I recently had a transmission fluid flushed at my dealership. While changing my oil, I noticed that there was a wet spot that had been wiped right around the drain plug at the bottom of the pan ? Do they use this plug to do the flush or did they just empty out three quarts and replace ??

 

What did your invoice say they did? How many Qts did they charge you for? One of the bottom plugs is actually a fill level plug not a drain plug that has to come out if they set the level correctly. Most if not all manufactures have done away with the dip stick/fill tube for whatever self serving reason they came up with. They call them sealed transmissions but they are not sealed. They are just way way harder to change the fluid.

 

As you can see from the slip I was charged for 12 quarts ?

 

Just call them and ask what they call a "transmission flush". They charged you more than twice what my dealer does, but that was reflected in the amount of fluid they charged you for. My Toyota dealer only does a drain and refill, using far less fluid, but is "good enough" for me.

 

They did say it was a full flush with the machine but I didn't know if they needed to remove the drain or overflow plug to do it ??

 

No idea what machine they use, but normally they hook up the machine into the transmission lines and flush it that way. I'd be satisfied that they did the job correctly and not overthink this too much.

 

It says they set the level with the scan tool so they had to remove the pan level plug. Picture a hollow tube standing in the trans pan a couple inches. This drains out the amount over the correct pan amount with the engine running and the correct temp. There is a separate pan real drain plug. Normal price for a job done right hopefully. Good for another 80,000 miles in my opinion. Money well spent.

 

This. ^^. By "scan tool" this means Techstream.