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[Solved] Should I change my ATF

  

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I just watched your video "Here's Why Changing Your Transmission Fluid Can Cause Damage" and I am worried. 

My car is a 2004 Lexus LX470 with 275,000 miles. No dipstick. Still runs great. Automatic transmission fluid has never been changed because I was told it was not necessary. I plan to keep the car until at least 500,000 miles. Your video indicates that if I change it now, it might start slipping, but I don't understand why that would occur. So, should I just leave it alone and hope for the best, or take the chance on changing it? If it is a bad idea to change it now with new fluid, should I drain the old fluid and then try to filter out any particles, then put that filtered fluid back in? I know that sounds ridiculous, but what would be my best option at this point.
 

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4 Answers
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The way it can cause in issue like slipping is because as the clutches in the trans wear out the particles from the discs go into the fluid so as the mileage gets high and the more particles  in the fluid then a lot of the clutch friction comes from the fluid. So if you flush the fluid you lose the particulates and you lose friction to the discs thus causing the transmission to slip of you change the fluid. On the other hand if you can have the fluid checked professionally and it’s clean and does not appear to have a lot of particles in the fluid you could be fine 


Wow. That puts it very clearly so even a simple non-mechanic like me can understand. Thank you R4nier. I had previously searched the FAQs for the answer as previously suggested, but there were so many unrelated posts that I had no luck. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me. I will have the fluid looked at. 🙂


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You'll find details in the site FAQ.


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Posted by: @clocker

I had previously searched the FAQs

the videos made by Scotty that are posted in the FAQ pretty much mirror what R4nier is saying here.


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Sorry you don't like the answer, @clocker, (down vote) but the fact is that questions like yours are one of the most frequent that we get here, therefore there is an entire section of the FAQ devoted to the issues around changing transmission fluid. If you read through that and believe that your question is not answered of course ask for more information here.


Maybe if I had searched a little better i could have found it.


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