What should I do with my transmission??

[Milkman]

I have an 03 Expedition.

I have had a problem with my transmission recently. Sometimes when going into reverse, and MOST of the time when downshifting out of overdrive, the transmission makes a slipping type of feeling for a very short time (like a quarter of a second). Tonight I noticed that when going down the road and having very little strain on the transmission (level road, hardly accelerating), it felt like it was hesitating slightly (like maybe it was starting to come out of overdrive then went back in).

The truck has 140k miles. I have never done a transmission fluid change or a flush. This was my mistake and I know now. My question is, should I do a fluid change??? I have read that when you have a LOT of miles, you don't want to do a flush one since that will cause more problems. I am thinking/hoping that I have low enough miles where I can do a fluid change (and not screw it up completely), and hopefully that may even fix it.

What do you guys think???

 

[mc0311grunt]

Do a fluid change. That is a myth aboutthe mileag.

 

[1ATony]

Do a fluid change. That is a myth aboutthe mileag.

^^^^X10000

I have a 97 Jeep Grand Cherokee that had a slip in the tranny after my cooling tank in the radiator let go on me....yah huge mess.

Swapped out the radiator, dropped the tranny pan, tossed in a Mopar filter and gasket, cleaned the pan up.

What we did is we took a pail and dumped the return lin on the tranny into the bucket, put the Jeep in neutral and dumped the new Mopar ATF down the fill tube as the old ATF came out into the bucket.

This worked awesome. My Jeeps has 124,000 on it and it shifts like it's brand new.

The most important way to keep your tranny alive is to get all of the old oil out of there with a complete flush.

I'll probably start doing this every 30,000 or every two years.

Half the time I bet the tranny is already cooked on vehicles that go in for a flush and the flush gets blamed.

Hope this helps you out.

 

[Whack]

I've done fluid swaps on other transmissions all the way up to 178,000 miles.

Dropping the pan and checking the fluid will tell you a lot about the transmission.

All the evidence that it will blow up an old transmission is not backed up, or was done on transmissions that were set to fail in the imminent future anyway.

 

[FordandPolaris]

I changed the fluid in my tranny at about 190k, although not by choice. I am now pushing 215k with no problems whatsoever. Transmission still shifts fairly smooth. Knock on wood...

 

[1997SCEBFEX]

+1 on fluid & filter change.
do mine every 25,000 when trailering. Having the oversized MagHytec pan also helps keep things cool as well.

PanHandler.

 

[ArtGamer60]

Fluid change in order , I have read about problems when switching to all synthetic after using petroleum based fluid with alot of miles ( some people reported leaking ) .

 

[Jeff532003]

It's not the fluid change that causes the problem it's the jiffy lube type places that run cleaners through the transmission with a flush machine. This often will cause issues with a tranny with a lot of miles. Don't have to believe me but I've seen it happen many times when I worked in the auto field. A proper filter and fluid change and flush as described above, by removing the return line and running it out while adding new is one of the best things you can do to keep your tranny going. Avoid those flush machines that use a detergent.