I can only see doing that if you have a drain plug on your pan and you're lazy. Otherwise, the pan is going to be off. Why wouldn't you change the filter while you're in there?

 

The key here is if the fluid has a burnt smell to it. Even if the fluid looks pretty clean, if it smells burnt your tranny is on it's way out.

 

just got my car back from inspection/emissions

the mechanics said they strongly recommend i flush out my tranny fluid. they said they dont think its even been changed, they also said it was nearly black.

i bought the car about a year ago with 85k miles on it and it now has about 95k. what do u think i should do? i have no idea what the fluid looks like or if its ever been changed. should i flush the tranny, change the fluid, or just let it go?

 

well mechanics will always try to upsell......you need to see the fluid for yourself.........if it is black change it but be prepared for the worst you may get lucky i have done it and had to rebuild a tranny on the house becuase supposedly i ruined the tranny by chnging the fluid....so i dont even change blck fluid anymore

 

3 more questions.

1. how do i check to see if its black ( i'm still a newb)
2. if it is black should i have the dealership/mechanic place do it, but if they break my tranny are they obligated to fix it?
3. how much does it cost to rebuild the tranny?

 

1. pull the stick and look at the fluid
2. most dealerships wont change black fluid and if they do it will be in the service wright up that changing is not recommended that transmission is on its last leg to cover there ***
3. i do stock bench jobs for around 1000-1200 i do street perfomance for around 1500 and racing around 2000 the shops.......you are looking inbetween 1000 and 1700

 

Ok thanks... sorry for the dumb questions but where is the dipstick or are there markings on it so that i know which one to take a look at. i might stop by a transmission shop on my way home from work and see what they're charging.

i wonder why NTB really emphasized that i flush the system. do u think they had any idea it would possibly blow my trans

 

hard to say......again mechanics will always try to upsell...........

 

haha, looked under the hood.. didn't think the dipstick would flat out say trans but either way, i checked it and the level was fine and was kinda salmon to a brownish kinda color i guess.. not sure exactly its supposed to look like but it def wasn't black. it does smell a little burned i guess but im not sure what its supposed to smell like so i dont know

it was thin too, not a very thick fluid

 

I didnt learn my lesson the first time I changed the fluid in a high mileage GM tranny and it soon burned up...so, on my next vehicle I did the same. Guess what ...failed AGAIN. Coincedence? I think not. Do not do it.

 

i keep trying to tell people that.....i am serious i had to rebuild a tranny for someone that i changed black fluid in i will never do it again......
change the fluid every 3 oil changes and you will have nop probs


philly your fluid looks ok change it

 

thats good news.... ill get started tomorrow i think.

does anyone have any pics to get my started? i've never changed the fluid before so i wanna get a good idea of what im doing before i get started

 

well plan on getting messy
get a big pan and put under the car of course lift it up
loosen the bolts leave the front bolts in and then take out the rear bolys and let the pan hang down it will drain that way and not make as big of a mess
take pan off pull filter off make sure to change the seal in the pump where the filter goes if it doesnt come out with the filter already just make sure to put a new one in there replace filter put pan with gasket on and retighten bolts just snug them do not overtighten them it will leak put some silicon on the bolt threads or loctitie to keep them from backing of once the gasket starts to squish it is tight enough i think the spec is like 18 inch pounds

 

not ALL high mileage gm trannys go out when you change fluid. my bonneville had about 214,xxx on it when i changed it. granted it wasn't black, but it wasn't new either. i figure it has been changed before, but who knows. when i got it at 197,xxx the vac. modulator was leaking into the vac. line. they said they have been putting fluid in when it got low. so hard to tell how much fluid they burned. they prolly eventually went through all the old fluid. anyhow, it hasn't been rebuilt that anyone knows. they bought it at 78,xxx and drove a **** load. it doesn't act funny yet, but i'm not hard on it either. just my .02