I could never justify that purchase for non-commercial use.
One option is to just drop the pan and change the filter. Add a
drain plug if not equipped. You certainly leave a lot of old fluid
this way, but now draining and refilling is easy. You can do that
more often, without filter changes every time, and even with the old
fluid left behind, the "average" fluid will stay pretty fresh.
Another alternative is a "do it yourself" type flush. Keep in mind
that running the transmission dry is a very bad thing, so you have to
be very careful if you try anything like this. Here are some
instructions I read, specifically geared to a Chevy Suburban:
Have +16 quarts of tranny fluid on hand. 5/16" dia hose about 4 feet
long. 5 gallon plastic paint bucket (empty) with lid. Tranny fluid
funnel (long, thin with smaller dia end to fit into tranny dip stick
tube). Pan gasket, filter. Helper.
Disconnect the line from the tranny to the radiator. I'm considering
making a fitting to connect to the return line connection at the
radiator (later). Connect the 5/16" dia hose to the line from the
tranny and snake it away from serpentine belt and into the 5 gallon
catch bucket.
Take out tranny dip stick and replace with funnel. Have several
tranny fluid bottle opened and ready to pour.
Start engine and the fluid will flow out of the line into the catch
bucket. You have 5 quarts worth to work with before the tranny pan
goes dry. Turn off engine.
Do the standard pan drop and filter replacement. The pan should be
empty or nearly empty. Button up.
Pour new fluid into the funnel. Gravity feed, so it will come out
faster than you can pour, so watch the amount and shut off the engine
to catch up. Restart and cycle this through a few times.
When all 16 quarts are gone, you've just done a transfusion flush and
got about 90%-95% of the old fluid out.
Reconnect all and you are done. Log into in your records.
Recycle center will take the old tranny fluid.
Follow this link if you'd like to find this, and a bunch of other
transmission discussions:
http://aplsweb.com/Topics/Transmisions.htm
-Steve Trovato
strovato at optonline.net
At 12:37 PM 2/25/2011, eric at megageek.com wrote:
>OK, I normally don't do tranny flushes myself because I don't have a
>machine to do it.
>
>But, my buddy is asking me to do it and I'm thinking now might be a good
>time to buy a machine. Here are my questions...
>
>At about $170 per fluid flush, a machine is paid for after four or five
>jobs, so I can justify the cost.
|