For context: I have an older Toyota 05. 160k miles. Transmission fluid looks kinda brown and mechanic said I should do a flush and quoted me 300$. I’ve also heard that at some point you shouldn’t change the transmission fluid if it has t been changed in awhile. Why is this?
In: Engineering
While changing the fluid after it’s damaged can make it seem more damaged, maintenance too late is always better than maintenance not-at-all. A lot of professional and shadetree mechanics have seen transmissions fail shortly after a fluid flush, but that’s confirmation bias. Nobody thinks about the times they got another 100k out of the car. They think about a person who brought the truck in because the transmission was weird, found 100,000-overdue black transmission juice, recommended a swap, and the truck died a month or two later. The poorly maintained truck died. Did it die from the abuse? No! It died because I tried to DO something.
There are a few decades-old diesels that are held together and sealed by their ancient grime and adding fuel or lubricant with detergents would cause leaks and eventual failure, but the myth of the sealed transmission that will die if you swap out the sauce is just a myth, caused by confirmation bias.
You’re not better off leaving the old stuff in unless you expect the car to die in a couple months and $100 worth of lubricants, filters and gaskets is just throwing good money after bad.
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