This is just one of those questions raised from something I read in post somewhere, and wondered if valid or not.

I have put about 5000 miles on my van since last year, and have not touched the tranny fluid. No service history available, and was maintained by our local ambitious state employees. ):h Sooo, needless to say, it's 'prolly the factory stuff in there at 150,000 miles. Shifts beautifully, no problems, but wanted to put in fresh for my own knowledge, but have heard that, that it might spell death for the tranny changing the fluid.

I wondered if there was any validity to that claim before embarking on a change of fluid turning out to be a change in tranny.:eek:

Petrol fluids breakdown and collect water and trash. I change mine often(filter, too) and have been able to keep the varnish smell away.

dont change it!!!! mine worked fine but was ugly and i changed it and it died 2 days later so now i dont work on anything unless it needs it

Thanks for sharing shane. So what happened to your's? Did you end up having a tranny rebuild out of it, or something simple? To tell you the truth, I haven't even pulled the dipstick to see what's going on. Was yours varishy/burnt?

Shane, how did you change your fluid? On my 95 i changed the trany fluid somewhere around 300,000 km's without a hitch, its at 345,000 now and shifting fine, i had no problems before the change just thought it time to give it some fresh stuff. I did not pull the plug or drop the pan, took it to a fast oil change shop and hooked it up to the machine through the cooler lines in the rad, start her up and let the tranny pump and pump in the machine do the work that way it never starves for fluid during the change and completely changes over the entire tranny including converter, mine still has the original filter in it.
Just my 2 cents though.

it was shifting kinda hard and the fluidiwas real dirty and i changed the fluid and filter and it started slipping then it quit shifting after a couple hundred miles and and would run only in first gear so i recomend leaving it alone

Had the tranny been maintained properly it would not have done that for some time.... In shane's case his tranny was already dead but didnt know it until he swapped the fluids, that happens with toyota's too...

Pull the dipstick and see what color and smell that is has. Personally I don't think you have anything to worry about as it is 100% ok shifting and so on. Changing the filters and fluid on a good tranny wont do anything malicious to it.... That would be like saying changing the oil killed your engine and not that thrown rod or spun bearing...

i changed mine around 100,000 miles. dropped pan, new filter, and then i flushed the torque converter buy unhooking one of the radiator lines till fresh stuff came out. used schaeffers atf. after the change the shifts were much smoother.

knkreb:
[QUOTE]No service history available, and was maintained by our local ambitious state employees.

What state are you in? i know in ohio state service records are very good. my dad works for the ohio department of transportation (ODOT) and i work for the ohio agricultural research and development center (OARDC). at both places fluid and filter changes are made at exactly the time the manufacturer recommends. people know when you go to a state vehicle auction in ohio, that these vehicles have been properly maintained and have the records to prove it. hard to say if every state is like this.

Maybe the history was kept up on it, and I don't even know it. Kinda hard to believe. It's in Delaware. It had 4 dead glow plugs, bad injection pump, roof leaked like crazy, a/c was a mess, bad lift pump, and the list goes on and on. Doesn't seem to be very ambitious.

Oh, I called to see what the service records were on this van. They said that they delete everything the moment it goes to auction. Must be to cover their tushies or somethin'.Censored

I helped to change a boiler in the local highway yard when I first started in the field. It was about Oct/Nov, or so. I couldn't believe my eyes. These guys actually sat around and did NOTHING for a whole eight hours. They sat at picnic tables inside, told stories, joked around, and had their trucks warmed up and ready about 15 minutes before quiting time. I'd always heard the jokes about state guys, but it was for real here. Maybe not so out your way. Only if I'd had a camera!

time to get into a management position, and then put your foot up the lazy smoos azz! I HATE lazy people, they should be shot on site imo...

I like having my transmission flushed with a machine. Cost a littler bit more but get all the old fluid and grime out and they can even they you if the filter is bad and needs to be changed. I have seen the difference this can make over just the filter change.

I changed the oil on mine about 55kkm ago and would have done it again 5kkm ago if they didn't sent me a false gasket for the pan.

Changeing every 50kkm may be a good idea, but I'm really not sure. What does GM recommend?