Transmission maintenance

[mustgo69]

My wife's '01 Suburban is at 50K and my '02 Tahoe is close. I called the Chevy shop and talked with a Service manager and asked what is involved with the 50K service. He said it would involve a oil filter change, tire rotation, and trans flush.
I have done everything else but the trans. flush. Should I still pay $134 to get this done or just do it myself? I am not sure what is involved with the flush, but would change the filter and fluid. Please comment.

[010175]

The flushing is up in the air. Most shops do not want to do it if you have 75,000 or more and never had it done. I have a 1996 2 door with a transmission that is going bad. I wanted to get it flushed in San Diego. The shop would not flush it and another shop said they would not recommend it and had lots of problem with customer transmissions after flushing. I would how every change the fluid and filter every 20,000 miles because a rebuild cost $2,200 to have done. I did have the fluid and filter at 158,000 miles and now have 175,000 now on it and still ok. Dave

[jthomp23777]

Good question and good advice. I have a 2001 Hoe with 60,000, so far the tranny has been good. The rebuilt tranny for soft and hard parts is around $2000.00 give or take, pending on how they rebuild it. Proper maintenance will save you alot of problems in the long run and you can get alot of miles. Helps alot if you don't let the wife drive. I am in the process of having mine flushed at 60,000, yet I changed mine the first time at 36,000 by myself. The problem as a do it your-selfer is that you cannot get the complete fluid out of it, especially the torque converter. My tranny shop is charging $174.00. This includes a complete flush, filter, filter grommet and gasket Sometimes lower price is not the best, I just know the transmission shop and thier quality, I rather pay the extra.I like OEM filters,though the tranny shop use WIX filters,which I like also, good product. Just don't take it to AAMCO (honk,honk) and have the pimply kid do it. The cheaper price most likely does not include a filter, but gets you 4 quarts over or under.I guess the reason as I have been told about not having a flush either oil or tranny with high miles. Is that with the flush solvents used, it tends to dissolve any fluid (dirt) particles that have stop or reduce leaks. I would appreciate GM Merlin opinion on this. He is a avocate to this forum, apparantly he has been in the mechanical business for awhile. If he wishes to answer, I would respect his input on the subject...

[mustgo69]

Thanks for advice. I think I am going to take it in. Getting a complete flush sounds like the best route. Please keep comments coming. Anyone reccomend a shop in south Houston, Texas?

[blacktahoe4x4]

i would go ahead and do the flush cause iam already on my 3rd transmission and i only have 75000 miles on it

[sprucegoose]

Originally Posted by mustgo69

Thanks for advice. I think I am going to take it in. Getting a complete flush sounds like the best route. Please keep comments coming. Anyone reccomend a shop in south Houston, Texas?

Personally, myself, I would never recommend a trans flush. Unless you can guarantee that all the customers before you had cleaner trans. than you do. What are the chances of that? Why do people flush their trans? Because they have high miles and potential problems! From what I understand a lot of the contaminants are passed thru this process into your vehicle, and most times they never drop the pan and change the filter.

I currently have 164K on my trans., and it is all original. Shifts as nice as the day I bought it. I drop the pan, drain it, and change the filter every 60K. Don't forget to clean off the magnetic pickup on the pan, it holds all the minute particles floating around in there! Good luck!

[glenncof]

I have a 1997 Tahoe with 118K miles and a 1991 Range Rover with 173K.

I changed the transmission fluid / filter on the Tahoe at about 100K. No towing or off-road. It's quite a mess to do it. I didn't drain torque convertor. I'll do another at 140K.

The Range Rover has a drain plug so I have been draining it every other oil change since about 130K miles. Only 1/3 of capacity comes out so it took about five changes to get ~100% new fluid. I have considered getting a new pan for the Tahoe with a drain plug.

I have read of so many problems with "flushing" high mileage transmissions so I like the "go slow" approach of only changing what comes out.

Another reason I like this. Changing the filter on the Range Rover requires removing exhaust /manifold connection and spreading/bending frame. (can you believe this ?) So I don't bother and let frequent changes clean it.