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Old 03-22-2008, 09:50 PM   #8 (permalink)
RH77
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Kansas City Area
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Teggy - '98 Acura Integra LS
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 8307c4 View Post
Considering the noticeable buildup you found, I would recommend at least the next trans fluid change be done at the regular interval, until such time the fluid appears to run clean(er).
The fluid color was fairly red (a dark red), it seemed to be in good shape (not grey or brown) -- but the magnetic plug had its fair share of graphite-colored gunk and shavings. I may take your advice on this...

Quote:
Originally Posted by brucepick View Post
I'm happy replacing one tranny pan's worth at every 4K mile oil change. Synthetic, that is. Would work fine for non-synthetic also, I'd think.

I've been changing out one tranny pan's worth of my ATF at every oil change. In my case that's 2.5 qt of the 7.8 qt tranny capacity. Pull the plug, let it drain, replace, check to verify the level next time driving.

I'd already changed over to synthetic ATF before I started the regular changes along with oil change.

My theory is - the owners manual says to change out the ATF at 30K miles. So I change 32% of it approx every 4K miles. After 8 changes (32K miles) I've changed 95% of the fluid. I'm happy with that. The synthetic stuff is pretty pricey, about $6/qt last time I got some. This spreads out the cost so it's tolerable, and gives a mix of old/new fluid.

Before you start thinking how bad it is to be running around with half your fluid older than 15K miles, just remember that waiting to do a full flush leaves you driving with 100% of your fluid with um, how many miles on that stuff?

If I keep the car long enough I might do a full flush after maybe 100-120K miles. But I think it would be fine if I never do that full flush.
I change my oil every 7.5K miles, so that's 30K over the 4th change. Still, the stuff is pretty costly, so this next changeout may be it for a while (unless the plug shows a high level of nastiness).

I fear the "flush". I've heard from shops that the flush tends to clean-away gunk that's holding things together -- I know it sounds odd, but I've heard of it from several independent sources.

RH77
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