Hello, I am a new member on this forum, and this is my first post. I recently bought a '98 chevy s10 blazer 4 door LS 4x4 with 143k mileswith the4.3 vortec. I looked at the trans fluid and it appears burnt. I want to change it but my local mechanic said not to because sometimes a tranny flush will make the trans go bad. I think this is a line of B-S. Should I change my trans fluid? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

 

that is bs changing your fluid alone can never make your tranny go bad. the only way it could do damage is if it some how flushed some debris into the internals, but this debri would have to already be in the tranny and if that was the case you would probably already have BIG problems. when you swap the fluid you should change the filter as well its pretty easy to do and i think its only about $20. when i changed my fluid it made a very noticable diffrence in the shift responce and firmness, espechily between frist and second. if the fluid is burnt that means the tranny got to hot and heat is the number one cause of transmission failure. a flush is always better in the case that all of the fluid might be compromized. unfortunatly you pretty much have to take it to a tranny place for them to flush it. hope this helps.

 

Thank you, that helped a lot!

 

no problem also keep and eye on it if it happens again with you driving it you may have other problems. the auto trannies come with a stock trans fluid cooler built into the radiator. if you do alot of heavy towing maybe an aditional or larger aftermaket stand alone cooler may be in order.

 

How much would the average trans flush cost?

 

i think i my area at aamco its like $50 but it might be as much as like $75 and you may have to pay for the fluid and filter seperate form that, i would say around $100 max out the door.

 

here i got a quote for $79.99 for a flush. that includes fluid and supplies.

 

hey I'm going to change the fluid myself. what kind of tranny would my blazer have? L460E???