We just completed a 5,000 mile trip from Florida to Washington state in a 2005 MCSC automatic in 10 days. On the trip we encountered what I would consider severe driving conditions - Hot days, many at or slightly over 100 degrees, long days of "at speed" freeway travel, Lots of backroad driving in mountain conditions, Heavy load - 2 people + luggage, some stop and go traffic. I am going to do an oil and filter change and am considering having the automatic transmission fluid changed. My experience with automatics is limited so I am wondering if this is a good idea or overkill. Does any one know how much a dealer would (should?) charge for this?

 

When I had tranny fluid changed on my CVT, it cost around $300 at the dealer.

 

Wow did you get bent over.... YIKES!!!

 

Dang, and here I thought they were just doing a simple Cooperoscopy!

 

Actually, that's about the going rate for a CVT fluid change unfortunately. Supposedly, and I heard this from SA's and members of various forums, it's a royal PITA to change the fluid.


-Paul!
(former owner of a '04 CVT. Gone, but not forgotten!)

 

Well, the OP has a traditional torque converter based automatic transmission, so all of the comments about CVTs don't really apply.

Frankly, the driving scenario that was outlined by the OP doesn't sound like a terribly severe duty cycle. How many miles are on the car? One problem with the R53 implementation of the Aisin-Warner transmission is that there is no place to connect the fittings of a tradiitonal transmission fluid replacement machine. Therefore, it is not practical to do a traditional fluid replacement.

The best alternative (to traditional fluid replacement) that I have been able to come up with is to do a drain and refill of the fluid that is in the pan on a frequency of every 10,000 miles. I know that by only draining the fluid in the pan, you miss the fluid that is in the torque converter and the transmission body, but absent a way to connect the traditional transmission fluid replacement machine, the only other alternative is to do a series of 3 iterations of drain and refill: drain and refill followed by a drive for ~5 miles; then drain and refill followed by another drive for ~5 miles with one more repeat of drain and refill. So, six of one or half a dozen of the other.

If anyone with a MCSa has another alternative for fluid replacement, I would sure like to hear about it.