Transmission flush or just change oil?

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friendly_prawn, Aug 11, 4:32pm
Seems to be two trains of thoughts surrounding this.
Does it make a difference what sort of car your doing the trans service too
I now seem to be the proud owner of a Kia Sportage. Long story, dont ask.
Doing a google I came across this article on how to change the trans fluid.
http://www.ehow.com/how_6763795_change-transmission-fluid-kia-sportage.html

I rang the shop and they said not a good idea, better to do a transmission flush.(not that I know the diff)I assume the flush is using a machine of some sort to flush every little bit of old oil out!
So can I just follow the link and change the oil at home!
Wont their be filters that need changing. The article above doesnt mention any thing about filters.

Or put it in the shop and let them do the jobproperly!
Its a Kia Sportage 2000 2L 4WD

Any thoughts please!
bellky, Aug 11, 4:34pm
Just change the fluid for a start.
friendly_prawn, Aug 11, 4:34pm
It's done 135k and I assume never had a transmission service before.
supernova2, Aug 11, 4:47pm
Might be a washable filter.But IMHO if you going to bother do it properly and drop the pan and change/clean the filter.Has it got the handbook!If so it will have the service intervals.If not get a copy of the service intervals from Kia.
splinter67, Aug 11, 4:51pm
Take it to the shop FP at least you have some come back if it stuffs up
jason18, Aug 11, 4:55pm
Why bother bro since you just gonna chuck a rota in it
supernova2, Aug 11, 5:08pm
But it will still have a trany wont it!

Well actually then it will be a trannie.Neither one thing nor the other!
friendly_prawn, Aug 11, 5:19pm
yeah, that link above had me confused.
Just shows how to do an oil change, no mention of filter.Thats what had me scratching my head. Seems a weird way to do a transmission service.

What do you guys think of shops that are touting a trans flush is needed rather than just a simple oil and filter change!
thejazzpianoma, Aug 11, 5:20pm
As supernova2 said, best to do it properly.

I don't know the Kia transmission but assuming its a regular auto here is a bit of background.

Unlike a manual or DSG type transmission an auto has a torque converter that will usually retain a significant portion of the fluid in the transmission when you pull the drain plug.

So, to change all the fluid you basically have two options. First and proper option is to unhook the fluid lines to and from the transmission and hook these up to a flush machine. (Or an improvised home setup with a reservoir of new fluid and a catchment container for the old).

You then run the old fluid out of the system while new goes in simultaneously. When the new fluid is coming out you can stop the process.

The other way of doing it is through several drain and refills running the car in between times until what comes out looks nice and clean. This will not generally be 100% effective and isn't as efficient but is usually good enough.

The other issue is the filter. Hopefully your auto will have a replaceable filterwhich is usually accessed by dropping the "pan" or "sump" off the transmission. Some transmissions though don't have a sump as such and you can't access the filter without removing the transmission so you have to settle for just a fluid change.

You definitely want to change the filter if it is at all possible to get to it.

Lastly there is the old "don't change the fluid/filter or flush it because it might start slipping" argument. Basically if the transmission is already about to give up the ghost the increased friction in the fluid from all the contaminants can hold things together a bit.

I can understand garages saying that because they tend to get the blame if the flush causes problems. From an owners standpoint though I think its pretty silly logic not to perform maintenance for this reason. If its nearly stuffed its nearly stuffed no point in wrecking a good transmission due to lack of maintenance over it.

Hope that helps.
friendly_prawn, Aug 11, 5:21pm
nah, dont want to start breaking axle's lol
friendly_prawn, Aug 11, 5:23pm
wicked post mate.

What i wanted to know.

Trans flush it is.

and no mention of selling it to buy a vw lol

cheers Jazz.
splinter67, Aug 11, 5:25pm
If you want to break axels put in a big block a rota wouldnt have enough power to break a match stick
friendly_prawn, Aug 11, 5:31pm
a big block rotary has way more grunt than a V8
thejazzpianoma, Aug 11, 5:34pm
Oh gosh darn, I knew I was leaving something out!
Glad it was some help.
friendly_prawn, Aug 11, 5:36pm
Good tip for you.
dont ever take anything I say seriously mate.I dont think too many others on here do either. lol Justcant help myself.
friendly_prawn, Aug 11, 5:36pm
thanks again Jazz
supernova2, Aug 11, 5:40pm
Flush wont clean the filter though so in a perfect world should do both.Flush it then change the filter then refil.I'm betting you can probably get another 100K out of it by doing absolutely nothing.
thejazzpianoma, Aug 11, 5:45pm
Already covered in Chapter 8 Section 14 Paragraph 7 of Jazz's definitive work, "everything you want to know about transmissions and why you should sell it and buy something European" post.
969pnz, Aug 11, 5:45pm
Look up;townhall-talk.edmunds.com7go to Kia Sportage forums. Could be helpful.I've found it so
969pnz, Aug 11, 5:46pm
Sorry,7 should be &!
friendly_prawn, Aug 11, 5:48pm
flush will have to be done by shop anyway.
so they'll do the lot properly one would assume. so that should include filter.
My AU falcon which to my knowledge had never had a service has started playing up at 160,000ks.
Going to try a trick recommeded before by slightly over filling trans as it only seems to happen when the cars on an angle. If that doesnt fix the problem it will be sold off as is.
My point being, the old coons are normally reliable as hell.
Im guessing the lack of servicing has caused the Fairmonts transmission problem.In the past I have just driven my vehicles with out worrying too much with servicing.
From now on I think I will keep an auto transmission services up to date rather than risking whats happened with my falcon.
friendly_prawn, Aug 11, 5:50pm
cheers already been there.a helpful site.
I find this one much easier to use though as Im on here all the time anyway. cheers though.
clark20, Aug 11, 5:58pm
"Like"
dent, Aug 11, 5:59pm
Defiantly a flush is the way to go. As Jazz said the torque converter can hold roughly around 1/3 of the total capacity of the transmission. You dont get that out without flushing it so in theory you mixing new oil with quite a bit of old oil. They might just clean the filter which is quite common practice at a lot of automatic transmission places. Keeps the costs down and a lot of the filters are designed to be washable. Defiantly worth doing spending the extra few dollars and getting it done correctly.
supernova2, Aug 11, 6:01pm
And volumme 9, 23, 67, 89 ,206 and appendicies.LOL