I have a 14 Escalade with 88000 miles. I changed the transmission fluid at around 40000, 6 qts filter and pan drop, no flush. I am going to do it again before 90000, however, the fluid looks just like when it was new. I have seen people changing their trans oil and it is always a darker color. My trani and oil, at least half of it, has over 80000 miles. Should I give it more miles or change it any way?
This time I want to disconnect a return hose to drain most of it out, after the pan drop and filter change. I have seen this done to replace most of the fluid and don't think it is a real "flush" and should be safe. Am I right.
I’d recommend still changing it before it’s dirty and before there will be deposits inside of your transmission.
from my experience, always running on completely clean fluid will lengthen the life of your transmission significantly in the case of most vehicles.
It’s how you shouldn’t wait for the oil in your engine to darken before you replace it.
On those I like to change the transmission fluid (drain and fill should suffice, with filter change) every 40,000 miles to give the transmission the best chance of lasting longer. If you tow a lot with the vehicle especially under severe duty conditions I would go even more aggressive at every 25,000-30,000 miles.
Also, if you haven’t done so already I would disable the cylinder deactivation (or what GM calls Active Fuel Management) in that engine to mitigate potential wear and tear to your engine (and even transmission).
Thanks all for the comments. Yes, I have been looking into cylinder deactivation deletes. Kind of pricey. However, this heavy thing only cuts cylinders when I am with no passengers and with a good tail wind. Even at a constant 50 mph needs all 8 to keep speed. My 15 Silverado I run on manual mode 5th gear to stop it from deactivating cylinders. This one loves cutting cylinders sometimes even at 70 mph would go to 4.
For the AFM disable, you can actually look into using an OBDII dongle from Range Technology: https://www.rangetechnology.com/products/afm-dfm_disabler/
Or disabling via ECU tune using HPTuners. Granted it only disables the software and AFM hardware is still intact, but still an improvement over before (and mitigates some risk of future AFM failure).
I would change at 100k. You changed the fluid once and it still drives fine. If you change it again right now, it may slip due to mileage. Sometimes dirty fluid might be better than clean fluid.
OP last changed his transmission fluid at 40,000 miles. Currently he is at 88,000 miles (so 48,000 miles since the last change), and still looks clean. As long as he is doing his transmission fluid changes periodically (every 40,000-50,000 miles on those), he will be fine.
I have changed the fluid on several cars the same way you mentioned you want to, through the lines, normally on the trans cooler for mine, I like changing it all if I can. I normally use amsoil signature atf and it works terrific, some do take the fuel efficient version, both do really well. I did use some valvoline max life in my old 98' f-150, but I was able to drain the pan, change the filter, and it even had a drain bolt on the torque converter, so I got all but maybe two quarts out. The trans is shifting much better now than before, as it had been sitting far too much. Within a month I plan to pull the lines and switch it with amsoil as well, I expect the amsoil will make it shift even better. Changing by pulling the lines and allowing the transmission to pull the fluid in at it's own pace, is not a power flush, that is what you hear messes transmissions up.
