Oakboy

I went to the stealership the other day to get my tranny fluid changed and I asked them if when they did it, they dropped the pan and cleaned out the tranny fluid filter. The service guy sorta gave me a blank stare and I explained to him that there's a filter inside the transmission that screens out the metalic bits instead of letting them cycle and do damage. Anyways, the reply I got from him is that all they do is a direct replacement. Good fluid goes in, and pushes out the bad stuff. Does anyone know though if that removes the stuff that's in the filter??? From my chilton's the only way it looks possible is if you drop the pan. Anyone else got any advice?

Thanks!
Kevin.

Memphis4X4

They sort of are correct. There is a strainer in the auto trans that strains out things in your fluid. Supposedly, when draining the old fluid out, this 'backwashes' the strainer thus removing these foreign things. I don't know how well this works....I had my trans rebuilt at 100k and the trans shop recommends dropping the pan to look at things before refilling.

David

MTL_4runner

I disagree with the service tech there. I always pull the pan about every 60k to inspect and clean the filter. The filter is just a very fine mesh screen so it is fine to just clean it off and reuse it again but there is no way a tranny flush will clean the filter properly. I think they were giving you a bit of a snow job on that one but I could be wrong. When I work on my truck I do pull the pan but I also do a drain and fill (very different from a tranny flush) of the tranny pan about every 20k just to keep it in good health.

TechWrench

I think that 'service guy' doesn't know much about what he is telling you. There are several different methods for changing the trans fluid, depending on how much gets changed, and how much you are willing to spend. First off, you are correct about the internal screen. It is there to clean any debris in the fluid, though if your trans is generating metalic bits, you have more serious problems than bad oil. I would recommend checking Gagets site, or doing a search on fluid flushes. This topic has been discussed at great length, and a lot of good info is available.