$80.00 for Hydraulic fluid change on Chevy Tracker?

[red69]

CR consistently rated GM's M-van below the Ford & Chrysler entries into the minivan field. Dammit...cup holders matter!:wank:

They were 20mpg tanks that were short enough to fit into garage spaces marked "compact car only". It was easy to fit a bike & 2 weeks worth of camping gear and with 1700lb payload capacity, the suspension never even got a real workout. The Achilles Heel, idler arms; 60,000 miles between replacements was doing well. Kinda surprising, imo, the front end mechanicals were otherwise lifted from the fullsize Chevy/GMC van. I had 5 of them, all of which were still running well past the 300,000-mile mark, 2 were still going past 400,000. I lost track of the last one early. `93 was the last year of the short body, that's why I kept it until the very expensive "radiator venison" incident. By then, the Astro was an orphan, dropped after '05 and the general's part support sucks.

When I ordered mine I went with the 27 gallon tank as opposed to the standard 17 gallon version. It gave the van some long legs on trips. By the time I was ready to replace it, they ended production. I never had any suspension problems.

 

[69ST]

When I ordered mine I went with the 27 gallon tank as opposed to the standard 17 gallon version. It gave the van some long legs on trips. By the time I was ready to replace it, they ended production. I never had any suspension problems.

I did the same thing and enjoyed consistent 500-550 miles between fill-ups, cracked the 600-mile mark a few times. With "reserve", that 27-gallon tank held close to 29 gallons. FYI, the 17-gallon tank went bye-bye circa 1987.

As for the idler arms, that was just the old, dreaded, price of admission. It was annoying but, I wasn't going to live with rubbery steering and this added less than $0.005 per mile to operating cost. Knowing this, in advance, was still better than getting nasty surprises along the way. $60 x 2 + a front end alignment isn't all that much. And, yes, I went with the best that Moog had to offer, that helped but only a little. Brake life, at 90-120K, was a pretty decent cost offset. It all comes down to overall balance...

 

[Adam-NLV]

Got my GM Service Manuals (2) of them

The second volume manual starts off with the transmission & Transaxle.

After reading what's involved in changing the fluid, I've decided to let the GM dealer have the job. If too expensive will aggressively shop around, there has to be a good shop round here somewhere. Maybe try a 4wd truck shop.

You do need to drain the fluid via magnetic drain plug and then drop the pan to change the screen & filter but FIRST you have to take off the propeller shaft (transaxle drive shaft) that drives the front transmission transaxle in order for the pan to clear. You also should have a 'Transmission Data Scan tool' to check if the code values are Ok. :39::22:

This is clearly over my pay-grade and will let a Pro-shop handle this one. :usa2:

Check this out: The fluid being light brown doesn't necessarily mean that it's contaminated. Leave it to the smog-shop Bozo's :34:to sell the customers with a false narrative; although I do agree it's time for this service to be done on my Tracker.

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[69ST]

That's kinda what I was talking about. Some jobs just aren't DIY friendly...at all.

FWIW, you're right, slightly discolored trans juice doesn't necessarily mean impending disaster. Still, with what-all is involved with transaxles these days...I'd want it changed ASAP.

One additional note: find out what the manufacturer spec'd for fluids. Some Japanese manufacturers are very specific when it comes to trans fluid, clearly stating that use of anything else will affect shifting. I'm not happy about the high cost of Honda auto trans fluid but not foolish enough to try and get by substituting DexronIII. I dunno, maybe it's a pound of prevention vs a ton of cure, instead the old ounce of prevention vs a pound of cure...that's inflation for ya'. It's still easy enough to know the difference between less money and more money.:16: