Complete Tranny Oil Flush

[wandawoods]

I asked the question in LS forum, but no response so far...

is it safe to do the complete 16qt tranny oil flush on my 96 SC4 with 169K miles?

some mechanics suggest that it can blow the seal on high-milleage car! any truth to that at all?

[AWJ]

Don't know. I suppose it is possible it could if the seal is wore out. Only way to know is to do it. Perhaps a drain and fill every 15k until you have gone through all 16qts. is better.

[dcfish]

I agree with AWJ , Drain and fill , 200 miles between fills is better than a total drain and fill , and i wouldn't wait the 15000 between , buy the tranny fluid by the case and save $ one mans opinion :whistles:

[sightdev]

I have seen and heard about LS400 in there 300+k miles with original power trains. Both cars as far as I know had 25-35k trans flush and all other maintenances done by the Lexus dealer. My SC now has 120k with regular fluid changes, and it shifts and sounds good as any newer Lexus I drove. One down side to getting the fluid change in the shop is they always overfill. I do all my fluid changes at home except for transmission (can’t flush out the T-fluid without a device). Drain and fill method IMO may not be an effective method to clean out the contaminant. Almost 15quart capacity only two quart drains, that’s only 12 %. Also each time a drain / refill takes place; two fresh quarts are poured back in to the contaminated oil. Mathematically speaking, it will require many more than 15 quarts to reduce the contaminant. Take it to the Lexus dealer and haven them flush using the BG system and refill with fresh Type-T oil. Check to make sure its not overfilled (causes hard shifting) and drain a little. I have to drain about 1/4 of a quart each time.

[wandawoods]

thanks for the responses, guys!

I think I will bring her to dealer for a complete flush. dealer wants $250 for the job vs. $100 at firestone. at least, if seal blown, dealer would be responsible to fix it, but firestone says they can't be liable for it.

incremental drain-n-refill is not doable for me because we drive SC4 so little despite nothing really wrong with the car. since we got it in Aug/03, we only put on 3k miles!

thanks for the overfill warning!

[slidermike]

I had the dealer do my 93 sc400 w/ 141k miles ,full flush for $225.00

a few months ago and i haven't had any issues so far.

[mossyoak]

Mine is overfilled by about a quart when the dealer does it. I have pumped it out through the fill tube via a hand pump. Why does the dealer do this? I wonder if its the way they flush. Someone told me that they flush through the radiator coolant lines. Anyone know??

Ferd

[Lexual]

Just did a full flush on my 1992 with 110k replaced the filter the seal and added and extra tranny cooler all at the same time was a noticeable difference in shift points and strength of the shifts no problems to speak off

[mossyoak]

Good luck, hope it works out.

Ferd