Transmission Fluid Color Problems

[chatyak]

Need some more well informed opinions please.

I bought Redline ATF D4 and had a flush done on my transmission about 5-6 days ago. I've only drive about 10km since then, if that. I just checked the dipstick on the transmission today for the color and it's still a dark bronze/brown/golden color. To compare, I wiped it and stuck it in the bottle of Redline.... it was the purple/red/clearish color.

The person who I took it too is a trusted mechanic. Before I look like an idiot to them and start inquiring... is it possible that the dipstick has some older fluid around it or it's not fully circulated yet?

I had bout 12 quarts and about 11 was used. For reference, I didn't sit and watch the work be done.

[chatyak]

So because I am the way I am... digging into stuff... I contacted him anyways. This is what he said:

"You will never get trans fluid 100% clean. The only way is if you opened it up and rebuilt it. Deposit stick to internal parts etc.. Even sometimes with engine oil depending on how often its changed can still look dirty after its been changed. Not sure about the charactertic of mazda fluid. Our mercon LV trans fluid goes black after 5000 kms. I get people in all of the time thinking they have trans issues".

He does trans work and such for Ford as well for reference.

I'm simply not well versed enough in this to know. Appreciate opinions in advance!

[chatyak]

Not sure how to edit post.... Forgot to add... he mentioned I am covered regardless because of receipt etc and that fluid sits in torque converter and almost impossible to get 100% of it out unless its replaced.

[ottoyu34]

Was this a flush?

[staax]

Chatyak,

I hope he did a full flush opposed to a drain and fill.

Flushing the tranny via the tranny cooler return line is one way (which I did over a year ago). See this thread:

http://www.torontomazda3.ca/forum/showthread.php?76985-2010-2013-Automatic-Transmission-Fluid-Flush-Highlights&highlight=

[Milan96]

I flushed my tranny via 3x a drain and fill with redline D4 back in March, and while that method isn't as thorough as Staax's method, my fluid was still bright red on the dipstick afterward, and still is after over 20K on this fluid. The point I'm making there is that even though my method wasn't as efficient in completely "flushing" the old fluid out, my fluid still looked bright red afterward. You may want to double check on what exactly it was that your mechanic did.

[Milan96]

Oh and to answer one of your questions regarding fluid mixing: your fluid will mix together in literally 5 minutes of driving

[chatyak]

I just confirmed that the method used was a flush with a machine.

[chatyak]

Well this is annoying. Now I'm out $250 for the Redline fluid and $112 for the flush service.. and dipstick still dark brownish color.

It should be noted that my odometer is at 82Kish and I don't know if this service was ever done before with the prior owner. Not sure if that makes a difference. This is my first flush/change of the tran fluid under my ownership. Got the car around 35Kish.

[Milan96]

I have a 2010 that I bought with 81K on it. Previous owner was good with his maintenance but never did the transmission fluid. I was advised to get it replaced when my car was at 91k, the fluid was literally black... Got it flushed and it was nice and pink afterward.

[Milan96]

So I'm not saying you were ripped off but like...yeah.

[staax]

Mazda OEM fluid isnt the best anyway... I have another post about that. I know the clutch material will make any fluid black, but I've seen Mazda's ATF black in only 10k kms.

I switched to Petro Canada duradrive and 30k kms later its still red and smells good.

[dentinger]

So because I am the way I am... digging into stuff... I contacted him anyways. This is what he said:

"You will never get trans fluid 100% clean. The only way is if you opened it up and rebuilt it. Deposit stick to internal parts etc.. Even sometimes with engine oil depending on how often its changed can still look dirty after its been changed. Not sure about the charactertic of mazda fluid. Our mercon LV trans fluid goes black after 5000 kms. I get people in all of the time thinking they have trans issues".

He does trans work and such for Ford as well for reference.

