stevescivic

Just wondering if fluid flushes are good or bad for a car?

I want to flush:
power steering - b/c its 17 years old and on the original PS fluid
transmission - I drained almost all the oil from the auto tranny b/c I had to do an engine swap so I dumped all the oil from the tranny via drain plug AND I also dumped the fluid out of the torque converter.
Brake fluid - is brake fluid something that should be done regularly?

Honda will be doing all the fluid changes so I know they'll be using approved fluids.

Thanks

cuteboi

Don't you trust Honda on doing all this work?

if you do, why are you so worried about a guaranteed job.

EFstyle

Seems like he trusts Honda... his question is more whether or not it's good for the car... My opinion is yes its great for the car... nothing better then brand new fluids throughout the car.

sgallagher

Fluid flushes are great!!

Except the fact that you have an auto tranny. If the trans fluid has never been changed in that tranny and you have high miles you could run into problems soon. The fluid helps the clutches inside the tranny stick together and over time some of that abrasiveness is transfered into the fluid. If you have high miles most of the abrasiveness of the clutches is floating around in that fluid that you just replaced. So when you put new fluid in all of a sudden your tranny starts slipping and your pissed.

If you have already drained your tranny fluid well then it really doesn't matter because you're going to have to fill it up anyway. However if your tranny starts slipping in a little while dont blame it on your Honda dealer. Dont get me wrong this probably wont happen when you're driving home from the dealer but it will happen in due time.

If the fluid has been replaced regularly(recommended intervals) then you shouldn't have a problem at all. The fluid does have a rather sticky quality for this exact reason.

sgallagher

As far as the brake fluid. That should definatly be done regularly. The fluid absorbs moisture and moisture in a hydraulic system is bad.

P/S flush is also a good idea.

Coolant flush is another one you want to think about. Too much water will start to corrode the cooling system.

Way to go keeping up on the maintainence
There is too many people running these cars to the ground. We got to keep these things around for a while.

stevescivic

yes I trust my dealership to do the auto tranny flush (even though the fluid is pretty much ALL new). Interestingly enough Honda said they no longer do tranny flushes b/c its not factory recommended and the techs inside were telling me that they were having some trannys fail b/c of the backflushing process that was employed by the machine. In the end I didn't do the tranny flush and just did the power steering (I can do it but I just never had the time to do it). I asked them to do the brakes too and near the end of the day the tech from Honda called me and said I didn't need the new brake fluid b/c it looked brand new (which was sorta true was b/c I flushed it on my own just last spring). The tech was very impressed with the car's condition considering that the original auto tranny has 380, 000 kms and shifting better than most cars that he gets in from pre 2000 era.

Overall he said my fluids are now ALL in tip top shape and I told him about how I changed all the fluid in my auto tranny when I pulled the motor to replace it and he said that if I drained the actual tranny AND torque converter that I more than likely got 95% of all the oil out of it. Prior to me swapping the engine (when I got the car 1.5 years ago) when it had 330, 000kms on it I changed the fluid out no less than 3 times over a course of 2 weeks to get the old oil diluted with fresh honda atf. However, even up to that point the oil in their before looked pretty clean and bright so the previous owner must've replaced it at some point before.