I had asked this question in the tech section and afterwards thought that it might not be a real tech question. When I got my 1995 cherokee from a used car dealer I got no info from the previous owner on maintenance records. So I have no idea how many times if at all that the tranny, transfer case and diff fluids were changed. I had gotten the truck with 160,000 miles. When I asked at a couple garages they said those fluids shouldn't be changed because of the mileage. But should they?

 

you sure they didnt say the fluids SHOULD be changed because of the mileage?

 

Yeah they said to not change them because of the mileage. I was surprised when I heard that. Right now it has 189000 and I want to change the fluids but don't want to possibly damage the gears inside since it is my daily driver.

 

probably talking about not flushing the trans. because of the high mileage. i would drain the tranny pan. install a new tranny filter and refill it. drain the tc and refill that. drain the diff, inspect it, make sure you dont have metal chunks in it and refill it. also I would do a tune up also. new cap, rotor, wires, spark plugs, oil change and filter because you dont know when it was done last.

 

Ok thanks for the help. I had changed the plugs and wires and air filter already along with the cap. They were pretty bad. I am doing an oil change on it next week so I will change the rest of the fluids too. How do I just drain the tranny pan while avoiding flushing the tranny?

 

flushing is where you hook a vacuum looking machine to a tranny line and it sucks ALL the tranny fluid out. this sometimes cause issue with high mile trannys. this it not what you are going to do. theres a drain plug on the tranny pan. unbolt it and let the fluid drain out. once its done draining unbolt the tranny pan and replace the filter. get a pan gasket and bolt back up and refill

 

Ok thanks again. It should definitely enjoy the fluid change.

 

You have to realize that doesn't drain all the fluid out. There's still gonna be fluid in the lines and the cooler.

And when flushing they run a chemical through the tranny to flush out all the crap in there. Sometimes the crap is holding stuff together and sometimes the crap gets caught in stuff it shouldn't be going into.

 

yep and this is why is not suggested to flush you tranny once you get over 150,000 because you hurt the clutches with the crap thats in it. higher mile tranny you dont flush you drain and refill. its in our alldata computer at work.

 

ok. When I went to the garagein the winter i asked them to change the transfer case fluid and they said to not change it because of the mileage. They were probably meaning the tranny. But since it is safe to just change the fluids then I will do so. In your opinion how much better will it run afterwards?

 

its all about maintenance and making it last longer not about how much better its going to run. do you have any issues with the trans?

 

I haven't had any issues with the tranny. In the winter the transfer case was a little difficult to shift from fulltime to 2wd so i figured a fluid change might help that. and in the tech section I had asked about a pop i hear sometimes when i hit the gas from a full stop. The suggestion I got was to check the diff fluid and drive shaft. The drive shaft was fine but I wanted to do a diff fluid change.