Transmission flush bad idea or good?

:
2010 Mazda3 I Sport
Hi i am finally back to mazdas247. It been about 2 years since my last mazda (03 Mazda Protege) but now i have an 03 mazda6 2.3L automatic.

My question is it a good or bad idea to have my mazda6's automatic transmission flushed. The car has 120K on it but the transmission fluid is brown and sometimes shift kind of slugishly. what i mean by that is sometime it will shift hard or rough once in a while but seems to happen more lately. Also is there anything i should know or to expect from this car? Sorry i am new to the Mazda6's

Thanks David
 
Tranny fluid starts its life by being red and transparent.. If its brown, smells bad (burnt) and is "gritty," you should change it

check your owners manual, it will tell you at what mileage to change it. And 120k seems past due anyway
 
My personal opinion is that it's better to do drain and fills and slowly replace the fluid a few quarts at a time. Flushing an old transmission with burnt fluid can dislodge serious amounts of crap that can clog your transmission filter or other small fluid passages.

That said, if it's seriously brown and you're already having shifting problems, there may already be permanent damage. But you won't know until you replace the fluid.
 
So i shouldnt get it flushed? Are these cars known for transmission problems? Also about what rpms should my car shift at under normal driving conditions. Because my car seems like it shifts too late in the rpms. My car shift around 3300 rpms.
 
Last edited:
also i smelled the transmission fluid it didnt smell burnt it just smelled like transmission fluid but i did take pics of the transmission fluid tell me what you guys think about it does it look to bad to get a flush done?
Thanks
IMG_0191.jpg
IMG_0192.jpg
IMG_0190.jpg
IMG_0193.jpg
 
Just changed my 2005 6s fluid at 60k (drain / fill) and the dipstick only told part of the story. when you get a gallon of the fluid out and look at it, it will be quite disgusting. Yours looks worse than mine did on the dipstick. Mine had more pink, especially if I wiped it on a paper towel, but once I drained it, you could see it was definitely overdue for a replacement. Definitely don't do a full 'flush', just drain and fill.
 
I had a mechanic shop called "import minded" do the transmission fluid service on my car for $69. I don't know if what they did was considered a transmission flush but what they did was they had the car running while dumping new transmission fluid into the transmission while letting the old stuff cycle out. After I got the car back I checked the Dipstick and the fluid looked much better but the fluid was still a little brown. Is this normal? What should I do? also after I got the fluid replaced the car was shifting much better and now that I took the car on a 400 mile trip total the transmission went back to shifting rough.
 
Back