transmission oil Options

[Charles Farrell]

What is the "going rate" for changing the automatic transmission oil in a 5.9 Cummin pickup at a dealer? Also, I have been told there are two way of changing this oil. One way only removes about 80 percent of the old oil. Please explain. What do you know about this?


C. S.

[Joe Spiker]

While I'm not sure what the price should be now, I paid approx $175.00 2 years ago. One thing you don't want is a Transmission Flush. If there is ANY bits of metal in your Transmission pan a flush will take them into the clutches and can cause all kinds of problems. Best to just go with the old fashioned Drain and Change.

Joe

[dontay]

The 80% way just drains the pan on the body of the tranny. The complete way also drains the fluid from the torque converter, cooler, and cooler lines.

[dontay]

BTW, if you are considering a fluid change and the pan has to be dropped to do it (no drain plug) you might want to also consider changing to an aluminum aftermarket pan with deep cooling fins. It will help with high trans fluid temps under heavy loads.

[Charles Farrell]

BTW, if you are considering a fluid change and the pan has to be dropped to do it (no drain plug) you might want to also consider changing to an aluminum aftermarket pan with deep cooling fins. It will help with high trans fluid temps under heavy loads.

Where can I buy the aftermarket aluminum pan? How much does it cost? C. S.

[RBH]

While I'm not sure what the price should be now, I paid approx $175.00 2 years ago. One thing you don't want is a Transmission Flush. If there is ANY bits of metal in your Transmission pan a flush will take them into the clutches and can cause all kinds of problems. Best to just go with the old fashioned Drain and Change.

Joe

The trans flush machines I'm familiar with will not force metal particles into the clutches. They simply interrupt the flow into the trans cooler transferring the old oil into into the waste container and simultaneously adding new oil into the trans. All the old oil is picked up and put thru the trans pan filter just as it is under normal usage. Flushing is really the only way to get most of the oil out of the trans, valve body, torque converter, cooler and lines.

This post has been edited by RBH: Nov 5 2009, 04:17 PM

[dontay]

Just Google "aluminum transmission pan." Expect to pay around $250. I installed a B&M Racing pan on my old F350 with E4OD but I believe the fins on the Mag-Hytek are deeper and would have been better. I did it myself and it wasn't hard at all.
Hint: Dodge may be different but on my Ford I wish I had done the following; make a cardboard cutout with holes representing all the bolts you are going to take out of the existing pan. As you remove the bolts place them in the proper hole. Makes reassembly easier because all the bolts were not the same length. Also the trans was aluminum so trying to screw a long bolt into a short hole could make for sad results. The B&M came with new bolts all the same length. When I placed one into one of the deeper holes and torqued it the threads stripped. I was able to get a new, longer bolt from a hardware store and redo it without a lot of concern but it could have been trouble. The remaining threads held the torque but I was lucky. I should have looked at all the old bolts and seen that some were longer but I thought B&M knew what they were doing. Wrong. But the pan worked great so no hard feelings just a little more experience.

[RayIN]

With my Dodge CTD, I had the automatic tranny flushed, pan removed and cleaned. Inside "filter" is actually a screen that will not trap small particles. It should be cleaned or replaced anyway. I had the local Dodge dealer service dept. do the work, which had a 1 yr warranty.
That was so long ago the price is not relevant today.
Question, would you change 80% of your engine oil and leave 20% contaminated oil? If the answer is yes, you will be satisfied with doing the same with the tranny.

[Stanley P. Mille...]

Changing part of the oil works if the old oil is in decent shape but if it is burned, water contaminated or otherwise damaged you are going to want to get it all out.

Allison 3000 series transmissions had some good guidelines on oil changing when switching to synthetics that boosted the change interval as the old oil left behind was diluted with good synthetic oil.

[Joe Spiker]

The trans flush machines I'm familiar with will not force metal particles into the clutches. They simply interrupt the flow into the trans cooler transferring the old oil into into the waste container and simultaneously adding new oil into the trans. All the old oil is picked up and put thru the trans pan filter just as it is under normal usage. Flushing is really the only way to get most of the oil out of the trans, valve body, torque converter, cooler and lines.

This may be true of the newer machines. I know that several years ago a number of folks on one of the Diesel Boards(Northwest Bombers) had their oil changed by flushing and within a week or so ended up with severe transmission problems. Metal in the clutches was the final diagnoses and they ended up having to rebuild their transmissions. Personally I'm not willing to take that chance so will pay what it costs to have the transmission and torque converter drained and add new oil. Just my .02

Joe

[BrianT]

Not sure how much trans fluid a Dodge trans takes. But when I was servicing a minivan with an auto trans regularly, (Nissan Quest, now step daughters, quarter million miles and still running strong), about once a year, I woiuld drain the pan (about a gallon), refill, go for a drdive, drain the pan & refill and go for a drive, and then drain the pan & refill one more time.

I never let it get nasty and although it wasn't necessarily the "correct" way to do it, I felt like I was keeping the trans fluid in pretty decent shape. Usually till the second change of oil was coming out, I was wondering why I was doing it cause it sure looked like I was throwing away clean trans fluid.

