Had the Trans serviced today, finally!
 

Just turned 45,000 miles, so the car went to a trans shop in Hackettstown. They changed the trans filter, and did a full flush ($119 for flush, $139 filter and flush). They use Valvoline DEXRON®-VI ATF, which is a synthetic oil. I checked out the Valvoline website, and their Dexron-VI is good for our transmissions.

Went a little past the recommended service interval, but its nice to know it is done. Better late then never! The shop also asks for you to come back in a few days so they can check for leaks and make sure everything is sealed up tight. That's a nice touch from a garage. And they had the best price for a trans flush using synthetic fluid of any shop around (that I could find).

While on the Valvoline website, I read where adding fresh oil to old dirty oil will cause sludge to build up faster than old oil alone, so they make an additive for service centers to add when doing the partial change when just dropping the pan and changing the filter. Thought that was interesting to know.

Congrats, it probably shifts a lot better now too. I flushed my wife's SUV w/ Valvoline Max-Life and the trans really came back to life.

That should really help stretch the life of the trans.

Last week I was stuck on the highway in stop/go traffic for an hour. Car was fully loaded and A/C blasting. Watching the temp gauge rise and fall, I was thinking "man, the trans oil is really getting cooked now! Got to get it changed!". What I thought was interesting is with the 180 thermostat, and re-programmed fan temps, the temp gauge never went over what was normal when there was a 195 thermostat in the motor. So maybe things are not getting as cooked as I thought. And with a 13K btu trans cooler, the trans should have things easier.

Hopefully, with the synthetic trans fluid, and the cooler, the trans will last a long time without any failures.

Standing still isnt going to heat the fluid as fast as heavy driving or hauling heavy loads.

Yep. Ain't that the truth. Forgot to mention I was pulling a boat (about 1300 lbs). Having the solid bushings in the LCA's, poly bushing in the torque arm, and the 3.73 gears made towing a breeze. And the with the Truetrack lsd, it pulled the boat out of the water no problem, even on wet pavement. I wouldn't back the Bird down into the water (like with a PU truck), so I backed down the ramp until the back tires were within a foot of the water. The trailer is underwater, boat is almost floating off, but not quite. Then tied the transom off to the dock, and pulled the trailer out from under the boat. Worked like a charm. Car stays dry, boat gets wet. :mrgreen:

Towing is not a regular occurrence, but its nice I can do it when the AWD is not available.

yeah i didn't get that either al.

The Valvoline products do actually work very well...