lawn tractor transaxel oil change

[Ralph Mowery]

What is it with the lawn and garden tractors that need the transaxel fluid changed so often ?

I bought a JD x590 and they recommend the fluid be changed at 50 hours and again every 200 hours and the filter changed.

A car transmission change is much longer. I have never changed the fluid in one and put 200,000 miles on one car without any problem.

The transaxel is closed off from the engine so should not be contaminated by anything external. I might see it being changed after

50 hours similar to the reason for changing the engine oil after 5 to 10 hours on many small engines. Many of them do not have filters and some do to catch things. The reason for changing after so few hours is to get rid of any small pieces of metal that flake off or wear off during the first hours of use such as the rings seating and bearings wearing in.

[Casey]

Gawd! I was reading the goofy news before coming in here and I swear for a moment I misread Mowery's post. I thought for a moment he was claiming he owned a transexual tractor.

Whew...

[hubops]

Are you sure that it's not the hydrostatic transmission fluid that your maintenance schedule refers to ? A manual transmission < gears in the transaxle > shouldn't need frequent lube changes. I think on the smaller cheaper old tractors - 11 - 12 HP they are often sealed with no drain or fill access .. John T.

[hubops]

Car automatic transmissions have transmission fluid cooling - but <my> lawn tractor hydrostatic transmission is cooled by a little plastic fan blade blowing on the cast iron housing ... .. if the fan blade isn't all clogged with grass .. 200 hours is about 4 or 5 years for many homeowners. mowing 6 months 1 1/2 to 2 hours per week. John T.

[Ralph Mowery]

I may not be using the term correctly,but the JD manual calls it a transaxle. The lawn tractor I have is a John Deere x590, one of the larger lawn/garden tractors with about a 25 hp motor. The fluid is for the hydrostatic type transmission and in this one it works the power stering. There are no manual gears to change.

I did have a low end JD I bought about 15 years ago and about 300 hours the transaxel (hydrostatic transmision) started slipping or what ever and would not pull a small hill. It was a sealed unit with no change possiable of fluid by drain plug.

This new one does have an easy way to change the fluid and a filter.

[Ralph Mowery]

The way the country is going it would not surprise me that I did get a LBGT or what ever tractor.

[hubops]

The older smaller Deere might even have had a CVT transmission ?

eg :

This article describes the different transmissions :

John T.

[Ralph Mowery]

No, it was a hydrostatic type. The L120 series.

No easy way to service this one unless you pull the transmission from the tractor. Then not easy.

[hubops]

Too bad to only get 300 hours out of it. Hilly yard ? My WheelHorse has about 1100 and I expect a lot more before it bites the dust. I only change the tranny oil & filter about every 5 years / 250 hours - fairly flat yard and no winter use. John T.

[Ralph Mowery]

The yard does have some hill to it in the back. I did use a plugging aireator once a year on the flat front yard that may have helped wear out the transmission. However there are lots on the Internet that say they are only getting around 300 hours out of that transmission.

Had I known then what I know now I would have bought a higher quality one. At the time the 48 inch cut on the mower seemed to be adiaquit for about 1 1/2 acres.

The transmission is made by another company that produces several qualities of them. The higher end ones have a good reputation, but they are made for a relative easy fluid change.

[trader_4]

IDK what's going on, but I agree with your issue. Seems like a short change interval to me too, given that auto trannys are mostly filled for life now and sure get used a lot more hours and harder use than a lawn tractor. I wonder about the filled for life concept too, where you can't even check the fluid level. You would think some of them would develop a leak and if you don't realize it, something very bad would happen. I wonder if they have a level sensor or similar to warn of impending disaster?

[Ralph Mowery]

On two different brands I owned the transaxels are sealed and no way to tell if there is any fluid in them or not. No level sensor either. The new one I just bought has a plastic tank that you can see the level of fluid and has marks as to full and add on it. But again this one has a relative easy way to change the fluid and filter and to add fluid if needed.

[hubops]

"filled for life" in modern car automatic transmissions ? .. are you sure ? < not CVT transmissions of course >

Got a link ? John T.

[trader_4]

BMW, Mercedes have been doing it for twenty years now. Other manufacturers, IDK. No way to check the fluid level other than to put it on a lift and open the plug. And even that, for BMW, there is some complex procedure, it has to be at a certain temperature, etc. How much that matters versus just taking the plug out and filling it full, IDK.

[Clare Snyder]

Many of the cheap ones are just packed with grease. The ones with a plastic tank are generally hydrostatic - and flushing/changing fluid is recommended on some, not recommened on others and severely discouraged on others. Some of the cheapnydros are VERY HARD on fluid because they have inadequate cooling capacity.

[Clare Snyder]

Yes, No cites but - No dipstick on 2010 and up Toyota 6 speed transmissions - using "lifetime" WS fluid. New GMs have no dipstick either. Most new BMWs don't either but dealers are now recommending the "lifetime" fluid be changed at 30000 miles or 50000Km to prolong the life of the rather fragile transmissions (including mini-cooper)

[hubops]

Thanks - Trader & Clare - I learned something today ! :-)

ps : my first real job - 1974 - snot-nosed and freshly-flunked out of high school - was in the quality control / R&D testing dept. of a transmission cooler manufacturer - QC testing the little < bread & butter > tube coolers that reside in the lower basin of the cars' radiator. <in the 60's - 80's ish >

Also testing the experimental plate coolers - not sure how they turned out ? < that was the engineers domain .. >

and ta-da testing the big tube-bundle coolers for the transport trucks - they were always A-OK. < over engineered ? > It was a pretty good job - for a high school drop-out - until the usual auto-manufacturing downturn - I was laid-off at 5 months <no problem there> but .. the guy who hired me - Asst. Plant Mgr. - a suit - - an engineer - a real nice guy - I met later in the pool hall .. also laid-off .. that sucks. ... hope he and famly are OK . John T.

[Tekkie©]

On Sun, 16 May 2021 05:02:46 -0700 (PDT), trader_4 posted for all of us to digest...

Yup, doesn't your BMW have one?