1998 k1500 silverado - 170k miles - new owner - maintenance

[90halfton]

This is absolutely a wives tale and bad advice, establishing a maintenance schedule as the OP would like to do is the correct thing to do. People who claim to have problems after flushes either, A. Waiting until they had a problem and then tried to fix it with a flush and fill, or B. used that POS machine at the quicky lube that forces fluid through the trans and doesn't address the filter at all.

No one ever advocates not changing engine oil to avoid problems....

All the master mechanics, engine builders, and race techs I know could be wrong, could be possible. Comparing engine oil and tranny fluid is apples to oranges. Ive never had tranny issues in anything, ever. In everything ive ever had I changed the fluid and filters at 70-80k miles, and then never again. If I had a tranny with 170k on it id let it ride.

 

[90halfton]

This is absolutely a wives tale and bad advice, establishing a maintenance schedule as the OP would like to do is the correct thing to do. People who claim to have problems after flushes either, A. Waiting until they had a problem and then tried to fix it with a flush and fill, or B. used that POS machine at the quicky lube that forces fluid through the trans and doesn't address the filter at all.

No one ever advocates not changing engine oil to avoid problems....

Youre definitely right about the jiffy lube flushes though. If youre gonna do it, drop the pan, change the filter, gasket, and fluid.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

There is absolutely not a single reputable person in the auto trade who would give you that information, the very idea that keeping dirty degraded fluid in any part of a vehicle is a better idea that fresh clean fluid defies all logic, no matter how many people you hear say it. Comparing leaving dirty trans fluid in to leaving dirty oil in is an exact analogy.


I flush and filter every vehicle I buy, and every 35k after and have never had a failure from doing so. I have, however, seen many many vehicles for sale on craigslist that "just need a trans flush" when in reality they're already slipping and it's far to late.

 

[Pampo'sTruck]

I always wondered if that was a wives tale or not. In fact I was talking about it to my wife this morning lol.

 

[df2x4]

I'm of the belief that flushes can be bad on an old high mileage trans, but a fluid and filter change never hurt anything IMO. If it's dirty, change it.

 

[jkeaton]

I'm of the belief that flushes can be bad on an old high mileage trans, but a fluid and filter change never hurt anything IMO. If it's dirty, change it.

Same here. Along with switching to synthetic on a high mileage engine that has been fed Dino oil all its life.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

I'm of the belief that flushes can be bad on an old high mileage trans, but a fluid and filter change never hurt anything IMO. If it's dirty, change it.

Correct, the back fllush, total fluid exchange machine is death for any transmission, but fluid and filter is what it's intended to have done. No engineer ever sat around going, "well if the clutch material stays in the fluid, its the same as having it on the clutch, so they better not change it..."

However, if you were to unhook the lines at the radiator, and let it run, pumping all the fluid out at it's natural rate, it wouldn't hurt a thing.

There's a few thing's you can do to any auto to prolong it's life, cooler, firm up the shifts, try not to overstress it with large tires and tall gears, or towing in overdrive up grades where it hunts through gears, of course, fluid and filter changes. In the end, it will wear out and fail, there's no way around that. And I suppose, if it's a 500 dollar beater you just need to run to town in during the winter, then why waste the money, but if you're counting on the thing, do all the maintenance you should be doing.

 

[Ironhead]

Never seen a problem changing to synthetic in an engine that previously ran dino oil. Maybe I've been lucky, or maybe the stories about eating gaskets and dissolving crud in the engine oilways are just more old wives tales.

The cold flow advantages of synthetics are probably the single most important factor in reducing engine wear, which mostly occurs on startup.

 

[98WhiteZ71]

Never seen a problem changing to synthetic in an engine that previously ran dino oil. Maybe I've been lucky, or maybe the stories about eating gaskets and dissolving crud in the engine oilways are just more old wives tales.

The cold flow advantages of synthetics are probably the single most important factor in reducing engine wear, which mostly occurs on startup.

I can tell you from first hand experience that my dad had a 95 Tahoe with the TBI 5.7 and ran conventional for 300K miles on the same engine. Bought some synthetic high mileage oil. Started burning a quart every 3k miles after that for the next 50K miles. Till it went away in the cash for clunkers.

Maybe it was just a freak thing but if its ran conventional its whole life and never had a problem then why mess with a good thing.

 

[jkeaton]

I can tell you from first hand experience that my dad had a 95 Tahoe with the TBI 5.7 and ran conventional for 300K miles on the same engine. Bought some synthetic high mileage oil. Started burning a quart every 3k miles after that for the next 50K miles. Till it went away in the cash for clunkers.

Maybe it was just a freak thing but if its ran conventional its whole life and never had a problem then why mess with a good thing.

My thoughts exactly.