My car is a toyota camry 2000. Someone told me that if there is no problem with the transmission, you should not change fluid. Otherwise it may harm your car. I am confused whether I should change transmission fluid for my car because it is still working good.
Is a transmission fluid change really needed for a car still working good at 140,000 miles?
Fluid changes are part of maintenance to prevent damage, not fix problems already established. Would you wait until your motor seized before changing the oil? Would you wait until your radiator gunked up before changing the fluid? Of course not.
Because the car is running good, this is by no means cause to forget about maintenance. The only exception on this is perhaps the BMW 740 series that had a sealed transmission where you would never want to go into it.
On seals leaking from detergent; that's a negative. This transmission uses dexron II. Dexron III can be used and is better and is recommended.
Is a transmission fluid change really needed for a car still working good at 140,000 miles?
If it has never been changed then, yes. that why its called preventative maintenance. You change your oil regularly right? Same goes for the tranny too. Just at longer intervals.
With that many miles unless it has been done regularly in the past it is not recommended the detergents in the new fluid could make leaks in seals.
If you don't know if it's ever been changed before, I wouldn't do it.
When you leave the fluid in there for a long period of time, you get a build up of what's called %26quot;varnish%26quot;, or at least in the older days, that's what it was called.
Varnish builds up over time and in some cases, helps to keep things together, within the tranny.
By changing the fluid now, you would be adding fresh additives and detergents from the new fluid, that may eventually remove the varnish. In turn, ruining your transmission.
Being that it's a Toyota, if it's not giving you problems now, I would just leave it.
Some Mechanic will tell you that is a lie ! Why b/c they want your transmission to break maybe in the next 6 months! In this bad economy people are looking in one way to get your money! In my opinion I would not change the fluids!
Transmission fluid is like any other fluid in you vehicle, with one exception. As transmission fluid ages, it changes its chemical make up due to exposure to heat. The hotter the fluid is allowed to get, the shorter the life of the fluid. Colour is a strong indicator of fluid condition, bright pinkish red is like new and the darker it gets the worse is gets. Eventually it will change to an ambur gold color and finally a deep brown. With this the smell will change and eventually start to smell like lacquer. There in lies the problem, this fluid that was protecting the internal workings is now the enemy and is trying to coat everything internal with this varnish type coating and will eventually destroy the transmission. By replacing the fluid periodically you refresh the detergent quality of the fluid and it then works in your favour keeping the internal components clean and working as they should. Hope this helps you to understand the importance of servicing the transmission.
My brother is a mechanic and where he worked they really tried to get people to change their transmission fluid. later i found out that the reason why was because after your car has gone so long on old fluid when you put new in something always tended to go out or break within a short period of time from the changing. He also told me what your someone told you which was if its not having a problem then leave it alone. My motors have gone out before the transmission does. also on a side note, he also said that you should go by your owners manual for oil changes because for most cars you do not need to change it every 3,000 miles. if your car says that it is 5,000 then you can really rack up a savings just by following the instructions for your brand of car. hope this helps
you can have a pretty good idea if it needs changing by looking at the stick. smell the fluid and see if it smells burnt and discolored and rub some between you fingers to see you feel and grit in the fluid. if any of that stuff i mentioned not happening then it don,t need changing.
