2015 TLX SH-AWD Original Owner. Approximately 83k miles (clearly not a ton of driving, and no "mountainous" or daily stop-and-go traffic driving either).
Last transmission fluid change was at approximately 50k miles.

While at the dealer last year for my free annual state inspection, they recommended having the transmission fluid changed. The price they quoted was over $1000 (yes, one thousand dollars) so naturally I said no thanks. FWIW, this price was quoted last summer so it's not a "today" number.

I've read a number of posts on this forum where people have paid anywhere from approximately $250 - $700 for transmission fluid changes, however I've never seen a price as high as $1000. For the heck of it, I called the dealer to ask them why the price quote was so high and they said it's because they do the drain and fill process 3 times to help ensure that they can replace as much of the old transmission fluid as possible. During this process they have to get the engine up to a certain temperature and drive the car a bit / switch gears between each of the 3 rounds. I think I've seen this process referred to as "3x3" somewhere or another. Ultimately they end up using three times the amount of new transmission fluid vs a simple drain and fill, so I can understand the amount of fluid used (and additional technician time) would impact the price.

I tend to believe that the other posts I've read on this site with much lower prices are for single "drain and fill" transmission fluid replacements - where "only a portion" of the transmission fluid is actually replaced.

So what's the best practice for my engine? A single drain and fill, or a triple drain and fill with all the associated drive/gear switching and driving between each round? Unless I missed something, I wasn't able to see any specific guidance in the manual regarding single vs triple drain and fill.

FWIW the maintenance minder has not appeared on the dash to indicate that an A3 or B3 service is necessary, so I suppose my question is also about the timing. Should the transmisison fluid be changed simply based on mileage(?) or wait until the maintenance minder says to do it.

Thank you.

 

I took mine in last week and it was $280. I'm pretty sure it was a single drain and fill as the showed only 4 (Qts?) used. I just went by mileage specified in the maintenance manual which was 50K for the first and 30K thereafter. I'm retired and don't put very many miles on my car, so the maintenance minder hasn't come on in years. Looking at the cost of supplies for the job, looks like the $1000 is mostly labor charges.
Charlie

 

Looking at the fluid capacities above for the SH-AWD V6 TLX, if they needed 10 quarts of 08200-9017 ATF-Type 3.0 for a '3X3', that would be $305.30 just for ATF.
$694.70 seems high just for the labor end.
Are you sure they were not going to do the transfer case & rear differential fluid(s) as well?

 

^They are marking up the cost of the ATF as part of the service. It's normal for shops to do this.

OP, if you can change your own oil, you can do your trans fluid service too. Save the money and DIY this one.

 

Thanks everyone for the responses.

@Charlieu - the $280 price seems about average from what I've seen, thanks for confirming based on your very recent service. From a timing perspective, yes I did my last one at 50k, so mileage wise 80k is basically when I'm due now.

@zeta - Appreciate the details for the fluid changes. I'm 99% sure that the $1000 quote was just for the transmission fluid, as I had the rear diff fluid changed well over a year and a half ago. Logically it wouldn't make sense for them to propose repeating the rear diff service so soon after it had been done, however they are a dealership and we know they're all about making money (sometimes at the cost of proposing services early or unnecessarily). As for your point about the Transfer Case fluid - I don't know. I'm 99.9% sure they didn't mention that, nor did they mention that this $1k quote was for a "bundle" of services, however there's always a chance and it probably wouldn't hurt for me to ask them that specific question. Though I don't know the price of the transfer case fluid, even just including that item (considering that they only need half a quart) plus the transmission fluid still makes the $1k quote seem high!

@EasyLoveRDX - Great point about DIY. Though I'm relatively mechanically inclined, I've never done this type of maintenance on any car and unfortunately I don't have any places nearby with ramps or where I could put my car up on a lift to do any sort of underneath work. Your point is 100% valid and I realize over the years I could save a ton of money on being able to do "simple" things such as oil and other "underneath" fluid changes.

Still trying to figure out this whole "3x drain and fill" concept and why (other than $$$) they would be proposing that.

Thanks

 

Because a bunch of fluid stays in the gears of the transmission even when the car is off. It's not like the oil where most of it drips down to the pan.

With each drain you only get about a 3rd of the old fluid out. The important bit of the 3x drain/fill is that you drive the car a bunch and cycle through all the gears between each drain/fill.

 

So it sounds like the dealer-proposed 3x drain and fill is not specific to the engine in my model car, but rather more of a "best practice"?

While a 1x drain and fill is still beneficial to the vehicle, a 3x drain and fill is simply more thorough as a significantly larger volume of old transmission fluid would get replaced.

 

It is specific to traditional gear-based automatic transmissions.

Take a look at a transmission teardown video sometime. There are TONS of tiny little fluid passages that are used to apply fluid pressure to clutches and stuff. The ATF doesn't drain out from those when you shut the car off.

For a point of comparison, my Accord's manual trans only needs one drain & fill. The transfer case & rear diff on my RDX also need only one drain & fill, unlike the trans. The former are just simple gearboxes.