That transmission flush at Jiffy Lube almost cost me $2,800

Buddy of mine runs a shop over in Portland and told me he sees at least one car a month come in with a blown trans right after a quick-lube flush. I always figured high mileage fluid changes were safe, but he showed me the metal shavings in the pan on a 2005 Camry with 180k miles. Anyone else had a customer regret a power flush?

2 comments

2 Comments

christopher5941mo ago

High mileage fluid changes were safe"... man that's the thing nobody wants to talk about. I had a 98 F-150 with 220k miles and the trans was shifting fine, no slipping at all. Local shop told me the same thing, if you flush an old trans all that built-up clutch material holding it together gets washed away and you're done. I left mine alone and it ran another 40k miles before the frame rusted out. On those older sealed transmissions, sometimes the fluid is the only thing keeping the bands tight.

oliviapatel1mo ago

Is that really the case with all high mileage transmissions though, or just certain older models like the Ford? @christopher594 I've heard some modern sealed units handle flushes better if you use a machine that matches pressure, but I still wouldn't risk it on anything past 150k miles. Honestly, if it ain't broke, don't fix it is probably the safest rule for any old trans.