It seems to me that most people that own LS1's are car enthusiats and they take very good care of them maintenanace wise even if they do drive them hard. If it was me unless I had reason to believe otherwise I would assume the routine maintenance stuff has always been done.

 

Not all LS1 owners do the routine maintenance stuff... heck, some of them don't even know what they're driving.

 

Cleanlyness is next to Godlyness.

Find a Trans shop that you can trust. With good equipment and personnel. Have it done. No matter how many miles or what service was done in the past.

I had a TH700R4 (that was the 3 soleniod original version of the EL60) that I sold still running at 250K.

 

I aint gotta take it to no shop. we are a shop

 

I had a 1990 beater cavalier for quite some time and it was bought new by our family. It never had a trans oil change at 80,000 miles. After about 10yrs I changed the fluid and filter. I cant say it was like magically new again but I can say it def didnt make it worse. That was the most reliable car I ever had. Easy to work on too.

 

I think this post officially blows the myth that changing the fluid is bad.

bottom line, never be afraid of common maintence!

 

I'll add some real world experience to this thread. My first car was a 1991 Subaru Legacy with a four speed automatic and about 130,000 miles. I wanted to take good care of it so I asked around about the tranny flush. Jiffy Lube told me they wouldn't do it over a certain mileage unless it had been done regularly. I called another quicklube place and they said it should be fine. So I got it done, and for the most part it was fine, BUT...

On two occasions that I can remember the tranny slipped. I would be stopped or almost stopped at a light, and when I gave it gas the engine wound up with no forward thrust, then after about half a second, clunk, it would catch. It never did it before the flush. I don't have any long term results because I only had that car for about 8,000 miles before some dipshit from UMass hit me from behind doing about 85 on a wet highway and totalled it.

My car has 76,000 and change, and I am reluctant to try the tranny flush. I will probabaly drop/drain the pan and change the filter, and see how the fluid looks. It looks a little dirty on the dipstick. In theory flushing it shouldn't hurt anything, because it's just the internal pump pumping the fluid out, but obviously stuff happens.

And I think what someone mentioned about the quicklube shops is very true, they will tell you the flush job "cleans" the filter, that is a load of . How would that work? Unless you are pushing fluid backwads through the tranny I don't see how doing what it does every day, which is pump fluid through the filter, will clean it, in fact it is this exact process that, by design, dirties it.

My daily driver is a 1997 Ford Escort with a four speed auto, I got it with 64,000 miles and did the trannny flush at 80,000 and again at 110,000. I haven't had any problems. It's at 146,000 now and I plan to have it done again soon.

 

It's true. The "don't change it if you never have before" theory is a myth that has been largely dispelled nowadays.

 

I voted no.

1-had a toyoda prado v6 was running great till I decided to change the trans fluide and filter while it`s in the shop for a rearend repair and a tune up ..... the idiot didn`t return the burnt black trans oil and the transmission was slipping and it needed a rebuild(was 100k miles and was changed maybe at 40k the last time) .

2-a 96 impala ss that only used to change the fluid every 15k miles or so (should`ve changed the filter always with that) by the previous owner the transmission did the same thing (although I changed only the clean not burnt oil by vacuume) lost third and fourth after sometime then a rebuild and now ok.

3-some friends did the same thing changed the filter and oil in their cars without knowing when was the last time the oil or filter has been changed and the transmission failed.

4-shops and older people told me the same thing and they saw the same thing transmission failure with changing the oil and the filter with a not well serviced transmission.

the reason I heard (I I`m trying to remember correctly) is that the old used oil that is burnt and lost it`s viscosity with the cloged filter the valvebody is running with that since it didn`t fail and the valvebody pistons will have some dirt and restriction in it or around the pistons and when the filter and new oil is changed with that bad condition something is screwing up can`t remember what .... this is what I`ve been told.

+1 for adding an aluminum trans cooler.

 

what would be a good time to change the fluid on an m6 it has about 80k,i have only hade it about a month and a half,o1 ws6

 

change fluid and filter at the same thing.. even if its a bitchass FWD car without a pan to drop (93 maxima tranny i rebuilt lol) anyways I plan on changing my tranny fluid every 10k or 20k its a brand new one.. or can i go longer?? and with a change i just drain 6-7 quarts whatever sinks down im not talking converter

 

ever 20k miles is good, just always change the filter when you do and FLUSH the fluid, dont mix the old with the new

 

DONT CHANGE IT! i have an 02' ss with 60k and i changed it, couple months later the reverse gear went out...

 

I have a automatic 98 Dodge Dakota that was slipping and I changed fluid and filter and it shifts better than ever! This was done with 140k on the tranny, still runs great too!

 

just drop the pan replace the trans filter and fill her back up.

i just bought a 93 dsm (talon) non-turbo automatic 98K on it. i am gonna drain the trans pan, replace the filter and fill it back up.

i work at a honda dealer and we do drain and fills on the trans quite often (and they dont have a extrnal filter) so its drain and fill it.

no problems to date

 

I have heard this so much, don't flush a higher mileage auto, but I think it's BS. I have 3 experiences with such...

One of my friends had a Ford Contour with 140K on it, then it started to shift really hard and act up a lot. So he went and got it flushed for the first time. Very slight improvement and the tranny blew at 145K. Some would say the flush did it, I say it was already toast and was going to die anyway.

My father had a Grand Marquis with 100K that had never been flushed. It started to slip a little so he did what everyone says is the biggest no-no...he went to Jiffy Lube and got a flush. Old fluid came out BLACK with nice new red stuf going in. Smoothed the tranny right out. We sold the car with 110K and the people we sold it to, last time I checked had 133K on it and the tranny was perfect.

Another friend has an Olds Intrigue which started to shift hard around 90K. He went and got it flushed, so far it shifts smooth again and has 100K on it.

My take is this...fluid changes don't destroy anything, that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Dirty, burnt, and lowered viscosity fluid is not good for anything, trust me I'm a mechanical engineer! The stories you hear about flushes ruining autos are on cars that have already been ruined, and the owners tried to fix it with a band-aid fluid flush. It's like spinning a bearing in your engine then changing the oil thinking it will fix the problem...but the part is still broken!

If it isn't acting up, or even if it is, you have nothing to lose by flushing out the old fluid. FLUSH AWAY!

 

Refer to my sig for the definitive answer to this and many other questions that start like this!! We are a shop and it does work both ways. It's a 50/50 draw too many facotrs involved to speculate.