Got the motorhome........Almost

[Kristenamber]

Wow!  That is huge and boy does that look great inside!  I'm excited for your family!

[GeneF]

Okay Chas, it has been a week now, what progress has been made?

[wavery]

I have been told to stay away from tranny flushes on old trannys for the same reason, sludge removal. Basically if you never flushed, don't start after 50k miles (or 21 years). Drain and refill is the better option but is not complete.

I absolutely agree.

When I was Service Manager for AutoNations (used car super store), it was mandated from the corporate office that ALL trade-ins were to get a trans fluid flush. We were given a flush machine and our techs were trained. I had 2 tranny techs that came to me and told me that was not a good idea because the flush distributes particulates throughout the trans and will cause valve body problems.

I fought the mandate and lost. I had to go with corporate dictate so that's what we did. Just about every high mileage car that we flushed came back (usually on the hook) with trans problems. It was a disaster.

IMO, that one single issue (more than anything else) ended up being the demise of all of the AutoNations Super Stores in '99. They closed 150 dealerships, nation wide, in one day. The loss was over $10 billion. The warranty losses were huge and the stores were bleeding to death.

That's when I decided to get out of the business.

Now.....having said all that.... :p  I think that high mileage trannies can be switched to synthetics with more upside than down. As you know, you don't need to do a flush to change over. I did my '99 S-10 at 75K miles by simply removing the pan, changing the oil & filter, replace the pan (with a new pan with a drain plug), fill with synthetic. Before starting the engine, I removed the trans cooler line going to the radiator, started the engine, put it in gear until about 4 qts of fluid bled out. I put in new oil, through the fill tube, as the old oil was coming out.

After 5K miles, I changed the oil & filter again. I think that I'm good for another 50K now. That's an expensive way to go (lots of fluid) but I feel that it's the best way on high mileage or low use older vehicles. It has been proven that transmissions last much longer, due to better heat dissipation and lower running temps with synthetic fluid.