Tranmission Flush Question:

[carambula]

So my car is at 99 k miles and when the motor warms up it begins to tug a bit to take off or to change gears (automatic) when I m going a certain speed. Anyhow.. I am going to take it to get a trans flush change filter & gasket, new fluid that sort of thing BUT I was wondering if maybe I should take it to say Pep Boys and have them vaccum all the fluid out and replace it completly.. there is of course a HUGE difference in price , just don't know if it is worth it.. what do you all think?

[Saleen Cougar]

ok, first they will not replace the filter, and gasket. you cant do that with the coug, it is not a servicable item. 2nd, with 99k, i would be extreamly cautious. and say you should go to a dealer and get it done there (aprox $250) that way if something goes wrong they may (im not saying they will) help you out

[MontereyDave]

Yeah, like Saleen Cougar said...extremely cautious. We bought our 01 with about 30k miles and when it had about 74k miles we had our ATX flushed by a Firestone Auto Center and honestly within a few days to a week the transmission locked up and wouldn't go forward (even though it previously ran great). We fortunately bought some used car warranty and it had less than 1k miles remaining until coverage expired so Ford spent about $2,800 rebuilding the tranny and gave us a rental for a week while it was in the shop. Now it's got 117k miles and still runs great but I don't think it is a coincidence that it died within a few days of having the tranny flushed.

[LinkMan]

You shouldn't have any trouble with a fluid flush and change - where the old fluid is sucked out and fresh fluid added. How long has it been since it was done previously?

The only times it seems people have issues is when the tranny is neglected, and then it's flushed and any crap or gunk in the pan gets re-distributed around the inside. Let the gunk lay there.

And the filter isn't a serviceable item unless you're already into the tranny.

The ATX is expensive, fluid changes are cheap, why don't people do them regularly?

[carambula]

I talked to a local guy that has a trans shop and he said on some cougars you DO NEED to get take apart the tranny in order to get to the filter but he said on mine you don't .. the filter is on the side instead of the bottom so I have had been having trouble getting a shop that was willing to do it.. some don't want to waste their time.....is this correct?

[LinkMan]

See post #5 here.

AFAIK, all of the CD4E trannys had non-servicable filters. It gets changed during a rebuild, but that's about it. However, I've never had trouble with either CD4E in my Cougar or 'Tour (well, haven't had the 'Tour long, but I know the first owner and they didn't have any issues) so I've never had to dig into its internals.