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- 23 CX-5 Premium
Well I'm not gonna argue with you on this, but allow me to make the following 'anecdotal" observations:What I am about to say is purely anecdotal for these "lifetime" ATF maintenance
On our old dodge caravan we dropped the pan at every ATF change since that was what was required. We also had a Saturn in the family with a spin on ATF filter that was changed every time, but on the newer vehicles, I don't drop the pan till about the 3rd change. Funny thing is, the caravan tranny crapped out on us at about 80k, while my other cars ran fine and made it to over 100k without any tranny problems. I am ok with not changing the internal filter every time (if I am changing it every 30k) because:
1) for the most part the transmission is a sealed unit. The only thing that can contaminate the fluid is the internal parts themselves (wear material from the gears, clutch material, and whatever is left from the factory). And if material from these components are clogging your filter, buddy I think you got bigger problems
2) since this is a "lifetime" fluid, I would assume that the filter should work till at least up to the end of the powertrain warranty
3) I am not convinced the cost of parts and labor (if you don't do it yourself) for this preventative maintenance item is worth it to do at every ATF change if you decide to change the fluid at every 30k miles or earlier.
1. Chrysler T-vans have a long and illustrious history of dropping their transmissions right about 70-80k miles.
2."wear material from the gears, clutch material, and whatever is left from the factory" are precisely why the filter is there and why, IMO, if you're going to the trouble of changing 1/3 of the fluid volume, it only makes sense to remove the gunk that has been captured to date by the filter.
3. If you're counting on the "lifetime filter" to make it to the end of the warranty period, why not trust the "lifetime" fluid to do the same. Especially since Mazda puts them both in the same "lifetime" category.
4. That said, if you don't want the hassle of replacing the filter every 30k miles along with the fluid, why not wait till 50k or so and replace them both. That's probably what I will do if I keep the vehicle that long.