How Often to Drain and Refill AT's?

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I maintain my AT's by draining and refilling ever so often. I simply drain out 2-3 quarts, whatever comes out by gravity and then refill with the same amount. I'm using Amsoil transmission lubes and am wondering how often you think I should do this? Every 10K, 20K, 30K,?
 
I've seen ranges on here from 10k miles to never (me personally). If you're a drainer and filler, 40k-60k seems about right.
 
Just to make sure I am communicating properly, I am only removing 2-3 qts at at time. This is not a pan drop and refill.
 
Yes. Drain and refill a few quarts.

If the car was bought used then do 2 drain/ refills in a month to get most of the old fluid out.
 
The old BMW guys I've talked to recommend 3 drain and fills. The old 4HP22 had a drain plug. Do these at whatever interval your level of anxiety demands
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On a used or old daily driver, I would drain / fill the 2-3 quarts atf once a year. On a weekend car, 30k miles or so.
 
Originally Posted By: andyd
The old BMW guys I've talked to recommend 3 drain and fills. The old 4HP22 had a drain plug. Do these at whatever interval your level of anxiety demands
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The problem is I have 2 opposing areas of anxiety. The first one is making sure my fluid is as clean as can be to promote a long life and problem free transmission. The second one is the pain in the rear and messiness that usually results. The scales tip from the first area of anxiety to the second area of anxiety depending on my emotional stability at that moment in time in which past performance is not an indicator of future results.
 
I like to drain & refill three times, driving a couple days in between to get mostly fresh fluid in the transmission. I like to do this every 50,000 on regular service vehicles & every 30,000 on the trucks that tow all the time. If I just drained & refilled one time occasionally, I'd probably like to do it about every 15K.
 
Originally Posted By: Gebo
I maintain my AT's by draining and refilling ever so often. I simply drain out 2-3 quarts, whatever comes out by gravity and then refill with the same amount. I'm using Amsoil transmission lubes and am wondering how often you think I should do this? Every 10K, 20K, 30K,?


Personally when a vehicle gets past 50K, I like to drain and fill every year or two (mileage driven on my vehicles is only between 15K miles and 30K miles every two years). Every third tranny service I like to drop the pan and clean it up if possible and change the filter at the same time. On Honda's they only have a drain plug.

Since you have a larger fleet of cars, I think on the cars that you drive daily and rack up a lot of miles, I would probably make sure you do a series of 2-3 drain and fills within a month to get most of the oil fluid out. Then figure out what makes most sense for you going forward. I wouldn't wait 50K to do a drain and fill.


You mentioned that you don't want to do a pan drop on the tranny, but once you do, you'll see how much gunk you have sitting in the pan.

Have a look at my photobucket for my 98 Sienna for proof.

http://s115.photobucket.com/user/charkin...rt=3&page=1

I got rid of the Sienna last year, with 285,xxx km (179k miles). The tranny shifted like brand new. I started using Mobil 1 ATF, but later switched that to Valvoline Max life. I also was running a magnefine tranny filter for the last 80,000 km.
 
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I respectfully suggest you LOOK at the first drain's fluid.

The observable dirt level will help you make up your mind regarding future changes.

BONUS FACT: I cared for a 2001 Camaro with the heralded, praised, extolled 4L60E transmission.
The OM suggested pan drops with filter changes every 30K. I read it twice to be sure. Kira
 
When I had an auto DD that had "normal" usage, I did 30,000 miles. On the Taurus it was a bit of a pain since I had to disconnect a transmission cooler lines.

The Cherokee gets a drain/fill once a year - usually in the spring about 5K miles or so. It definitely qualifies as severe service. Rocking it in snow/mud , towing and off roading at slow speed.
 
On cars that get driven every day and rack up 20K miles or more a year I try to do a quick drain a refill once a year usually while I am doing an oil change. On my Grand Prix being a garage queen I have not done any fluid changes in a couple years.
 
Add a Magnefine inline filter.

What your really doing is just refreshing the ATF.

From a cost and transmission perspective you would be better off doing a cooling line exchange every 50K and getting 95% of the old ATF and its contaminants out.

Your removing a small portion of the contaminants, diluting what is left, and then adding more as the vehicle is run.

You should find the spreadsheet calculator that has been floating around this forum and run through it to see how your doing. Many transmissions are 12 QTs, so your taking out at the most 25% each time.

The more expensive the ATF the less sense it makes to do what you are doing.

Amsoil is excellent ATF, its in my Jeep and pickup, but I mainly do cooling line exchanges.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
You should find the spreadsheet calculator that has been floating around this forum and run through it to see how your doing.


Look up three posts...
 
I recommend that you follow best interval for your specific transmission and car. It can very so much that it can be as little as 10-15K intervals to 100K intervals. My Isuzu Trooper transmission blew up even with 30K drains/refills. It depends on quality of transmission and also load vehicle puts on it.
There is nothing scientific about this, all my personal opinion.
Follow message board for your specific car.
 
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