I read that the trans should be flushed rather than drained.Can anyone tell me why ?

 

Draining will only get out 4 to 5 qts of trans fluid. Flushing will replace it all.

 

I'm on the drain rather than flush side of the fence. Makes me feel better to take the pan off, clean it, inspect the magnet, replace the filter, and refill with fresh fluid. I'm ok with the fact that there is still several quarts of the old fluid in there.

 

I had mine flushed at 20k miles. I am going to change mine this weekend because I am installing a Mag-Hytec deep pan and a new filter. From them on I do my own changes.

 

there was some talk of problems with draining.I think it was supposed to place debris somewhere it shouldn't be ?

 

I think you are referring to flushing, it'll push gunk into the valve body vice just draining.

 

I'm a little paranoid about Dodge auto transmissions. The older (2000,2001) gas models have an antidrainback valve in the lines next to the radiator that is very prone to clogging. It's the cause of many a tranny to be replaced on Dodge gassers. found that out the hard way on my son's pick up to the tune of $1400. We'd had it flushed once and drained and adjusted at the next service but it still got clogged with transmission debris. It's a controversy anyway you look at it.
I've been flushing instead of draining on my 2000 other than have the trans serviced by the dealer at 90K. It has got over 171K and is still running strong with no slippage or trouble shifting.
I guess it's luck of the draw whichever way you decide to go.

 

I drain and refill mine (no flush) with a new tranny filter every 15-20k and it already has a Mag-hytec double deep pan. That is on the recommendation of a 30 year plus transmission builder/installer. He is now a DTT builder and knows these dodge transmissions backward and forwards. Mine is running great even with Smarty on level 9 and sensible driving. Upgrading is in the not to distant future though, I hope. But hopefully it won't be due to failure.


Even if you don't get all of the old fluid out, if you drain and refill it regularly it will replenish it enough to not matter. Flushing, can work some stuff loose inside that you don't want to work loose. Regardless, you still have to change that transmission filter....which means dropping the pan. The MH pan makes that SOOOOOO much easier by draining the fluid first.

 

I've said this many times.the fliud EXCHANGE(total removal and replace) is the best thing to happen to a automatic trans(and comsumer)since the auto trans was invented.The trans itself is used to power it and what depris is in the pan stays there.I have handled many many hundereds of tranny services in the past using the BG exchange machines with no ill affects.Fleets loved it(failure rate had a dramatic drop) and only time I got comments that trans operation and torque convertor lock up was smooth as new and noticable improvement.Change the filter every other or every third time.