It is true that the stigma with machine flushing is that it is some high gnarly pressure beast of a machine that abuses your vehicle. I personally thought this before but really it may just bring an already existing problem to the surface more quickly. My next fluid change I will most likely get toyota to do the full fluid change as opposed to drain and fill, esp. since the cost is quite similar, and my fluid has always been in good shape. Hopefully my tranny wont go tits up!ha
I suppose that the idea is that over time as trannies do exhibit wear, then a drain and fill, just keeps things "fresh" but doesnt change the characteristics of the environment too much?



97ltd4x4; once again, your posts are always great. I always enjoy reading them. Truly an asset to this site.

 

twitchee2, Amsoil carries a Universal ATF that works great. That's what I've got in mine.

Personally, since you're swapping it over to syn oil, I'd take it to either the dealer or a tranny shop and have them do a complete flush. The methods stated above are just drain and fills. That's just my own opinion, but I did the complete flush when I swapped over. Took me a total of 12 qts. Had my local dealer do it since I know someone there who gives me a discount on parts & service . Going forward, I'll just do drain & fills every 5k miles or so.

 

I'm looking to get my transmission flushed with Amsoil in the next few weeks.

Is it better to drop the pan before flushing to replace the filter and clean the magnets or after flushing?

If I do it before, I still need to add 4quarts back in before flushing, but I could add cheap stuff. However, the flush process may move some particulates into my new filter.

If I do it after, I will have to add expensive ATF, but my screen will be an old oil virgin.

Any thoughts?

 

I guess no one has strong feelings on this one way or the other.

I think I will end up dropping the pan after the flush, oil filter virginity is a horrible thing to waste.

 

This is what I do:

1. Drain pan
2. Remove pan
3. Clean pan, magnets and filter
4. Re-install pan
5. Refill pan with new fluid
6. Perform manual flush procedure

I've explained it in detail here.

 

Thanks for the link to the tranny thread, it will be very helpful when I drop the pan.
I have a question on the bolt torquing sequence you used. Your picture showed the torque as a sequence 1 through 19, this pattern starts at the middle of each side and works towards the corners. What do you think of the following sequence: 1,2,3,4,11,17,18,19,9,10,12,15,16,8,14,13,7,5,6; this would torque the bolts in a more spread out star pattern.

Granted I don't think either way will make much of a difference, they both spread out the torque, I was just wondering you opinion.

Thanks

 

There's no best way to torque a tranny pan... the important thing is to get some sort of criss-crossing pattern to prevent warping the pan. With just a quick look at your pattern above, it seems you are planning on tightening 4 adjacent bolts right at the beginning (1, 2, 3 and 4). I would discourage you from doing that. Aim for 1 bolt at a time at any given location on the pan.

 

Those numbers are based on the picture you have posted in flicker; so 1-4 are actually the middle hole in each side. Thanks for the reply, I'll make sure I'm criss-crossing.

 

Oops... sorry. I misunderstood what you had posted.

 

all i have done is drain and fill.. the first few times was with Valvoline Maxlife dex 3 and the past 3 times was with amsoil atf universal.. so i still have a small mix of both in my tranny and she shifts like butter.. i wouldnt worry about mixing a syn and dino atf in these trannies. its rock solid. the main thing is to just drain and fill every 15-25k miles pending on if you offroad and or pull a lot..