Transmission fluid dark before 30k Miles

[Burla]

I would say most of my miles are what we call country 50, as in 50mph, maybe 30% or so city the rest country 50 and freeway. I was surprised how dark the oil got at less then 30k miles. Now it is 8 years, but whatever only 30k miles. Thanks Syn for that pump idea, great purchase. I'll get the link to that in a minute.

 

[Burla]

extractor pump hooks to car battery.

 

[17CrewCab1500]

New automatic transmission fluid has a bright to dark red, translucent color. The red color is the result of dye that is added to the transmission fluid for identification. Color is NOT an indication of the quality of the fluid nor the condition. An automatic transmission can have a significant amount of wear and still have clean red fluid. It could also have dark fluid and still be in great condition. The color of automatic transmission fluid, taken out of context, means very little.

 

[joshuaeb09]

Damn that **** is dark, Mopar ATF +4 ? I might have to get me one of them pumps for the next time I do the T-Case and diffs. The hand pump gets pretty brutal under there.

 

[Burla]

Yeah Josh, factory fill. at 30k miles 8 years.

Well, if you like you can run tranny fluid til it's black, no transmsion shop would say the same thing. In fact they all have the swatches on time to change fluid. My fluid was well past the second swatch and well into third level of black. I'l get another picture tommorow, if looks very dark purple just as in the warning swatches you see from tranny shops.

 

[Burla]

Josh if you want to use it on diffs you will need a 12 volt battery, it wont reach from car battery.

 

[Burla]

After pan drop I'd say I got 8 to 10 quarts out. Just that is a pretty decent flush, but I still want to get a couple qrts out if I can find the right line.

 

[joshuaeb09]

Yeah Josh, factory fill. at 30k miles 8 years.

Well, if you like you can run tranny fluid til it's black, no transmsion shop would say the same thing. In fact they all have the swatches on time to change fluid. My fluid was well past the second swatch and well into third level of black. I'l get another picture tommorow, if looks very dark purple just as in the warning swatches you see from tranny shops.

I'm willing to bet it's the 8 years that did that to the fluid and the fact I've heard/seen that RFE's are pretty hard on the fluid. The bad smell mirrors what I pulled out of my 44-44 at only 10k miles, but so far the C+ has held up much better than the unicorn blood in that application. I suspect the same will be true in your tranny.

Josh if you want to use it on diffs you will need a 12 volt battery, it wont reach from car battery.

If I get one I'll probably modify the leads with a quick disconnect extension harness for added versatility. Hell I might even get brave enough to do a little flush on the 8 speed at some point and just meter what comes out vs what I put back in.

 

[Wild one]

Josh odds are you'll need to jack the rear of the truck up quite aways to get all the tranny fluid back into your 8 speed.The instructions that came with my brand new 8 speed are very specific about having the tranny pan rail level when you're checking the fluid level afterwards.I've seen a few posts where guys ended up having to jack the truck up,just to get the same amount of fluid back in as they drained out.

 

[joshuaeb09]

Josh odds are you'll need to jack the rear of the truck up quite aways to get all the tranny fluid back into your 8 speed.The instructions that came with my brand new 8 speed are very specific about having the tranny pan rail level when you're checking the fluid level afterwards.I've seen a few posts where guys ended up having to jack the truck up,just to get the same amount of fluid back in as they drained out.

Yea I've heard about that and seen your posts with the instructions on the replacement. The jacking up part isn't a big deal, but the rest of it just seems like a pain the ass for the sake of being a pain in the ass. Hell I might just wait until I order the PPE pan and get all the pain over with all at once.

 

[Wild one]

Yea I've heard about that and seen your posts with the instructions on the replacement. The jacking up part isn't a big deal, but the rest of it just seems like a pain the ass for the sake of being a pain in the ass. Hell I might just wait until I order the PPE pan and get all the pain over with all at once.

I'd wait for the pan,lol. I do like my PPE pan,and figure it takes close to 5 degrees out of the fluid temp in the summer.

 

[HammerHead]

Can't wait to see how the filter media is on that spin on filter, cut that baby open. Maybe ever the pan filter too; would really like to see both and how they look internationally after 30k.

 

[SyN]

extractor pump hooks to car battery.

Fellas: One thing to remember!
This is a very cheap pump.

I have no idea how long it will last.
My only advice is don’t let it pump for more then 10-15 min - then stop & let it cool off for a bit.

I have did 4 RL C+ transfusions with my 68RFE.
1 gallon through the dipstick each time.
The last time it was really making a pi$$ed of growling sound towards the end.

Come spring I will do another 1 gallon transfusion - hopefully the little pump will survive till the end.

 

[Wild one]

After pan drop I'd say I got 8 to 10 quarts out. Just that is a pretty decent flush, but I still want to get a couple qrts out if I can find the right line.

You could do like I did Burla.I pulled both tranny cooler lines off ,up by the rad support and blew air through them till I had no more old fluid coming out,then flushed new fluid through the cooler.I didn't get carried away with a whole lot of air pressure to blow the cooler out,but even dialed down to 30 psi,you'll still get the majority of old fluid out of the cooler. It would still leave the convertor full,but does get a bit more fluid out of the system.

 

[Burla]

Can't wait to see how the filter media is on that spin on filter, cut that baby open. Maybe ever the pan filter too; would really like to see both and how they look internationally after 30k.

i will for sure, and take tin snips to sump filter. It may be that we really don't need to change sump filter after first change. It is more of a big micron catch then a filter if my hunch is correct. Want to research the vents as well, they may be simple holes. The factory filter has 2 of them.

 

[17CrewCab1500]

Take an eye dropper - and drop 1 drop of the old and drop one to the new. You'll find it's not that dark. But good idea to change at 30k I agree.

 

[Burla]

Fellas: One thing to remember!
This is a very cheap pump.

I have no idea how long it will last.
My only advice is don’t let it pump for more then 10-15 min - then stop & let it cool off for a bit.

I have did 4 RL C+ transfusions with my 68RFE.
1 gallon through the dipstick each time.
The last time it was really making a pi$$ed of growling sound towards the end.

Come spring I will do another 1 gallon transfusion - hopefully the little pump will survive till the end.

Mine was smoking, I wonder if the battery draw for a hemi battery is too much. Maybe a smaller standard 12 volt will work better.

 

[Burla]

If it just works a couple times it pays for itself imo.

 

[chrisbh17]

Is it possible to extend the cooler hoses out from the truck so you can use buckets for clean and dirty fluid, start the truck and just let the transmission pump it's own new stuff in as it pumps the old stuff out?

Seemed a popular way to change fluid on the fragile early 2000s accord transmission.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[Burla]

Yeah I posted the dyi on it, but the lines leaving the tranny are different on the 4 gen then the third gen. Botoom line, I need more tranny fluid if too much comes out, lol. That's what I get for getting 12 qrts. Might take the wife's car over to Napa, sorry Nick, if I can find the lines. The good news if I can find the right line it is dark, so we can see it go from dark to light red, in theory that is most of the oil. I guess if I pull the wrong line it will just be red, and I can put it back.