Trans service

obullfish

obullfish

Carolina Trail Blazers
Joined
Nov 21, 2011
Location
Candler N.C.
Wife has a 2016 Ford Edge sport with the V6 eco boost at about 50k miles that we bought new. Looks like we will keep it for a long time since we both really like the vehicle. No issues with anything just wanna do a trans service before a trip we are taking in a couple weeks. Dealer has 2 options for a service first is a drain and fill at around $80 and the other is a flush and fill at around $175. They recommend the flush and fill but what do y’all think?
 
Ditto on what @Jody Treadway said. I'd bet the service manual just says drain and re-fill.
 
I always do about 3 drain and refills. Crank the engine and idle for about 5 minutes between each to get all the fluid in the converter too. I always heard not to do the flush because it puts excess pressure on the seals.
 
BigSouth said:
I always do about 3 drain and refills. Crank the engine and idle for about 5 minutes between each to get all the fluid in the converter too. I always heard not to do the flush because it puts excess pressure on the seals.
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Just a heads up.
Most dealership and auto shop trans flush machines hook up to a cooler line and then you crank the engine. As a result, the only pressure present is the tranny pump pressure. It's a bit fool proof really as long as it has been maintained well in the past. What you don't want is an initial flush with a lot of miles (wear) present.
 
Didn’t know if Shane was thinking about doing it himself or not. I’ve got buddies that do the same thing with gallon jugs, but I just use the ol hand pump vacuum tank. All I need is a dipstick tube and about 30 minutes. I will admit that more modern vehicles are starting to get rid of dipsticks on the transmission. For now, I just don’t buy those cars.
 
BigSouth said:
Didn’t know if Shane was thinking about doing it himself or not. I’ve got buddies that do the same thing with gallon jugs, but I just use the ol hand pump vacuum tank. All I need is a dipstick tube and about 30 minutes. I will admit that more modern vehicles are starting to get rid of dipsticks on the transmission. For now, I just don’t buy those cars.
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No it will be done at the dealer. That vehicle has more technology than the space shuttle. I’m letting Ford do this for the reason of not wanting to mess with it and peace of mind that I don’t screw something up.
 
obullfish said:
Drain and fill meets fords requirements.
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Either way will serve you. My opinion, if I intended to keep it a 200K miles, i'd have it flushed. I wouldn't think it's gone far enough to be full of trash & crud, that can break loose in high mileage trans, & cause problems. Once it reaches say 75K, then it wouldn't be wise to flush it. Your choice!
 
I know several transmission guys that never recommend full flushes. I had to look up @transman731's post to remember why....

ok, here we go, i will start by saying that if you go to 100 transmission shops, 50% will agree with me.
atf is basically hydraulic fluid with detergents and dye.
any particulate matter in the fluid (from wear), sticks to the inside of the drums centrifugally.
when you service the trans (drop pan, drain and fill ect.) you remove a portion of the fluid. when you add new fluid back to it, you are diluting the new fluid with the fluid that remained in the trans and converter. an example, on a honda, dry, it holds between 8-10 qts, a drain and fill with have you add 3-4qts back to the trans to get it full again.(approx. 1/3 of total)
when you do a flush, you are removing all of the fluid, and replacing it with all new fluid. all of the new fluid contains a large amount of detergent,which was fine when the trans was new. since the trans has wear, all the particulate matter that has been spun to the inside of the parts is now getting washed away and "fluid bound", so it's now getting circulated back through your trans. this doesn't happen on a roadtest, it happens over time, so the customer drives away feeling confident he has done the right thing. 2 months later he shows up at my shop with a transmission problem. all the crap has been collected in the filter and sucked the filter shut and starved the trans of fluid, not to mention run through all of your bearings and bushings, and don't forget playing hell on the valve body.
in the case of a honda, the filter is internal (sump) , the valve body has 2 dime sized filters, and there are 12 tubes(smaller diameter than a pencil) that contain filters in the end of them. honda uses clutches that are "fuzzy" when they start to breakdown, they can clog the filters under normal conditions, flushing them really screws them up.
 
What ^ said plus, consider if it's got higher mileage, that the "contaminants" in the fluid reduce the lubricity - if you will, it gives the fluid more "grab". Changing it out for new fluid, which is slick.. you end up with issues. The schools of thought are - if you change fluid, do it religiously & if you don't change the fluid when you should, don't change it at all. I always ask why the customer wants fluid& filter changed. If it's because a slip, you'll be putting a transmission or rebuilding it anyway, and don't do it. Preventative maintenance, ok that's fine. Best way to trash a marginal auto trans is to do a flush. On a good trans, that's been kept up, it's fine (or to keep one up that's got low miles)

My $0.02
 
2 advantages to a flush: One, it makes more money for the dealer. Two, if you do them (and keep doing them as the flush manufacturer requires) you usually get an extended warranty on the transmission. In BG's case, it's lifetime.

But you have to do the first one by a certain mileage to get that.

Flushes DO clean the hell out of most transmissions, but as indicated above they might not be great for certain ones.

The "fluid exchange" type flush...I see no disadvantage to those at all. They use the transmission's own pump to replace the fluid...the pump pushes it into the machine, and pushes the new fluid back into the trans instead of just recirculating the old stuff. You have a sight glass, and when you see dirty fluid, you're done.
Even for the Hondas mentioned above. You're essentially just changing ALL the fluid, and not "some" as a drain/refill/filter does. But if the maker says don't do it, don't.
 
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