I have a toyota camry 99 model with 109K on it. I bought it 3 months ago with 103K miles on it. During the buyers check the mechanic recommended for a tranmission flush. Recently I went to the local toyota dealer (O'Brien) and they said that the transmission fluid is a little burnt and I need to do a transmission flush. Now I have seen from other forums that doing a transmission flush after 100K miles may be disastrous. But on the other hand I have consulted with 3 different toyota dealerships and all of them confirmed thatit won't harm a bit. Can anyone please suggest what should I do?

Thanks a lot.

-
Imranul

 

Flush and replace the trans fluid.

 

The issue with flushing a tranny with that many miles is sometimes any debris that is in the pan or filter can be pushed into the working part of the tranny and cause damage. Some have had bad luck with this process. I would drain the fluid, replace the filter and refill to proper amount. You will only be changing out approx. half the fluid since some is in the tranny itself. That's usually enough to replenish the additives in the fluid.

 

tsmay51, I don't know whether you've seen the filter screen in a tranmission oil pan but the mesh is extremely fine. "Debris", if you can call it that, exists in a transmission with or without a flush. Heavy and magnetic particles sit in the pan or are captured by the magnets, larger particles are trapped by the screen. The "flushing" process really only completely changes old fluid for new, as well as taking with it any dirt in the old fluid. The old fluid is not circulated but force drained and new fluid passes through the filter screen. My car had 138K on it when I bought it andI changed the trans fluid using the flush methodwith no issues. Replacing thetrans filter screen is usually not necessary as it is a permanent filter, but cleaning it isadvisable. I chose to replace my screen as it had captured a fair amount of "debris" and cleaning it was too much effort over replacement. If you go by your analysis of flushing then why would it be advisable to change engine oil. Dirt in a tranmission is not an asset.

 

I have a 2002 Camry with 104K miles. I bought the car used from the local dealer at 90K. I did extensive research on these forums, google, carspace, etc., and was not sure what to do. The general consensus from what I gathered was to do a flush for your car/truck every 30K miles. However, the ATF dipstick on the Camry has a little sticker that says not to worry about replacing ATF until 100K miles (something like that.) I also heard of stories about taking it to cheaper chains vs. the dealer, and ending up with major problems. While I have in the past taken my car to Firestone, etc., for oil/filter changes, I decided anything to service the transmission: I’d rather pay a little more for the comfort of knowing I’m at the dealer, and if anything did go wrong, I might have more options for rectification.

In the end, Toyota of Richardson (TX) was offering a flush special for $129 from the usual $149. I explained my worries to the service advisor, qualified by the fact that I am not terribly knowledgeable about cars, but am probably more so than the average person. I suggested he just do a drain & refill, and also drop the pan and clean out the filter screen. He said that just the drain & refill would be $49, but to also drop the pan and do the screen would be a grand total of $200. I asked him what “the majority of people do,” he said that they get the flush. At my request, he came out to my car, took out the dipstick, showed me how it was not burnt or black (it was reddish brown.) He said that, given how many miles are on the car, this must not have been original ATF, so it must have been replaced / transmission serviced at some point. He suggested I go ahead and get the flush. So I did. The car shifts just as creamy smooth as it always did. If anything, it feels “even smoother”; granted, that’s probably just my mind trying to justify the $149 :-) I also used to feel some minor grittiness / resistance when shifting from [D]rive to [P]ark, which I no longer feel – so that’s another positive. In the end, I’m glad I got the flush at the dealer. I plan to flush again in about 40-50K miles (when I get to 150K miles on the car.) Hope this helps anyone who is still on the fringe of the question to Flush or not to flush, etc.

 

The "flush" is Catch-22. Sometimes they work and sometimes they deep-sixtransmissions.

The trick is to change you own fluid and filter. Once a year,pull the metal mesh filter and wash it in cleaning solvent. This gives you a chance to clean the pan and magnet.

Drain tranny pan at every oil change and replace what you drain - fluid rotation. I have cars that have gone over 300,000 miles using this approach and all still have the original transmission.

If you're not able to do this, then you're at the mercy of whoever works on your car. Should you request a flush and it happens to destroy your transmission, do not be surprised if the shop refuses to replace your transmission.

Good luck.

 

Here's a link to an article that discusses the pros and cons of flushing a neglected tranny.

Should you flush?

 

id flush to have a fighting chance to take my car to 300K. Not flushing is like.. giving up already. well.. imho anyways.

 

Rick, after reading the article link I have a couple of comments. Even though it states you need about double your capacity to do a proper flush, flushing remains the best way to change the trans. fluid. On mycars though I havenoticed it doesn't take that much when observing the colorexchange of the old and new fluid. And even if a person wanted to use 16 quarts as a flush, Dextron is not that expensive to do that.I think Mike Murrell has a good system, at least for dino fluid, although I think cleaning of the screen that much is overkill. On my Camry, which I purchased at 138K, the screen had never been touched. It had a few "chunks" which I attribute to leftovers from manufacture,but the screen was pretty clear. These are screens, not filters. If you want a filter, add one. That's exactly what I havedone, installed an inline filter that I change once per year. Iflush my own fluid as I don't like paying $60 -$90 for six quarts of trans. fluid.

 

i did one flush at 60, made a huge difference, but im too cheap to do that now. So basically this summer at about 100K (fluid was drained and filled at 80K), i am using high mileage atf from wal-mart, and i just did 3 drain and fills, costing me just time and a bill just shy of 30 bucks. Fluid is very clean, transmission is very smooth, and i just hope the cheap *** fluid i used will hold up! haha