If I remember right, most of the shops wanted maybe $75 or so to get it all. $15 did it my way.

;-)

Brian

[Biker56]

If I remember right, most of the shops wanted maybe $75 or so to get it all. $15 did it my way.

Today you would be lucky to buy 1 gal. of fluid for $15 let alone 3 gal.

How times have changed.

[Daryl&Lois]

What is the "going rate" for changing the automatic transmission oil in a 5.9 Cummin pickup at a dealer? Also, I have been told there are two way of changing this oil. One way only removes about 80 percent of the old oil. Please explain. What do you know about this?


C. S.

Hi Charles, Just recently I changed my auto transmission oil complete system in my 5.9 cummins with the 47RE tanny. This link http://www.amsoil.com/search.aspx may help which is the one I used. Amsoil is very imformative, also on right hand side "product and lockup guide under auto and light trucks you can look up your year of vehicle and find filter numbers, fluid volume etc. If the link does'nt get you the information use the search bar. My transmission system took 17qts, cummins suggest using a ATF+4 rated oil, Amsoil is rated with ATF+4. It's a little pricey but I should be ok for 50,000 + miles instead the 15,000 suggested service for heavy use. Cost I believe for the oil and filter was around $185 by doing it yourself, a second person does help.
Good luck and hope this is helpful.

[Outlaw]

the chevy dealer in lynnwood, Wa wants $150 for a tranny flush and $100 for a rear end flush. thats on my 90 chev 3500 duelly, 454 ci with 400 tranny.
yikes.lol

Outlaw

[Trailertoad1]

the chevy dealer in lynnwood, Wa wants $150 for a tranny flush and $100 for a rear end flush. thats on my 90 chev 3500 duelly, 454 ci with 400 tranny.
yikes.lol

Outlaw

I just paid $65 for a gallon of Transynd fluid for my Allison (OUCH!) I changed out the filter every 5,000 and add fluid, change trans fluid every 30,000. We tow a 17,000 lb trailer with our 6.7 340HP cummins so we watch the trans temp like a hawk and never let it get above 200 degrees for any length of time.

You cannot go wrong with synthetics and at least changing the filter to get rid of small metal and clutch debris. The new flushing systems usually include a "cleaner" that is added and then you drive the rig for 10 to 20 miles to help take any varnish off parts (this is if you have burnt the fluid or it is contaminated) and then they recirculate it as new fluid is added. Not cheap, but probably the best way. Just make sure your shop has the latest BG or Amsoil approved equipment.

Hope that helped,

Jok Nicholson
"On the Road........because we love it!"

[h2guy]

I just paid $65 for a gallon of Transynd fluid for my Allison (OUCH!) I changed out the filter every 5,000 and add fluid, change trans fluid every 30,000. We tow a 17,000 lb trailer with our 6.7 340HP cummins so we watch the trans temp like a hawk and never let it get above 200 degrees for any length of time.

You cannot go wrong with synthetics and at least changing the filter to get rid of small metal and clutch debris. The new flushing systems usually include a "cleaner" that is added and then you drive the rig for 10 to 20 miles to help take any varnish off parts (this is if you have burnt the fluid or it is contaminated) and then they recirculate it as new fluid is added. Not cheap, but probably the best way. Just make sure your shop has the latest BG or Amsoil approved equipment.

Sounds pretty expensive changing fluid twice. Flush it once (to get the cleaner in it), drive it, flush again. Tranny gets flushed twice while tranny flusher gets "flush".

[moisheh]

Anyone using Amsoil in an Allison should be aware that this fluid is NOT approved by Allison as a synthetic and extended changes. It is accpeted as suitable to replace regular ATF as long as you change it by that schedule. Why spend that amount of Money and get nothing???

Moisheh

[Stanley P. Mille...]

Allison has a nice PDF file somewhere that lists the specs for fluid and several that meet them.

I couldn't see doing the flush, the recommended procedure to change once, run until it needs changed and change again is the most economical method.

[Biker56]

I use Amsoil Torque-Drive in my Allision 3000. Amsoil makes several different other transmission fluids.

AMSOIL Torque-Drive is recommended as a direct replacement for TranSynd Synthetic ATF in heavy duty, on- and off-highway automatic transmissions manufactured by Allison,® General Motors,® Ford,® Voith® and ZF® or wherever the standards TES-295, TES-389, C-4, Dexron® III, Mercon,® Voith 55.6335.XX (G-1363) or ZF® TE-ML 14C are specified. Examples of operations that benefit from using AMSOIL Torque-Drive include municipal or transit buses, motor coaches, garbage haulers, motor homes, delivery vans, emergency vehicles, school buses, dump trucks, utility vehicles, cement trucks, line haul trucks and tow trucks.

Just because Amsoil didn't want to pay Allison a lot of $$ to have their oil approved. Doesn't mean it will not do the same job at a slightly cheaper price per gal. of less then $45. And my warranty ran out years, years ago.

Why spend more MONEY on Allison approved fluid and get no extra benefit.

Compare the Two Side by Side

This post has been edited by Biker56: Dec 4 2009, 06:36 PM