[jskeen]

Greetings;

I've just recently taken over maintainance duties on a 2002 ody, that has had little more than oil changes all it's life. It's been a very reliable vehicle so far, but I can see that changing if I don't do some work on it now (and get lucky).

It has never had the atf drained, never had the tranny filter replaced or the shocks/struts worked on, although I did just recently have it aligned. It threw a tcc error a week ago, first one but it has not reoccured and it shifts fine. I had a pound of freon replaced last week, and have a new blower motor to install to get the ac back up to 100%. Brakes checked out ok after having a new rotor installed and the caliper repaired on left front and new pads all around.

So, here's the question, What do I need to do at this point to prevent a catastrophe (if possible). The shop that fixed the brakes said that "if you haven't changed the fluid till now, you don't want to. It's liable to start slipping with new fluid and require a complete overhaul immediately, vs driving it till it fails and then getting the tranny overhauled" sounds fishy, but I really can't afford a $3k transmission right now. Will changing fluid after 90k miles cause the tranny to fail?

I'm a decent mechanic, but all my experience is on '55-57 shoeboxes and 66-72 chevelle's. If it don't have a carburetor to adjust, I'm a little lost!

Thanks for any Help.
James

 

[sontakke]

I had done nothing to my 1999 van until after 90K apart from numerous oil changes and a single front brake job and a set of tires and few engine air filters.

After 90K I did couple drain and fill ATF (at a dealer). The transmission was fine until I broke it myself at approx 140K miles.

Bottomline:- drain and refill are fine at any mileage. Flush is strongly discouraged.

 

[OddDrive]

It has never had the atf drained, never had the tranny filter replaced

I would start with a 3X drain & fill on the ATF. Your next step would depend on how bad the old fluid looks.

if not too bad, after the fluid exchange, install an inline filter: http://www.odyclub.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37324&highlight=solenoid

if really bad, clean or replace the filter screens in the solenoids:

http://www.odyclub.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52345&highlight=solenoid