Auto Trans Fluid EXCHANGE MACHINES-Good or Bad ??

[CamarosRus]

My 2006 MAZDA 6 (Ford 4cyl/5spd JATCO Automatic) now has 39K on it.

I have never done anything to service the transmission. Ive read and been told by my reputable MAZDA dealer that their is no screen or filter to clean. The trans pan does have a drain plug

I was thinking about doing the drain and fill procedure where I would only get maybe 4qts out of the pan.
Entire system hold 9.75 qts. I would do this maybe three times thinking I would get a pretty good exchange
of new for old.

FYI........This 06' MAZDA 5 spd (JATCO) auto uses ATF with the M-V (or M-5) rating. This is different from MERCON 5. I have researched this and decided to use WOLFSHEAD (Amalie Oil company) Universal Synthetic ATF.

I then called around my home area and found a highly rated independent shop, that has one of those ATF
exchange machines. This pumps new fluid in as your old fluid is being pumped out.

Have you heard negatives about using these fluid exchange machines. It has been suggested to me that any sentiment or junk in the pan would be disturbed and mixed in with the "new" fluid ????

I may remove the pan myself and SEE exactly what is and is not in there.

Thanks for your thoughts

Chuck

[lzdick]

Good idea, Chuck. Maybe there is a build sheet in there!

[KevinW]

I have no personal experience, but a neighbor had it done to a 90k impala and the trans was never right afterwards. I am not going to use it on my cars.

[WILMASBOYL78]

I have used a local shop for tranny work and they have a machine that heats the fluid and flushes it under pressure. They drop the pan first and clean it and then attach their equipment. It works well for cleaning remote coolers if you have one on the car...never had any issues.

wilma

[olredalert]

------Chuck,,,I havent only heard of problems, I had one and figured out why. The oil change shop talked me into doing the "exchange machine" on an old 1987 Pontiac wagon I bought for a winter beater. Immediatly after I left, I noticed a slight whine that wasnt there before. Car had 80,000 original miles, probably hadnt ever had the fluid changed, and functioned perfectly. Jan and I were taking a drive out west in the car and I didnt think the whine was a big problem, WRONG!!!
------We made it to Arizona before the trans expired and had to go to a "chain" for repair or replacement. Trans turned out to be full of metal from as small as dust to as big as a pencil eraser. The "tech" immediatly stated that some of the pieces looked like chunks of torque-converter fins. Long story short the pressure involved in the fluid change had actually bent some or all of the torque-converter fins and initially caused the slight whine. As time went on the fins (now fatigued) failed and spread metal thruout the trans......POP...... Never again!!! .......Bill S

[Chevy454]

[ QUOTE ]

------We made it to Arizona before the trans expired and had to go to a "chain" for repair or replacement. Trans turned out to be full of metal from as small as dust to as big as a pencil eraser. The "tech" immediatly stated that some of the pieces looked like chunks of torque-converter fins. Long story short the pressure involved in the fluid change had actually bent some or all of the torque-converter fins and initially caused the slight whine. As time went on the fins (now fatigued) failed and spread metal thruout the trans......POP...... Never again!!! .......Bill S

[/ QUOTE ]
I've heard similar stories as Bill's...I know on the Allisons in our newer GMs there's a procedure to flush them and change over to Transynd using the in/out lines of the tranny itself, that way it sees nothing *but* it's normal pressures...pretty basic, and I see no reason a guy couldn't do the same at home on any other transmission with a couple rubber lines and some just of fluid. As someone said above, I'd clean the pan first...

[Pulnaway]

Olred, the flush machines only use like 20psi. Thats nowhere near enough to bend torque converter fins. I would say you already had the chunks. When the flush was done it moved some small pieces through your trans starting the noise. The machines work well for cars that are seviced every 30k. You should never do a flush on a trans that has never had the fluid changed and is coming up for its 3rd scheduled service.

[budnate]

I flush old school style, pop a line at the rad, you need a few feet of gas line a fitting and couple buckets, drop a case of oil in the clean bucket, and the line in the empty bucket, "2 guys fire it up, figure out real quick what line is sucking and whats dropping fluid", hit the right buckets with the lines, at idle, run through the gears a bunch have a bucket watcher when empty shut down reconnect and your flushed. always drop the pan, do the filter and wipe out the pan first.

[olredalert]

------Scott,,,Your message does make some sense as anything could get dislodged during that cleaning. I think my mistake was that I didnt take the time to do the job myself, thinking "well, its just my beater". The dumb part is that I put more miles on the beater than anything else I own. .......Bill S