My local garage recommended on my last oil change that I have my radiator and transmission flushed. I have a 1999 Bonneville 3.8L with 52,000 miles. This was going to set me back about $250. I told them I'd think about it. I've never had either flush done to any vehicle I've ever had, although I have had to replace a radiator on a 1986 Olds that had about 80,000 miles on it and was 17 years old. What do you guys think? Is this something that is necessary? Thanks for your advice.

"If it ain't broke, con't fix it"....(unless it can be modded)

How does your coolant and tranny fluid look? If they still look clean, they're just sucking up cash from the unknowing masses. If they look cloudy or burnt, you may want to consider it, at a cheaper shop...

I agree. With no symptoms from either fluid being 'bad', the relatively new age of your car, if your fluids look good, don't bite.

When in comes to tranny flushes, you best bet, find a place with good service, like i have, and every year damned near to the date, go in for a tranny flush, it will thank you in the end lol

In my opinion if you are going to get soemthing flushed get your cooling system flushed only.

I have heard that if you go anywhere and get your tranny flushed it doesn't matter if you go to a mom and pop service place or the dealer your transmission will never act right again.

What happens when you flush a tranny you get air pockets and that will make the transmission slip and make it wear quicker.

So in my opinion go get the fluid and filter changed and it will be like new. Because I had some problems with my transmission slipping and I went and got the filter and fluid changed and it doesn't do it anymore. And that only set me back about $80.

Is that problem exclusive to our 4T60 and 4T65? I have never had mine done, but the fluid is pretty clean

I had one car that I had the tranny serviced where they hook it up to the flushing machine and it did not act any worse. It seemed a bit better, but it was in a ford AX4N.

Not arguing with you, just seeing what you or others think.

AND, yeah for cpatray, if you do anything with the tranny, just pull the pan and change the fluid/filter yourself. You are looking at maybe $30 for fluid and filter, probably less.
It will replace about 1/2 the fluid, but it does help. (a lot of the fluid is in the torque converter and doesn't just spill out.)

Prove it. I have a problem with this "I've heard" garbage on trans flushes. I've seen multiple dozens of flushes with 60 and 65 transmissions on this site, and never a problem. I've seen synthetic FLUID cause a problem, but never a conventional flush.

Until this is proven on this forum with our transmissions, this is a myth and an urban legend. I have both of my cars flushed yearly. And both were high miles before being done the first time.

Recently I dropped the trans pan and replaced the filter and gasket. It does seem to shift a little nicer. It is another option if you dont want to flush.

as for the coolant flush. Personally I dont think that could hurt anything. It is also pretty easy to do yourself if you are even slightly mechanically inclined.

The fluids look clean. The only reason I would consider a transmission flush is that the transmission sort of jerks when I put it in reverse the first thing in the morning. I don't notice it any other time though.

Thanks for your advice. I thought the shop was simply trying to get me to do some service that would pad their pockets. Glad to know I wasn't mistaken.

Per the transmission....With 56K, get it purged. Reason? Because if the car turns out to be the steel and iron brick that it is, you may end up keeping it another 50K. If that happens then you are going to have to decide at 100K, if you should have the fluid purged. And you are going to have to listen to this point/counterpoint again. Except the stakes will be higher because the tranny is older.

[rant]
I don't know why there isn't some hard statistics on this subject. The anecdotal has raged on this for as long as I can remember. The concept that a mechanical device develops some kind of organic, symbiotic environment has always confounded me. And this is how bad it has gotten....

Five years ago, a local Jiffy Lube started doing purges. My wife'* Series I had 100K on it. To have it done, I had to sign a waiver stating that my car had over 100K and Jiffy Lube could not be held responsible if the trans failed?!?! I know why they did it. Because more trans fail after a 100K, and somebody in the legal department wanted to cover JL'* butt. But that kind of thing just reinforces the "don't touch it" theory.

My theory for the average driver.... get it done every 25K. Then there is no possiblity that you will ever have to depend on some little elves created by your 100k mile aged transmission fluid to hold it together.

Then, If the transmission fails, you know it is a result of an engineering/manufacturing mechanical issue.... you can blame the car manufacturer and stick it to them by not buying their cars again
[/rant]