I'm simply not well versed enough in this to know. Appreciate opinions in advance!

he's 100% right.
the flush machine i use at work seems to do a fairly good job. using the fill tube, it sucks out the pan, the fills it. then with the engine running, itll suck out a litre, and add a litre, until im out of fresh fluid (i usually use 20 litres). this normally works fairly well.

however, as stated, once the fluid is dirty/brown, its hard to get it 100% clean again, due to deposits and such

[zoom4106]

My 2010 was flushed at around 45k at mazda dealership now I'm at 73K clicks still pinkish red color
I used Redline D4 ATF too. doing my drain and fill next year spring.

[ryan2.3]

Need some more well informed opinions please.

I bought Redline ATF D4 and had a flush done on my transmission about 5-6 days ago. I've only drive about 10km since then, if that. I just checked the dipstick on the transmission today for the color and it's still a dark bronze/brown/golden color. To compare, I wiped it and stuck it in the bottle of Redline.... it was the purple/red/clearish color.

The person who I took it too is a trusted mechanic. Before I look like an idiot to them and start inquiring... is it possible that the dipstick has some older fluid around it or it's not fully circulated yet?

I had bout 12 quarts and about 11 was used. For reference, I didn't sit and watch the work be done.


you used 11 quarts? does an automatic take that much? My manual only uses 3 (well 3.03)

[chatyak]

you used 11 quarts? does an automatic take that much? My manual only uses 3 (well 3.03)

I bought the 12 pack quart off of amazon. He used 11 with the flush machine I guess to continually pump out old/new.


I will try and take some pictures today... will post in a while...

[Jackal]

I chose to do the transmission fluid flush at the dealership because I didn't want a drain and fill done. Most other stuff at SP with Jimmy and Canny.

[chatyak]

I had the car running in park for 10-15 mins. Here are pics.

From engine:

http://i.imgur.com/HuPuBdh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3GtOdIR.jpg



and dunked into Redline bottle:

http://i.imgur.com/sp2tUKg.jpg

[chatyak]

he's 100% right.
the flush machine i use at work seems to do a fairly good job. using the fill tube, it sucks out the pan, the fills it. then with the engine running, itll suck out a litre, and add a litre, until im out of fresh fluid (i usually use 20 litres). this normally works fairly well.

however, as stated, once the fluid is dirty/brown, its hard to get it 100% clean again, due to deposits and such

Thanks for this. Good to hear it from someone else too.

[Milan96]

I'm sure it is difficult to get ALL of the old brown fluid out.. However if he says he "flushed" 11 quarts through your car and your fluid is THAT brown, I would be VERY skeptical. Myself along with others on this thread have already posted about how we've gotten flushes done and had pink fluid adhering to the dipstick afterward... Also, the entire transmission holds only about 8 quarts if I remember correctly (double check the manual on that though), so 11 quarts should be enough to at least get your fluid to be pink on the dipstick

[chatyak]

Well, what do I do now? I can't get any fluid back. They only gave me one bottle back after the service. Is there any way to prove it was done? What if I took the one bottle over to Jimmy's and asked him to drain a bit of fluid so we could see the color - then replace that with the 1 bottle left. Would that work or is that even the right approach?

[chatyak]

Found this in my searching for what it's worth...

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/comments/3jws6j/00_avalon_transmission_fluid_still_looks_dirty/

[Milan96]

A drain and fill results in 3~~3.5 quarts coming out so the one bottle you have wouldn't be enough. The fluid Staax used in his write up (Petro Canada Duradrive) is great synthetic stuff however. My opinion is based on what's personally happened to me. 90k on factory fluid. It was completely burned and black. A flush restored it to being nice and pink for me.

[chatyak]

A drain and fill results in 3~~3.5 quarts coming out so the one bottle you have wouldn't be enough. The fluid Staax used in his write up (Petro Canada Duradrive) is great synthetic stuff however. My opinion is based on what's personally happened to me. 90k on factory fluid. It was completely burned and black. A flush restored it to being nice and pink for me.

