I have a 2011 Subaru Forester. i had my 30k service done at the dealer. They changed the trans fluid and used BG TRANS FLUID CONDITIONER. do you have to use that. I does not recommended it in owners manual. What is it for.

Thanks.

Interesting, you might call them and ask. It probably is benign overall, but even a little unusual shifting can often be cleared-up with just fresh fluid. Did you complain about slow engagement or shifting problems?

 

In older or negelcted cars, and additive like Trans-X can often help with poor shifting.

 

You seem to have half the expected miles on your car - there is a TIME side on the maintenance schedule. If you continue to just put 5-6K miles on per year, use the time side of the schedule. That 30K service should probably have been done in 2013 or 2014.

Edited January 25, 20179 yr by 1 Lucky Texan

We use BG conditioner at my shop on any flush we do. It will not hurt your transmission at all. It will actually help. It's designed to help keep the ATF in It's ideal state to keep the additive packages from kinda of "falling out" of the fluid.

The BG kit helps keep those stable for longer and if they do fall out it helps keep the fluid from wearing out prematurely.

I wouldn't worry about it.

how much extra did they charge for it? Though my guess is it's probably wrapped up in a "transmission service" so you can't tell?

 

odd while so many people drive 100,000 and 200,000 miles without ever changing ATF and dealers add something on a 30k newer vehicle. that's funny.

I plan on 300,000 miles and have absolutely no desire to even consider this product.

 

I'd guess it's mostly marketing - they can charge more for it, adds a dependent perception (they're so good, know their stuff, customer is uninformed, could never figure this out on their own), and does have some minor benefit (with questionable, hard to quantify efficacy).

 

 

maybe the shop owner or service manager got a nice weekend "conference"/vacation from the supplier or distributor...which they can then provide (charge more for) to the customer. that probably didn't happen here but it's fairly common in most business sectors.

Edited January 25, 20179 yr by grossgary