to flush or not to flush

My one experience with flushing is that I'd surprised everyone one by taking a 3 day weekend, and came home early. On the way home off the toll road I stopped at the "Jiffy Lube" for just a quick oil change so I didn't have to crawl under it. That's all I wanted. But the Jiffy Lube computer said with like 160K miles, should get a flush, and..., and... I went from like $39.95 on the A/T Cummins to like $159.95 real quick, but I wasn't crawling under it on my 3 day weekend. I got a free radiator out of it on the 160K '96 Dodge, because they broke one of the cooling line fittings off for the trans at the radiator. Just had to sit there an extra 4 hours waiting for a new radiator to show up.

About a month later I noticed a different whining sound to the trans, so decided to just pickup a new filter and change it as always do anyway. When I pulled the pan, the magnet that catches metal particals looked like nothing I've ever seen before, but thankfully it did it's thing. Was a ton of metal particals that it caught. You couldn't even tell that it was a magnet until I wiped those particals off. And after setting a good 1/2 hour, when I took the filter down, it was like a dam broke open with all of the fluid finally draining down. The filter was pretty clogged.

My point? If you have it flushed, so be it. It's probably a good idea. Don't forget to change the filter and clean the insides too, AFTERWARDS. Much of that crap being flushed aint going to get flushed out, it will just get broken loose and flushed into at least the filter. That was my one and only flushing experience. That Dodge has 240K on it and still runs good, and pretty much still looks good.

No more "Jiffy Lube" for a quick anything on the fly for me either. Like 3 out of 3 times, they broke something. Radiator, stripped 2 lug nuts rotating tires that had 10K on them and couldn't get them off, and I forget what the other was. But... no more Jiffy Lube, they're just too expensive in the long run, for me.

Mark

A Dodge slushbox behind a Cummins can make all the metal paticles it needs without any help from Jiffy Lube.

If it got to 160K BEFORE doing this, you were lucky.

I know a guy who works in a Dodge parts department, and some years back they were nearly crowded out of their parts department by all the plastic "coffins" containing either rebuilt Dodge slushboxes, or cores.

I guess my biggest point was that if are going to flush a tranny, something that I've never had done before...but have always had manuals too, until these Cummins', from my experience, so be it, just make sure to pull the pan and change the filter right afterwards. I don't care whom makes it, that junk's gonna break loose and go somewhere, and not necessarily out the flush hoses where you'd like it to go. My filter was clogged, and I've changed my filters before, never clogged like that.

As a preventative caution, what's a filter cost? Not much. More time than anything. Flushing it? OK, but do step two, pull the pan and change the filter too.

Mark

Mmm Hmm. Strike 3 or 3. Adios amigos and vios condeetos Jiffy Lube.

Mark