I'm somewhere around 130K miles on this car. Past 4 years haven't really driven it. I'm not seeing any problems with the tranny except when I shift from park on an incline it slams pretty bad...but I know the transmission mount is bad and needs to change. Before I put anymore money into it, I'm thinking of changing the tranny fluid. I've never done it, I got the car around 66K miles and don't know if it was done before. Assuming the fluid was never changed, should I change it at this point (I don't think I'm keeping it past 170K miles but who knows)? I know the new fluid will loosen up debris and may cause slipping if the parts have grinded down too much, so I'm wondering what is the point of no return in mileage neglect where the drain will reveal problems that I will have to fix now. If I have to fix/get a new tranny I'm just going to scrap the car. Has anyone changed their fluid for the first time with high miles and didn't see any problems afterwards?

NOTE: If I do this, I'll be doing a drain or two instead of a flush, something tells me a flush at this point would end up causing more problems.

Or a consideration, test the quality of the fluid before doing a full drain. Drain a quarter cup worth to see how black/red it is. And if it's bad just leave it alone and ride it till it dies instead of killing it now when the tranny is giving no observable driving issues.

Yes and no, depending on the fluid condition. If the fluid is reasonably clean and still has some color, change it. If it's all brown or has a muddy/opaque consistency, leave it alone and run it till it breaks (because at some point it will, but it will likely break faster if you change it).

I agree with VStar.

Wow, people don't participate very much here anymore, 1 vote of 156 lol. Anyway, turns out I had this thing sitting so long I forgot the stuff I did to it. I got the service record and it turns out I already did two flushes. One didn't indicate the mileage, but the second one was at 90K. At the current mileage I don't know if I'll do a flush this time or just do two changes within a week on my own. They want $260 for a simple change and wont even drain the transfer case.

I didn't vote, you didn't include an entry for yes and no.

I decided I'm taking it to a mechanic to do it, I just don't like the idea of getting under the car....too paranoid. One thing this mechanic told me is I should wait until the spring to do it, siting the fluid congealing in the cold weather, which causes problems with the result of the change. I said yeah, the congealing may be expected, but once up to operating temp (or driving it for 30 min) beforehand, that shouldn't be a concern. Can anyone chime in on this waiting after winter thing...it doesn't make much sense to me.

That's dumb. You're correct, warm it up and there will be no issues.

Agree, I'll find a different place.

Hmmm, If I read your post on exhaust Y-pipe replacement correctly, you mention you are going to perform that task yourself. Are you not paranoid about getting under the car for the exhaust work, but paranoid about it to do transmission fluid change?

@steve lol, my paranoia is ALWAYS there with getting under this thing, but I'm still back and forth with the decision to do it while I figure out the exhaust and the weather gets a little warmer. The irony is I saw my paranoia justified three weeks ago when I watched my neighbors truck drop off a jack stand while he was working on the back. I don't know exactly what he was doing at the moment....I just heard a boom, I looked up and saw him walking from around the back of it and the back resting on the ground. I said to myself "SEE!, THAT'S WHY!". My driveway has a little incline, so I'm envisioning my setup as jacking the back up (it will be leveled) and putting four jack stands back there and my old wheels under there just in case of failure....yes PARANOID.

@VStar650CL looking into this more I found someone who also mentioned temperature is important...but more to the temperature in comparing the fluid coming out and fluid going in, which might be why this guy has issues with changing the fluid in the winter. Basically let's say (arbitrary numbers) 4qts come out of the car after taking it for a warm up run in the winter. You go and put 4qts back in right away of fluid that's been sitting in a 50 degree garage, you're actually putting in too much because the warm tranny fluid "expanded" when it warmed up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz5uhAEViUU&t=136s start at about 2:15. So I'm assuming he probably messed up some trannys by overfilling in the winter and simply blamed it on the winter temp.

OK!
Your concerns are very legit! Setting up a vehicle on in incline is dangerous, no matter what safety measures are utilized! I would never do it, very risky!
Did 2008 still have a dipstick? If so, drain & refill can be accomplished this way (via dipstick, aka "Charge Tube")