To flush or not to flush, that's the question?

[hsamghani]

Hello All!

I just purchased an 01 with 82K. I'm not sure if the previous owner flushed the trans. I've heard horror stories of how flushig a trans that's never been flushed before may damage the trans. Any suggestions or similar worries?

I know the Explorer trans can often be problematic.

THNX!

 

[Potomac30]

You could do a partial change; that's what I did when I got my '93 four years ago. I dropped the pan, cleaned it and the magnet, changed the filter and replaced the 4 or so quarts that I had drained. 10,000 miles later, I did it again, and have since flushed it and changed the filter again with no problems. You can find tons of good information in the transmission section.

 

[Crunchy]

Flush it! I just did mine, first time at 70K. If it dies after, it was gona die anyways cause the problem was already there. If it doesn't die, you just did your tranny a favour.

 

[Dopler174]

I have been told that lie from people who do not know how to re-build transmissions, however, I have been told to change it by people who do re-build them. It was explaned to me like motor oil, if you were to buy a car that has never had an oil change, what is the first thing you are going to do? I change mine every 50-65k miles or so and have never re-build anything.

 

[Cobraguy]

What model of transmission? A 4R70W behind a 5.0 doesn't need to be flushed. You can drain both the trans and converter yourself. Regardless, a properly executed flush job will not cause any issues to a transmission that weren't already there. All you are doing is exchanging fluid. Bad comes out, new goes in. It's that simple. That's the way it works anyway with all the machines I've seen.

 

[Opera House]

Add a transmission cooler and possibly a larger pan (haven't looked to see if these are available). I've never seen anything that shows changing fluid actually increases the life of a transmission. I've bought several Explorers with over 100K and the first thing I do is add a cooler. Heat damages the seals and is incremental over time. If fluid looks old it is getting too hot. Changing the fluid won't help the seals. With an extra cooler installed, I haven't seen the fluid change with another 80K. It is always a good idea to drop the pan and clean it. I add extra magnets. Haven't seen it with the W, but the 5R55E always had a couple loose valve body bolts causing those famous gasket blowouts.

 

[gijoecam]

DO NOT FLUSH IT!!!! If you do a little digging on this site, you'll find that flushing our transmission, more often than not, does more harm than good. Simply drop the pan, change the filter, and fill it to the appropriate level. There are enough detergents in fresh trans fluid that the system will lowly clean out anything it needs to... regular fluid and filter changes are the best thing you can do for your transmission.

 

[hsamghani]

Transmission Flush

Thanks for the great advice!

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

I'd flush it.

There's a good writeup somewhere about doign it without having to drop the pan and all that good stuff. Like someone else said, if a problem does arrive most likely the problme was all ready there. I'd rather know about a problem and fix it then get stuck some place without a working vehicle.

 

[Opera House]

The drain plug on this transmission is about useless. The plug is in a higher location in the pan and a tube extends it higher. It appears by design that the transmission would continue to work on level ground even if the drain plug was removed. A slow leak through the threads would still get this vehicle through a warranty period. Dropping the pan once a month is probably the best way to do it. Anything found in the pan is just a fraction of what is in the TC and that takes time to come out.

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

If your transmission fluid is brown, dirty, or has a burnt smell to it. Then do not flush it. Once the transmission fluid becomes dark in color, your transmission is on its last leg and sorta accommodates and becomes use to the bad fluid (without going into the details). If you were to take out the bad fluid and replace it with new good fluid, you would be completely changing your fluid with a complete different type (old vs new fluid) and you transmission would probably no longer be able to work with the different, new fluid.

However if your transmission fluid is still in good condition, that would be the time to flush it, before it becomes bad.

'nuff said.

 

[gijoecam]

By dropping the pan and changing the filter, there is only about 1/3 of the trans fluid in the pan. By changing that, you're not changing out all the bad fluid. It could, theoretically, take a few changes before all the old 'bad' oil is out. That's fine.

So long as the transmission is not operating erratically, a fluid and filter change is all that's needed. No need to flush, no need to take extreme measures to make sure you extract all the oil using a trans pump of any sort... Just drop the pan, change the filter, and reinstall, refill, and be done with it. Nothing more is really necessary.