I was wondering, I know a guy who works as a mechanic for a ford dealership. He said that you never change the auto trans fluid and that if the trans is running perfect, it should never get dirty and never burn up or need to be replaced except for extended milage. Is this true? I mean...my mom took her intrepid to the dodge dealership...and they changed her trans fluid....they also charged her 120$ for a "throttle body" cleaning (jesus 737$ for a bunch of BS stuff I could have done for her with 150$ worth of parts...thats a whole diff story)

But in general if an auto trans is working fine the fluid should be good for a long time? I heard its actually worse to change auto trans fluid all the time.

 

in my manual it says every 18,000 miles or 18 months what ever come first to change the auto tranny fluid.

 

Some tranny guys say that if the fluid has not been changed for a long time that you should leave it alone. The particles in the fluid are helping the clutches work. Changing the fluid removes these particles, causing failure.

I'm not a tranny guy but have been told this by several tranny guys!

 

Yea, thats what a good number of guys have...that it's better to leave it alone because it should never get dirty unless something IS wrong to warrant a change.

Thnx

 

also if it hasnt been changed for a while varnish builds up on the seals and when you change it the detergents in the new fluid clean up the varnish and it will leak...so Ive been told.