Where's a safe place to go for transmission flush?
 

I don't trust some of these franchise places, where you go in and they do a "20 point inspection" on your transmission. Then their price of $99 for flush and fill just went up to $278 or something. Some of these places, if you don't have a problem when you go in, you will by the time you go out.

What's been your experiences? I was thinking about getting a whole thing, drain, flush, fill, or whatever they do. But what about these places that suck the old fluid out, are they any good?

Not sure I'd want to try changing a filter, etc. by myself. Looks hard. I don't know anything about adjusting bands, etc., either.

Thanks,

Jeff 1991 300d, 118k

The best place anywhere is your own driveway:cool:

Yeah, it's called not falling for the hype and doing it in your garage or carport!;)

Just to be clear, are we talking about a transmission flush (which I would not recommend doing), or replacing the fluid and filters (which I do every 30-40K miles)? I just have my indy do the tranny service, do it yourself if you feel like getting dirty.

Don't do a flush, do a normal change. Flushes are risky for your trans, and your car has a TC drain so you can simply drain all of the fluid to change it, no point to a "flush".

I wouldn't flush an old trans your just asking for trouble. Any decent shop should be able to no screw it up. On these cars it really doesn't get any simpler.

I was talking about ....
 

I was talking about doing a complete flush, filters, fluid, the whole bit. What about those places that suck the fluid out? Is that better?

jeff

That won't get the fluid out of the torque converter.

Flushing is where they hook it up to that machine and run it forcing fluid through the cooler lines. I would not recomend that on an older transmission, chances are it will start to fail soon afterwards. If this was a rebuild with 30k-40k on it or a new car, and you wanted to go nuts, go ahead.


With these old trans a drain and filter change is all that is needed, every 30k-40k miles. Don't forget to drain the TC. You get 95%+ of the old fluid doing it that way.

Again MB has almost idiot proofed them, so any decent shop should be able to do it. Their is nothing MB specific about them, they are as complicated as a 70's vintage Ford.

ATF + Filter change
 

Jeff,

Pick up a set of ramps+large drain pan(10 QT.)...get a tranny filter here and
get the fluid locally...drive that baby up and chock it with the "E" brake on.
find your torque converter drain plug underneath and drain (replace gasket
on the drain plug).Then drain the pan(replace the gasket on the pan plug
too)...remove the pan ...replace the filter...replace the pan ,torque to specs
in expanding sequence...refill tranny and check when warm on absolutely
level ground.Enjoy
OR let a professional Independent do it.
DO NOT,"Flush It".The chances of damage are
not worth it.

Why does a flush hurt transmissions?
 

[QUOTE=Hatterasguy;1796243]Flushing is where they hook it up to that machine and run it forcing fluid through the cooler lines. I would not recomend that on an older transmission, chances are it will start to fail soon afterwards. If this was a rebuild with 30k-40k on it or a new car, and you wanted to go nuts, go ahead.


With these old trans a drain and filter change is all that is needed, every 30k-40k miles. Don't forget to drain the TC. You get 95%+ of the old fluid doing it that way."


Why does it mess things up to do a flush?

Jeff

Old transmissions can be full of crap, and have a lot of wear. Forcing new fluid through cleans everything out, which is bad because that crap is needed to keep it shifting. A lot of good shops won't do it because of this.


Just change the fluid and filter every so often, don't beat on it, and it will last for a long time.

There is also a risk of over or under filll during the flush, and of contamination. The crud is in the pan, you drop the pan when you replace the filter, it is then GONE instead of flushing around the system.

I have a friend with transmission shops, he loves the flush places because he's the next stop after a flush, a rebuild.

Also added, it that when the flush is done, you still have the OLD filter in place. Would you do oil flushes on your engine and not replace the filter?

[QUOTE=jbach36;1796252
Why does it mess things up to do a flush?

Jeff[/QUOTE]


not to beat a dead horse.... but flushing implies that only oil is replaced and possibly dirty filters are kept in place.... and per everyone's comments, they should be replaced...... its really not that difficult to do it on your own. This way, you know its done right.