2001 camry flush

[jac331]

Hello

I have a 2001 toyota camry with 116000 miles. I have never had the engine or transmission flushed. Should I have them flushed and why.

Thank you

Jeanne

[Brian R.]

The engine doesn't need it. It is normally "flushed" with every oil change. All of the oil is replenished as long as you change the filter. Normal motor oil has enough detergent additives in it to prevent build-up of harmful sludge or varnish. If your engine is prone to sludge and has not had its oil changed often enough, then flushing may be harmful to get rid of the sludge. I recommend using Auto-Rx http://www.auto-rx.com/ as directed to help get rid of the sludge in that case.

The transmission is another story. If you drain the transmission oil pan, you only drain about 1/3 of the transmission fluid. That means draining and filling leaves a lot of old transmission fluid inside. To really replace all the transmission fluid, you have to flush it through the transmission fluid cooler lines which attach to the cooler in the radiator.

The transmission can be serviced in one of two ways. You can either drain and fill it relatively often, or you can flush it less often. Both should give you the same effect. The best transmission fluid is maintained by flushing often, but that is unnecessary unless you are one of those lubricant freaks where everything has to be in the best possible condition, irregardless of the cost.

I flush my transmission and replace the differential fluid in my vehicles every 30,000 miles. This is more than is necessary, but it is my compromise between being a lubricant freak and neglect. I think at the very worst, draining and filling (which is an easy job compared with flushing) every 30,000 miles is adequate unless your vehicle falls under the sever use conditions, such as all city/mountain driving and low-speed towing. Driving over 50 mph locks up your torque converter and allows the transmission fluid to cool down. Heat is the major killer of transmission fluid. Driving under heavy load at low speed with frequent acceleration is the worst conditions for your transmission. If you stress your transmission, you should consider installing an auxiliary transmission fluid cooler inline with the pre-existing one.