Believe It or not ?

[eman]

I recently had a mechanic tell me that "flushing" (changing/replacing)
the tranny fluid and filter and having my tranny serviced COULD make my issues worse And I would be "taking a chance" on servicing the tranny. 1993 mx-3, 1.6L, auto tranny @ 140,000 mi (I think), engine was replaced prior to my purchase and not sure if tranny was rebuilt or replaced). Not sure what service other than minor tune up & replaced front axle has been done. Car seems to run ok, but it does seem to have a "drag" and gears do not seem to change fast enough, a mechanic drove it and said tranny seems fine. (have to push down fairly hard on accelerator to get car to really go past 60 -75, seems to have poor gas milage, going from 1st - 2nd -3rd there is a mild jerk in tranny, no noises and no hold light. Can some one elaborate on how I can tell if my tranny needs servicing and what actually is done on a tranny service job? I hear these trannys suck?

[PATDIESEL]

The jerk is most likely a borken engine mount.
Also, I've also heard servicing a old tranny that wasn't taken care of can cause more problems than it fixes. The reason is that the metal flakes that are left from the gears wearing will lodge into nooks and crannies and wear away at moving parts. Flushing them out will give slack or play in the parts that the metal wore away. Thus more problems. (this is only what I've been explained, I have no first hand experience with auto trannies since I've never owned one)

A basic service on a auto tranny is just a flush of the old fluid and a change of the filter and magnet. (the magnet is supposed to catch metal flakes, but after some time it gets so many that no more will stick and the above happens)
I wouldn't suggest a rebuild unless you are having serious issues and will not consider doing a manual tranny swap.

As far as gas milage goes, that is generally not the tranny. Try doing a basic tune-up if you haven't done one at the recomended interval (every 15,000 miles) (there is a V6 thread about tune-ups right now and the tune up is the same process for either motor)

[eman]

thanks for infro.
can a broken engine mount be fixed?

[PATDIESEL]

Sure, you can epalce it with a stock engine mount or take it out first and if it is in decent shape (the rubber center is not completely loose) you can fill it with McMaster Carr's 80A liquid urethane. Do a search for more info on the filling. It is easy and basically turns a stock engine mount into a performance one.

[ariesdude]

http://stopshopanddrive.com has a good deal of cheap mounts - they have held up good so far in my car

[eman]

Forgive this very wierd question, But dont you have to remove the engine in order to repair engine mounts?

[masonholmes]

No, just jack the engine up a little and be able to get to the mount to unbolt it etc.

As for the tranny flush question, I wouldn't necessarily flush it persay, but I'd go ahead and swap over to Mobil-1 synthetic ATF. I can't gaurantee it, but it should only make it run better and last longer - that's my expierience, even when switching the fluid on a Mazda tranny that IS definetely going out. That bought me about 5,000 miles with my Miata auto. Of course a transmission cooler is a must on ALL automatic MX-3's, no matter what.

[10secSim]

for the tranny mount if it's the rear tranny mount you will have to lower the whole engine about 3-4 inches in order to take the bolts out, and yeah you can fry your tranny buy servicing it IF IT WASN"T TAKEN CAR OF AT LEAST EVERY 60,000 km. Mine fryed a month after i changed the oil and filter. I bought a used tranny at the scap for 650$ put it in and it's bin a year and the tranny id fryed again so now I bout MX-3 standard from a scap for 500$ and i'm gona swap my automatic to standrard.

[Nd4SpdSe]

I've heard the same thing about the flush, but just a change can do some good

I have my old parents 1990 626, It's been in the family for 8 years, and has just ubder 300'000kms on it, it's an auto. Last year, while I was driving it while the Mx-3 was getting painted, i was having issues were it started to slip randonly while driving, not even shifting, just while driving It started at like 150km/h, than over the weeks, it would happen at lower and lower speeds, where I could barely do the 100km/h highway speed limit and had transport trucks riding my a--. I tried the lucas additive and I think it actually has made it worse. We got thinking the tranny was on the way out, and what I would need to find another car for the winter, i wasn't going to drive my freshly painted Mx-3 in the winter. I tried as a last resort, when I did an oil change, to do just a fluid change on the tranny, not a flush, that would of been a last desperate step, cause I've heard the same things are you guys, about flusing an auto tranny. We pulled out, it slipped once or twice, and it's been fine ever since, and that's been several months, including me driving it over the winter.

[Andrew_Pakula]

Those additive things can just make it worse, its no real different then pouring new ATX fluid over the old stuff, its not really going to help and will only complicate things (in most cases).