That's correct (fluid count). I just meant only drain enough to see the color instead of doing a full drain/fill x3.

[Milan96]

To add on to that, I did about 45k on whatever crap fluid jiffy lube put in my transmission. It was pretty grey and gross looking after 45k on it. At 135k I did three consecutive drain and fills with redline D4, and my fluid was nice and red after that on the dipstick. I recently did another drain and fill this October with 3 quarts of Petro Canada Duradrive, and my fluid is still nice and pink and smells fine

[Milan96]

Pulling the drain plug results in 3 quarts coming out rather quickly so that would be a waste of time and money. The colour on your dip stick is the colour of your fluid in the transmission

[brucewayne]

what does your trans fluid smell like? fresh trans fluid has a certain smell.

[chatyak]

what does your trans fluid smell like? fresh trans fluid has a certain smell.

Didn't smell fresh. I haven't smelled trans fluid before so I have nothing to compare. I'll smell the redline bottle fluid vs the dipstick.

[ryan2.3]

sounds like they didn't do what they said and kept the extra bottles

[Flagrum_3]

Didn't smell fresh. I haven't smelled trans fluid before so I have nothing to compare. I'll smell the redline bottle fluid vs the dipstick.

As mentioned before by previous posters; If your fluid was originally dark, even a full complete flush, and done properly, would not get it clear pink as it comes out of the bottle. The full flush cannot get all the old dirty fluid out, mostly but not all. Also, you are looking for a burnt smell when smelling the fluid from your tranny, this is not a good sign btw, and most could not tell the difference between new or slightly used fluid...

Just a note; Next time insist on watching the flush being done, especially if your supplying expensive fluid.

[staax]

It shouldn't be that brown. The mechanic clearly didn't do the flush right. It won't be clear red, but it will have a reddish tinge for sure... And I can't see any red there at all.

[Flagrum_3]

It shouldn't be that brown. The mechanic clearly didn't do the flush right. It won't be clear red, but it will have a reddish tinge for sure... And I can't see any red there at all.

I'd agree normally, but we don't know how bad the previous fluid was. This may have been the first flush for all we know and with his mileage I would suspect the tranny to be pretty dirty, and components inside probably still are!. I'd bet his next flush will get it cleaned out pretty good and back to pink. Even with synthetic I wouldn't let it go too long between flushes depending on his type of driving ofcourse.


_3

[Milan96]

I'd agree normally, but we don't know how bad the previous fluid was. This may have been the first flush for all we know and with his mileage I would suspect the tranny to be pretty dirty, and components inside probably still are!. I'd bet his next flush will get it cleaned out pretty good and back to pink. Even with synthetic I wouldn't let it go too long between flushes depending on his type of driving ofcourse._3

In one of my previous posts I wrote about how I was at 91k on factory fluid (fluid was completely black) on my 2010 and a flush made my fluid nice and red/pink on the dip stick, so not too sure about this

[Flagrum_3]

In one of my previous posts I wrote about how I was at 91k on factory fluid (fluid was completely black) on my 2010 and a flush made my fluid nice and red/pink on the dip stick, so not too sure about this

Well there's 3 possibilities then now; One; Your trusted mechanic didn't do a proper job. Two; He did but there may be something wrong with your transmission or
Three; I & others may be right and it'll clear next flush.

What to do now?

[XTOTHEL]

If you want peace of mind, then just buy some more fluid and DIY, then you can literally watch the fluid turn pink. That's what I did the first time with my 2010 around 50-60k mark and it was pink afterwards on the dipstick.

[chatyak]

I'm taking it to Jimmy. Everyone's opinion valued here. Right now I don't feel clear/at peace on the subject, so want to see the fluid myself and talk with him. Will keep you guys updated.

[chatyak]

Just a note; Next time insist on watching the flush being done, especially if your supplying expensive fluid.

For sure. I had wanted to but couldn't because of work and my schedule. Rather annoyed about it. Never again.