Okay, My truck has 43,000 miles and to my knowledge has never had the transmission serviced. The stock fluid looks and smell fine, but I know its time.

Should I go to the dealer and get a full flush and filter change and just use ATF+4

OR

Do a pan drop, change the filter and refill with AMSOIL. Do this every 15,000 miles.

What do you think?

I would choose your second option, but with Amsoil you do not have to change the fluid every 15,000.

I don't recommend flushes because there are to many different types of ATF's on the market. Why risk your trans because someone is to lazy to remove a non-compatible fluid from the machine. The proper way would be to have a machine for each fluid, but that would be to expensive.

Someone did a illustrated "how to" on dropping the pan and flushing the system. I'm pretty sure it's on this site.

Drop it

yeah if i look into the future far enough, i can see tranny fluid getting all over everything, including me . im going to switch to amsoil when the time comes but would a tranny flush be needed to get out as much of the old as possible or just drop the pan and hope for the best?

Just helped a friend of mine do this and I would drop it.

if you want to drain even more, take off the valvebody, there is only 6 torx bolts to remove and it is easier to get to the cooler line filter that way, go to napa Get BOTH FILTERS for the transmission they are going to probably argue what transmission you have in your truck but tell them an ASE certified technician said you have the 5/45RFE in your truck and i need both filters the Valvoline ATF+4 is great stuff, i dont know why people shell out extra money for amsoil the valvoline ATF+4 is synthetic and does a damn good job, while you are down there you oght to buy a transgo kit and put it on, especially if you have superchips already. And the Napa kit has a gasket that works great, the first time out of about 10 that i dropped my pan it was leaking with stock sealer on it, havent had anyleaks with the gasket so far, and ive reused my current one about 3 times.

quote:

i dont know why people shell out extra money for amsoil

Because it is better and lasts longer. Valvoline ATF won't last for 50,000 to 100,000 miles. In the long run Amsoil is cheaper.

well from what i know, it is not a good idea to wait 50 to 100 thousand miles for a tranny fluid service to begin with i dont care what you use.