and apparently if you use the wrong stuff, it foams up.

To do my 'total flush' I filled it, ran it for a day, drained it again, filled it, ran it, and did it one more time. I know that set me up for possible contamination from the old to the new, but eventually (I think) most of the old should be gone and replaced by new. It definitely helped shifting and my mileage improved too.