I'm thinking about doing a trans service on my car (dropping the pan and replacing the filter). My question is, should I? My car has 130k miles on it. I've heard of people saying they messed with the transmission and it was never the same again, but I don't know if there is any truth to that. My fluid has gotten really dark lately (I know this is "normal") so that is why I'm considering it. I'm looking for opinions from people who have actually done it or had it done.

 

The reason people have problems after they service thier transmissions is because they don't do sevices regularly and only service them after they have a problem and by this time the transmission is bad, They don't understand that transmission fluid is a detergent and it will clean the inside of the transmission so all the sludge or clutch matrial that might have been stuck to parts inside will be loosened up and flowing around inside after the service. So if you haven't been servicing it. You Could have more problems after you do. Good luck!

 

I don't know if it has been serviced. I bought the car with 118k on it. The car has been well taken care of from what I can see, but I have no documentation or info of services. If I remember correctly, the fluid was fairly red when I bought the car.

 

I can't tell you that it will be ok and the service will help and you will not have any problems I wish I could, if you are not having any problems with it now it might be better to leave it alone because when you drop the pan and change the filter you will only be getting about 5 quarts out of it and it holds twice that amount so it will mix with the old and still be the same dark color after the service.