I'm taking my car into the dealer for an oil change and transmission flush tomorrow. I was actually considering doing the flush myself. But in a previous post, somebody had mentioned that you'd need like 9 quarts of the ATF (Z1) for a complete system flush. The cost of a canister is about $7.50. That means I'll have to shell out around $70 for this? My dealer is charging me $59.95 for the complete flush. Sounds cheaper than me doing it myself. What do you guys think? Is there more benefit to have the dealer do it?

axleback

 

i was gonna do it myself... i even went to the dealer and got all the fluid. i got home, and was all ready to go. but before i drained the tranny, i decided to try to take off the filler bolt, to make sure i'd be able to refill it before i drained it.

good thing i did! i torqued the bolt like crazy, tried hitting my ratchet wrench with a hammer, destroyed my ratchet extension... but the stupid bolt didn't budge!

although there are plenty of members here that have done it themselves, i heard from other members that they've had the same problem as i have, so it could happen to you too... so yea, if you can get it for that price, i'd say let the dealer do it!

btw, are u sure it's a full flush? or just a change?

 

I might be wrong but dealers usually don't flush the transmission oil. They just change it.

Flush the transmission oil means all the oil in the transmission including inside the Torque Converter is replaced with new oil.

Change the tranmission oil means only the oil in the transmission is drained and replaced, not in the torque converter.

Try find out from the dealer how they do it. If the dealer say they just drain, replaced the filter and fill the transmission oil, then they just change it, not flush it.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

 

does it make a big difference if they just change the transmission fluid and doing a full flush? I didn't know there's a transmission filter. Even if they just change the transmission fluid, is that sufficient? I'm starting to feel every shift in the tranny, it's not as smooth as before. I have close to 25,000 miles on her and I think it's about time to change the fluid anyways.

axleback

 

A complete flush will cost you over $100 from the dealer. The price per quart of AFT should be under $4. Total cost to do it yourself sould be under $40 including new washers.

 

Before my tranny was diagnosed as bad, I went in and told the dealer that the tranny wasn't shifting right...so they flushed it...no charge.