I HAVE DRIVEN CARS FOR NEARLY 60 YEARS AND I HAVE NEVER CHANGED TRANSMISSION FLUID. I AM CURRENTLY DRIVING A 1999 DODGE CARAVAN WITH 280,000 MILES AND THE FLUID HAS NEVER BEEN CHANGED.
I remember reading where a tool partsman (like snap-On) went by a Jiffy Lube type shop once, and he found the shop guy out back. He asked the shop guy what he was doing? The guy said he was being paid to change the auto transmission fluid and was just killing time, until it appeared to the customer the job was done. He never changed the fluid. how was the customer ever to know?
“Chrysler senior manager of automatic transmission engineering”
Funny, Chrysler’s manual says to change the fluid and filter and that is a required item to maintain the warrantee.
It is not hard to change the transmission fluid. This article makes it sound like voo-doo.
What if the owner's manual is wrong? I had an 88 Dodge Dakota and had always learned to change the tranny fluid every 30,000 miles. The owner's manual stated to use Mopar ATF+ Type 7176 or Dextron II. Well the local parts store didn't carry Type 7176 so I put in Dextron II.
Just over 70,000 miles (can you say after warranty?) the tranny went out. Had it rebuilt and it died again at 98,000 miles. Shortly after that, the guy at the parts store looked it up on his computer and there it was:
Mopar Type 7176
Dextron II
WARNING! Use of Dextron II in this (Chrysler 904) transmission can cause premature failure of the torque converter.
If it caused the tranny to fail, WHY DID THE MANUAL STATE IS COULD BE USED??????
This is an awesome article about sealed transmissions and fluid, yet people are talking about changing oil, lol come on there are plenty of articles on that. I haven’t found any good advice on sealed trans until I talked to a chrysler guy today then happened to stumble on this.
Sealed transmission do not need the fluid changed unless you’re towing or change it every 60k. Even if the fluid is a little dirty, that’s all the more reason not to change. It means the trans has settled in and somehow it uses the contamination to fill.. something idk.
I drive a dodge magnum, 160k, has sealed trans and hasn’t given me one problem. I was trying to figure out if I should change it or not but the chrysler guy and this article gives good reasons not to. I was very glad to stumble across this