so smack my wrists, my tranny fluid has never been changed. to my knowledge...
I picked up the amigo @ 60k mi. and knew nothing about transmissions, transfercases, engines, anything. Thanks to the helpful advice I've received here and a willingness to just go for it i've learned a lot and gained a great interest in mechanical and automotive "stuff". <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> I'm @ 135k mechanic free miles now. ok, ok, so not all of them are mine.
One of the things I've picked up about higher mileage auto transmissions is that if the fluid hasn't been changed I *MIGHT* be better off not changing it. The reason sounds reasonable, that the detergents in the fresh fluid might free up some built-up gunk from somewhere that might be pumped off to a another close tolerance, tight squeeze area and clog it, thus killing the transmission.
So "maintaining" a transmission whose fluid you aren't going to change is basically making sure it is topped off. So, ok. I guess I can do that.
But, uh oh. I've developed quite a leak in the gasket on the pan, and its certainly not going to get any better on its own.
So I've come up with basically 2 options/actions I could take and I'd like some advice please. Here we go:
1. Just keep topping off. I know this would be tedious, perhaps even neglected and it seems like it would only buy some time before I would have to resort to one of the other potential actions.
2. Change it. The gasket, the screen/filter, and it seems like the thing to do would be flush all the fluid. And I've got a few different routes I can go with that:
a. Take it to a legit tranny shop, where if the service is jiffy its coincidence, and let them just do their thing
b. Backyard flush and refill just hoping that it was changed right before I got it 70k mi ago? i AM mr. cheap after all. Too cheap in this situation? Do I need a pro? I know IÆm dealing in risky business here.
A couple other things in combination with a change to consider would be
-run something like seafoam in there for a bit before the change to try and break up any sludge to hopefully get rid of it during the flush.
- refill with synthetic
So anyone have any experience or advice? Any options I haven't considered.
I've got the shifty shudders and my fluid is BLACK.
& I know i suck.
thanks everyone,
--jeremy
