[Beav]

I've never used one personally. I remember seeing a waiver form from a nationwide lube shop when the machines first hit the market. About six pages long, spelling out that some transmissions have gone so long w/o service, some have overheated, some are just so old, etc., etc., that they wouldn't be held reliable in any way, shape or means should your tranny go t.u. aftewrwards. Some believe that the varnish build-up inside the tranny helps older seals to seal and once flushed away problems will/can/might occur. Then again some say that the varnish inhibits the internal parts from moving freely.

My opinion? If you're having problems a flush is like a band-aid on a gunshot wound. On some rare occasions a filter will plug from worn friction material deposits and not allow the unit to build ample line pressure. Changing the fluid and filter can help/cure that problem if no damage has occured already. Just remember that those deposits had to come from somewhere, and that in itself is an indicator.

As a periodic maintenance step, starting at around 30-50 thousand miles (unless more severe usage dictates shorter intervals) it could be a good thing. Just don't allow anything to be inserted that states that it 'softens hardened seals', that's a bad thing.

The thing to remember is that the cooling circuit is typically not full-flow. In other words not all of the fluid picked up through the filter goes entirely through the cooler. So if the flush machine is connected in that manner you will probably end up with a cleaner/better change than just by dumping the pan, but a 100% change would require a heckuva lot of fluid. I have only seen one machine that actually requires the pan to be removed. It has a cone shaped supply nozzle that rises from the center of the drain pan. This allows the removal of the filter, with the cone inserting into the hole/port that the filter normally feeds. As the car runs the tube supplies fresh fluid to the pump and the old fluid drains into the catch pan.

As someone has already stated elsewhere here, when these cars were assembled the friction materials used weren't anywhere near as good as what is used today. I'd think it would be safe to say that once these cars approach 100k it would be wise to have a few pennies saved up.

I would like to know how many people here have had any problems with the Subaru supplied reman tranny, and if so, how many miles did it have before the problem ocurred?