I recently bought a 89 coupe deville. I usually dont go for the older cadillacs due to lack of knowledge but this thing blew me away when I saw the condition. After fixing everything mechanicaly wrong I started driving it around. After a little while of driving I noticed that the transmission would hesitate and slip a bit. When I stopped to check the fluid it wasnt even registering on the dipstick. I was worried to continue driving with it like this and was at sheetz, so I ran in and bought a couple quarts of regular ATF fluid and put it in. Now the car runs great! Its shifts really smooth, no slips or anything. My question is this..... Is it ok to run plain jane ATF in a cadillac? And should I cange the fluid and filter due to not knowing the condition? The car has 143k and I have no clue if and when the ATF and filter was last changed. I fear changing anything due to the horror stories of the trans going out right after. My girlfriends dad has had 2 cars similiar to mine and both of them droped the trans after a fluid flush and change. PLEASE HELP GUYS!!! THANX

 

A FLUSH is not recommended by this writer unless the transmission has had a failure. a poorly done flush, specially with a contaminated equipment is equivalent to getting a shot in the arm using the previous guy's needle.

if the transmissions were OK prior to the flush, then the mechanic used contaminated equipment. your girlfriend's dad should have sued the mechanic, and certainly he should not have returned with another car for a repeat.

your car .. with no history and 140,000+ miles, I would add a bottle of LUCAS, drive it for 100 miles then I would simply drop the pan, let trani drain, change the filter, install pan and new gaskets and fill with another bottle of LUCAS and then fill the system properly.



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Thank you for you response. Thats what I was thinking

 

I agree with STOMPER. On my 84 Eldo I use DEXTRON/ MERCON VI which is full synthetic.