RotorChase

Yeah.......
so my girlfriend has a 04 auto 8, and she went to the dlr today for a oil change, and to get one of her tail lights replaced (condensation). she asked me last night im coming up on 40k is there anything i need to do. after the smart *** answer of check the owners manual, i told her she might see about changing her tranny and diff fluid. well the service tech told her, and i quote "no, the autos dont need changed. the fluid they use never goes bad for the life of the car." so uhh whats the deal i know that such bs, even did a search just to make sure im not crazy. why the hell would they not want to overprice the labor and charge too much damn money to her to have it done??

Thanks,
Brandon

Ericok

Lots of other cars don't require transmission fluid changes. To be competitive, Mazda has to make the same claim - not that it's necessarily a good idea. Heck, even the manual transmission fluid requires changes.

Silver_Surfer

I changed both my trans & diff with Redline fluids. Think I voided my warranty?

Raptor2k

Which dealer did you go to? Hiley? They're usually competent.

RotorChase

yeah hiley, i dunno ive just never heard of that. i mean i would think that it would be beneficial, i mean hell i changed my tranny fluid in my 93 turbo mr2 like 3 times in the amnt of time i had it, but it was a 5spd of course.

mysql101

you either do transmission fluid changes or you don't. Auto or manual, same thing.

I once changed the trans fluid on an automatic mustang for the first time in ~100k miles. Big mistake....

RotorChase

yeah i know after a long extended time its actually harmfull to change the trans/diff fluid in a veh. but how many miles is too many would you think?

Clavius

I'd have it changed soley to CYA dont want any tranny problems and have them turn around and say "Well you never changed your fluid.. hence not covered by warrenty.". If all else look into a aftermarket fluid and see if they'll put that in for ya. Good question though might have to look into it further myself.

LiveToRev

My previous car, an automatic 01 VW GTI, didn't require the tranny fluid to be changed for the life of the car. It was a sealed unit. Yes, the GTI is not an RX-8, but I just wanted to give you an example that there are many cars out there that doesn't require the tranny fluid to be changed.

mysql101

I would say you can get away with never changing the transmission fluid. But I am changing mine.

I changed diff/tran when it was just a few thousand miles. I did it again at 30k. The cost of the fluids is like $50. So why not?

NotAPreppie

VW likes to do that. They claim it's good for the service life of the car. When I asked what that was (for my Passat), a Volkwagen Customer Care Representative researched it and called me back. 105,000 miles.

I lucked out, I had mine flushed and filled under warranty when the tranny pan gasket started to leak. However, most of the more rabid/OCD owners on PassatWorld change theirs out every 50k-60k miles. It's an involved process, but IMHO, it's worth it.

I guess my point is that even if you are told the tranny fluid is good forever, it might not hurt to find out just how the other party is defining "forever".

Kind of like "2+2=5 for very large values of '2'".

Stavesacre21

I could see where auto tranny wouldn't need changed as oppsed to the manual that does. According to AAMCO (after you see through their lies), the reason why tranny fluid on auto's rarely ever need changed is because they are engineed precisely to the point where they shouldn't grind at all.

In turn, you might ask about manuals not being engineed any less precisely...but there is one difference that manuals have to factor in that autos don't...that being human error. Aside from obvious stupid errors that would be obvious to dignose in an auto (such as slamming into reverse while moving forward), everything in an auto is enclosed and human error isn't a factor.

As you might have already guessed as to where this is going...manuals have a shifter, giving humans more control, but also allowing for a LOT more error in the shifting. According to AAMCO, over 90% of the work they do on manual transmissions (clutch aside) is caused by human error, such as not knowing how to shift, grinding dog-teeth, or annihilating syncros. All factors that aren't even touched in a closed-in auto tranny. That in-turn accounts for the metal shavings that you find in tranny fluid, thus being one of the reasons why tranny fluid flushes are pushed in manuals.

Can you tell yet that i've spent way too much time in that shop? Although i've gained a lot of knowledge from those guys, i wouldn't even take my car there if my transmission dropped onto the pavement in their parking lot.

climacus

Be afraid, be very afraid. Most cars with sealed/life-time ATF maintainence schedule tend to experience tranny problem by 150,000 miles or earlier.