Vent: wasted $200 on a trans flush that killed my truck within 3 weeks

I took my old F-150 to a quick lube place near Richmond last month and let them pressure flush the transmission. It had 180k miles on the original fluid and was shifting fine, but they said it was "overdue" so I went for it. Three days later it started slipping in second gear, then by week two it was shuddering bad. Finally took it to a real trans shop and the guy said the flush probably dislodged 20 years of gunk that was holding the clutches together... cost me $200 for the flush and now the rebuild quote is $2800. Anyone else had a high-mileage trans grenade after a power flush?

3 comments

3 Comments

laura_schmidt821mo agoTop Commenter

and yeah, @amy_anderson is totally right, that's exactly what should have happened. I mean, any shop with a brain would have pulled the dipstick first and seen that fluid was dark or had that burnt smell. They just saw a quick $200 job and didn't care about your truck. A real transmission shop would have told you to leave it alone and just do drain and fills if anything. That pressure flush basically blasted all the crud loose and it clogged up the valve body or something. Sorry man, that sucks, but hopefully this warns other folks with older trucks to stay away from those power flush machines.

piper_kim1mo ago

You know what, I used to be one of those people who thought a transmission flush was just good maintenance no matter what. Like change the fluid and keep it moving. But reading this whole thing with @amy_anderson really flipped a switch in my head. It makes total sense now that on an older truck like that, all that gunk is basically holding the thing together. Blasting it out with a power flush is just asking for trouble. I get why a shop would push it though, it's a quick easy job and they make money on it. But man, they should at least be honest about the risks instead of acting like it's a safe bet. I'm definitely gonna be way more careful from now on and ask to see the dipstick myself before letting anyone touch my transmission.

amy_anderson1mo ago

Did the shop even check the fluid condition with a dipstick before they went ahead with the flush? I mean, on a truck with 180k on the original fluid there's a pretty good chance it was dark or burnt looking, which should've been a massive red flag right there. A good tech would've told you "hey, your fluid is dark and your trans is running on borrowed time, a flush might kill it." Instead they just saw dollar signs and pushed the button. Maybe we should start pushing back on these quick lube places and demanding they show us the fluid before they touch a high mileage transmission.