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Transmission Flush Opinion Question - Should I or Shouldn't I?
Bought an 06 with 200k miles on it and the transmission jumps between 3rd & 4th when cold. I feel like the fluid level is low but have changed fluid on a high mileage car in the past and the transmission was never the same so I'm a little gun shy. Add to that the cost of fluid brings a change to $200+ and I'm more than a little gun shy. I'm wondering if anyone has done a fluid change with high mileage and had any issues. I've read through the threads on best type and the procedure but haven't seen much posted in a while on the issue. I also think it shifts weird generally so hoping clean fluid would help there as well but I'm really worried I'm going to cause more trouble than I fix.
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Trans flush ruining old high mile tranny’s was something that affected old school units with lead based friction materials. Basically new fluid with its refreshed detergents would wash loose all the bits of crud and screw the trans. Newer trans types like in the A8 don’t have lead based friction materials, so don’t build up anywhere like the sludge they used to. Therefore new fluid doesn’t really have anything to wash loose and screw things up. At your mileage a fluid and filter change would be very beneficial and certainly wouldn’t do any harm. If budget a concern, use Redline D6 ATF. Identical to the snake oil $$$$ VW/ZF branded stuff. |
Agreed with dvs_dave generally.
Don't kid yourself BTW that it might blow up anyway either way. That is, often folks change fluid when tranny is heading south already. Like kind of issues you describe, then two weeks later it fails. Fluid? Most likely no, it was already dying. Like taking your baby aspirin or statin after the first heart attack, and then you have another one. Blame the meds? Nope. Fortunately the 6 speed ZF's have been pretty darn reliable. Very few reports of outright failures over many years now. First step is typically filter and fluid change. And yes, sometimes fluid level is just off and it then starts shifting subpar. After fluid change, you can look at other deeper dive internal items if need be. |
It's a sealed unit, how can the oil be low? Vaporized through seals? Oil vaporizes? If it's dead, it's dead. Sometimes I don't understand the logic with flushing. How about the solenoid that's responsible for 3-4 gear, if there's such a solenoid, since I've seen tons of them on the tranny.
Cheers, Louis |
Originally Posted by dvs_dave
(Post 25112910)
Trans flush ruining old high mile tranny’s was something that affected old school units with lead based friction materials. Basically new fluid with its refreshed detergents would wash loose all the bits of crud and screw the trans.
Newer trans types like in the A8 don’t have lead based friction materials, so don’t build up anywhere like the sludge they used to. Therefore new fluid doesn’t really have anything to wash loose and screw things up. At your mileage a fluid and filter change would be very beneficial and certainly wouldn’t do any harm. If budget a concern, use Redline D6 ATF. Identical to the snake oil $$$$ VW/ZF branded stuff.
Originally Posted by MP4.2+6.0
(Post 25112991)
Agreed with dvs_dave generally.
Don't kid yourself BTW that it might blow up anyway either way. That is, often folks change fluid when tranny is heading south already. Like kind of issues you describe, then two weeks later it fails. Fluid? Most likely no, it was already dying. Like taking your baby aspirin or statin after the first heart attack, and then you have another one. Blame the meds? Nope. Fortunately the 6 speed ZF's have been pretty darn reliable. Very few reports of outright failures over many years now. First step is typically filter and fluid change. And yes, sometimes fluid level is just off and it then starts shifting subpar. After fluid change, you can look at other deeper dive internal items if need be.
Originally Posted by ltooz_a6_a8_q7
(Post 25113115)
It's a sealed unit, how can the oil be low? Vaporized through seals? Oil vaporizes? If it's dead, it's dead. Sometimes I don't understand the logic with flushing. How about the solenoid that's responsible for 3-4 gear, if there's such a solenoid, since I've seen tons of them on the tranny.
Cheers, Louis |
I think you should start reading about mechatronix, you may be the first person who solves this problem, make sure to document everything since all I see up here is flushing stuff and after the flush, people disappeared because they had to sell the car.
Cheers, Louis |
Originally Posted by ltooz_a6_a8_q7
(Post 25113115)
It's a sealed unit, how can the oil be low? Vaporized through seals? Oil vaporizes? If it's dead, it's dead. Sometimes I don't understand the logic with flushing. How about the solenoid that's responsible for 3-4 gear, if there's such a solenoid, since I've seen tons of them on the tranny.
Cheers, Louis |
Originally Posted by dvs_dave
(Post 25113703)
It’s not all that unusual for the pan gasket to leak, and it doesn’t take much before shift quality is affected. Or the o-rings on the trans cooler. |
Great, now VCDS experts should show everyone how to check the oil level of the trannie since it's heavily electronically controlled. I'm sure it has sensors everywhere.
When it's specific on a certain gears only, chances for the flush to fix are not great logically. Can some flushing experts pretend to fill up with 1/2 quartet short to experiment how bad the tranny perform please? If I have to do it, I would but I don't believe in it. Cheers, Louis |
Originally Posted by ltooz_a6_a8_q7
(Post 25113819)
Great, now VCDS experts should show everyone how to check the oil level of the trannie since it's heavily electronically controlled. I'm sure it has sensors everywhere.
When it's specific on a certain gears only, chances for the flush to fix are not great logically. Can some flushing experts pretend to fill up with 1/2 quartet short to experiment how bad the tranny perform please? If I have to do it, I would but I don't believe in it. Cheers, Louis |
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