Seriously it must be fairly Easy to Fry a transmission!

[churchmouse]

Man I miss manual transmissions....

Me too.

 

[EyeCarry]

Man I miss manual transmissions....

Well at least with this thread we would have a stick to stir things.

 

[bkflyer]

What do you guys think about these CVT trannys? My wife has a 2019 Nissan Rouge. I hate it. It is just coming up on it's 50,000 mile check up. The dealer says I don't need to do anything to the trans forever! But for 200$ they will flush it for me.

 

[woowoo2]

I am a firm believer in drain, refill, drive, drain, refill, drive.

 

[d.kaufman]

What do you guys think about these CVT trannys? My wife has a 2019 Nissan Rouge. I hate it. It is just coming up on it's 50,000 mile check up. The dealer says I don't need to do anything to the trans forever! But for 200$ they will flush it for me.

CVT transmissions are junk. Doesn't matter the manufacturer. When they go out be prepared to spend around $5k

 

[d.kaufman]

Uh.....you do realize the member you are dogging does this for a living.

I will ask you one last time to knock this crap off. Seriously man you are smarter than this. Some of us actually know WTF we are talking about.
Take a break. Come back tomorrow. I am serious.

Yeah. I know CM. It's all good. Was trying to reply to his post you quoted but it wouldn't let me. Realized you scratched that post.

 

[gregkl]

When the trans died on my wife's Honda at 130K miles, I got Honda to replace it at no charge. I was told by Honda that her particular transmission does not have a filter and the recommendation is to drain the trans at each oil change. Now, you wouldn't drain it dry, but remove about 5 quarts if I recall. The drain plug had a magnet on it so you could clean off the metal stuck to it. It had an easy access fill plug.

Their theory is that if you drain a portion of the fluid with each engine oil change and clean the of the drain plug, in effect you keep the transmission clean.

I don't know if all or any of that is fact, but that is what Honda told me and the owner's manual maintenance stated the same frequency so I went with it for her new transmission.

 

[JeepHammer]

Not much you can teach pseudo 'experts' ... They *Already Know Everything*...
An actual education is WAY too boring/complicated, so a YouTube video and they have an 'Online Doctorate In Everything'.

Several reasons to change fluid/filter...
Moisture retention, acids left behind after chemical reactions, sheering of the long chain molecules that provide lubrication in the first place, evaporation of essential additives, corrosion protection and the list goes on...

As for ferrous metals, the best thing you can do is a common magnet in the pan to trap them, but component parts in modern transmissions are moving away from ferrous materials...
So if it's not trapped by a magnet or the filter, it's literally liquid sand paper circulating through the transmission.
It's best to change the filter and remove the grit entirely.

The armchair experts never take into account the VERY TOUGH & ABRASIVE clutch material that's worn off the clutch packs is circulating...
That's the reason for the filter change. Clutch material is lighter than metal, circulates freely, and the only defense is the filter.

Someone mentioned a TH-400...
Having rebuilt MANY of these for race cars, it was the 400 pound gorilla of GM vehicles for many years.
Those of us in the business know that a TH-350 outlived the 400 by 3 or 4 times, simply because the 400 had a LOT of heavy metal rotating fast, so strong...
But the shaft/drum cluster was also fairly unsupported, so it wore MUCH quicker than the lighter & better supported versions.
And let's not forget the lubrication technology wasn't the greatest when TH-400s were the go to trans, things are MUCH better now that actual experts recognized previous mistakes, and component pieces/lubrication progressed.

I shouldn't be, but I'm still dumbfounded when 'Gun Guys' post some of this stuff.
Of all people, they should know that cleaning & lubrication is why we have such fine examples of past firearms that still fit & function well, while others that weren't maintained are useless collections of scrap metal...

 

[bkflyer]

OK, great. Now I own a problem child. How do I maintain it? How much maint can I do on a "sealed" system?

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

OK, great. Now I own a problem child. How do I maintain it? How much maint can I do on a "sealed" system?

I've had a couple cars with ZF transmissions that were supposed to be 'sealed'. There was a filter inside the pan. Lift it up, remove the pan/drain, replace filter, re-install pan, new fluid per service manual.

