Transmission fluid change

[VanMan]

Can anyone tell me when transmission fluid should be changed out.The owner I drive for has the oil changes,etc done at a service shop.They keep telling me even after 100000 miles the fluid is ok,even when it is light pink.But the transmission started slipping so I added some Lucas tranmission help slip,and it has been doing fine.They never knew the difference.Thx

 

[Weave]

Yeah, funny.. they tell you the fluid lasts forever, then you have problems. Most of which are related to..well.. dirty fluid. I am involved in a lot of great magic juice debates now, involving synthetic oil and fuel addatives. Magic is just an illusion. David Copperfield did not saw that girl in half and put her back together again. I would change the ATF in a cargo van religiously every 75-80K miles. The color means nothing- it is just a dye in it so one will know that it is ATF in the event of leakage.
-Weave-

 

[joker]

If it were mine i would change it and the filter every 50k miles especially if you're running loaded heavy most of the time. And don't fall for the pumping out and cleaning like most of the quik lube places are pushing nowadays. All that does is stir up all the dirt and crap in the transmission and really plug up that filter and vavle bodies. Make sure they drain and replace the filter and fill with new fluid. There's now way to remove all the fluid from the torc converter anyway so automatics need all the help they can get regarding fluid and filters.

 

[Weave]

I like what Joker said, automatic trannies are not the toughest things in the world, and don't stand up to too much abuse. With any cargo van running close to its max GVW (or over it) most of the time, I would follow the service guidleines in the owners manual for a "severe service" vehicle. These include more frequent fluid changes and other service items than mom's grocery getter
-Weave-