[Huskymaniac]

Originally Posted by SVXMAN2001

Real newbie question, I've done a lot of work on the SVX but have done very little on the transmission...

What's the correct way to drain and refill the transmission. I've done a transmission flush in the past and within a few thousand miles needed a new transmission! Is it simply a matter of draining, adding new fluid, then draining again even though I just added new fluid but now mixed with old? Continue this until the fluid appears to be coming out clean?

Same thing happened to me in the past. I was told that, if the fluid isn't changed regularly, it will begin to oxidize and break down. It will deposit a laquer type substance on the seals, valves and so on. The seals will then slowly dry out. At the same time, the valves may start to stick. Hence, the binding. If you flush with an ATF with harsh detergents, it will clean off the seals. The shrunken dried out seals will leak. If you do a flush, you can also damage the seals and create leaks. I don't fully understand why but that eventually causes the tranny to fail. If you add something to free up the valves, it has to also condition the seals. The Lubegard stuff does this. A very high quality ATF also can do this but, even if the tranny holds up, you will probably still have some leaks. The best results for cars with neglected ATF has been Subaru ATF with Lubegard. That's what I did for my old Outback and it worked out great. For the SVX, I have done a drain and refill with Redline ATF every 12K miles so, hopefully, it will stay running great.