I've been contemplating a change of the transmission fluid in my car for 4 months now. The car is kind of sluggish when it comes to shifting and recently, I've been experiencing a problem with the car not wanting to get out of 2nd gear. I just turn off the car and then turn it back on and don't have any problems.

I talked to an Audi Service Specialist at the local Audi dealer in my town and because the car is old with high mileage (143,000) and has never had the fluid changed, he recommended not doing transmission fluid change because the sludge that's cleaned by the detergents in the new fluid washes into the pan and then picked up by the filter, which can clog it and cause transmission failure.

I was wondering what other people thought about this and if there is a way around it, such as flushing the transmission fluid, letting the car run for a bit and then re-flushing it, in an attempt to prevent the sludge from entering the transmission? Let me know what you think. Thanks.

T