 

[ws6guy]

I haven't changed the trans fluid in my 2013 silverado with 85k miles. I was meaning to do it around 50-60k but didn't. Do you think I'm past the point of doing? There is no drain plug so I could DYI drop the pan and get some of the fluid or just take it a shop and do a fluid exchange.

 

[ditcherman]

On a lot of vehicles with 95K on them it's not recommended to change the tranny fluid. Varnish can be the only thing holding them together

I have heard this over and over concerning transmission but also gear boxes with gear oil; if it hasn't been changed regularly, don't change it now!
I don't know when I'll learn this lesson. My first experience with this was a Cat combine and the gearbox right on the end of the engine, probably had 3000 hours on it, I changed the oil instead of just topping it off and within a few hundred hours the mechanic was asking me in disbelief "you changed the oil?" like that was the whole problem.
I changed the oil in my Mack truck tranny a year ago and thought about this but went ahead anyway. It should be out of the shop today or tomorrow with a new tranny, 10k later.
NO MORE GEAR OIL CHANGES!

 

[Leadeye]

So yesterday at the end of the day I get the 2019 Explorer serviced, just rolled to 95k miles. Service included lube oil filter and a trans fluid exchange, I still do not see the point in extracting the fluid and replacing it to run the clean fluid through a dirty filter?
But not my call.
So as usual I drive home and the SUV sits in my drive over night, so today I get about 20 miles up the mountain and, great I can smell burning oil and the dash is lit up like a Christmas tree! So I find a spot to pull over, and see Trans fluid everywhere and
Smoking like all get out from landing on the exhaust.


Long story short I got to baby sit my SUV for 2 hours. But seriously are the fittings not idiot proof? Apparently not, now after it gets towed we are looking at a minimum of 30 days for new transmission. Gotta love this stupid pandemic and people that can not double check their work.

Rant off

Had exactly the same problem years ago when I had a cracked radiator replaced under warranty. They forgot to reconnect the cooling lines, and so got to replace more things under warranty as well. There is a reason flyers use checklists.

 

[Alamo]

... we are looking at a minimum of 30 days for new transmission. Gotta love this stupid pandemic and people that can not double check their work.

Rant off

So...since it is their fault they're providing you a rental or a loaner in meantime?

 

[d.kaufman]

I haven't changed the trans fluid in my 2013 silverado with 85k miles. I was meaning to do it around 50-60k but didn't. Do you think I'm past the point of doing? There is no drain plug so I could DYI drop the pan and get some of the fluid or just take it a shop and do a fluid exchange.

Do a pan drop and filter change. You'll be fine.

Definitely dont recommend a flush if the trans has never been serviced and pushing 100k miles, especially on vehicles with an internal/non servicable filter.

 

[Bigtanker]

Do a pan drop and filter change. You'll be fine.

Definitely dont recommend a flush if the trans has never been serviced and pushing 100k miles, especially on vehicles with an internal/non servicable filter.

What's the reasoning on not flushing?

 

[HoughMade]

What's the reasoning on not flushing?

...lot of advice that gets bandied about regarding transmissions has to do with the state of affairs before the 2000s...that's all I'm going to say about that.

 

[Bigtanker]

I'm just curious. My 03 Ram has 200,000 on it. I bought it with 155,000. Fluid is still a decent color and doesn't smell burnt. I can drop the pan and do a filter and top it off but I was thinking about having it flushed. Just wondering what would be best.

 

[printcraft]

Had a fluid and filter change on my daughters bug. They either got a bad pan gasket or pinched in when reinstalling.
She picked it up and drove about 2 miles to work. Came outside after work and there was a huge puddle under the car.
A tow back to the shop and found out the transmission was shot.
Shop bought a new transmission (install and part was about $6000) and last I heard they were supposed to be getting reimbursed from the part supplier.
(I think they pinched it, but blamed it on a bad part)

 

[HoughMade]

I'm just curious. My 03 Ram has 200,000 on it. I bought it with 155,000. Fluid is still a decent color and doesn't smell burnt. I can drop the pan and do a filter and top it off but I was thinking about having it flushed. Just wondering what would be best.

If I were you, I'd go ahead and do the pan drop and change the filter and top-up, not because the flush would harmful, but because it's not necessary.