Hi Scotty ,
Brian from Cleveland .
I have a ram promaster city cargo van with 50k miles it’s a 2015 . I wanted to get the transmission fluid and filter replaced . The mechanic said it’s a sealed transmission and can’t access it . I said I was able to and I’m a novice lol. He said that fiat states its a life time transmission and said we can’t change it unless it’s slipping or something . I said yeas it was . It’s a Chrysler of course . But why are these mechanics basically not wanting to do the job ? Also , why doesn’t Toyota make commercial vehicles in the USA like cargo hiace like in Japan . Love your videos it’s like a education every day!!!!
Change your mechanic. I don't know why he says that, even dealers changes the ATF if you ask for it.
Sure, the lifetime of the transmission.
If you don't maintain it, the lifetime will be short. If you change the fluid and filter regularly, the lifetime will be much longer. It's just deceptive language.
Go to different dealer or different mechanic.
I don’t know what FCA’s reason is. But Subaru says the same thing for their CVT’s. Changing the fluid voids the warranty.
Subarus reason is that if a CVT goes bad under warranty they will swap out the whole transmission intact and send back the bad one for analysis. It’s a QC thing, and if the fluid has been changed they can’t get any information from it.
The fluid is intended to be “lifetime” which for a manufacturer is 100,000 miles. After that they don’t care any more.
But obviously if you want it to go longer, you do care. So what a lot of private Subaru mechanics recommend is to leave it until the warranty expires and then change it then and every 50,000 miles thereafter.
Like I said, I can’t speak for FCA, but I would guess it’s a similar situation.
I've heard Scotty say something like, "Lifetime? Right! When it breaks, that's the end of it's lifetime. I doesn't mean a thing once that part is out of warranty. I agree. Find another place. Find someone that will tell you the truth.