30K miles is a good interval to service the ATF and final drive. There is not an easy way to do one of those flush jobs as there are no outside oil cooler lines. Yes that is how they do the flush. They cut a line, exchange the fluid and ten repair the line with hose and clamps. No thanks.

Thanks to centrifugal force the torque converter becomes a great filter. All the clutch linings and other debris is stuck there.

Most auto tranny failures are the result of an internal piston ripping or a seal going bad. The internal leak ten causes the clutches to slip and that when it eventually fails.

Dennis
  

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Loren Busch
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 10:32 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: My AT is fine, but...

 RE: AT fluid change
Things that have lube in/on them need that lube changed/refreshed from time
to time.  That includes transmissions, engines, wheel bearings, etc.  I
don't recall the VW spec for AT fluid replacement but I know that most
wisdom is 30 to 50 k miles for such things.  I just had my automatic tranny
done at about 40k miles since the last service and got some small leaks
fixed.  Had the wheel bearings done also and found three with scorched
races, replaced them.  And the CV's were taken care of at the same time.
Things that move require good lubrication and that lubrication needs to be
replaced sooner rather than later.