I plan to do it myself. I realize I should have done it much sooner, but I’m past that point now. I’ve heard both schools of thought: one says don’t touch it, the mileage is too great; the other says change it as soon as possible. I went into the dealership and asked them about it and they said they wouldn’t even touch it because of the mileage and that if i changed the fluid at this high mileage the new fluid could destroy the transmission.
The skeptic in me wonders if the dealer is trying to MAKE SURE to get people in to buy new Subarus by advising customers to actively AVOID doing the one thing that can save the transmission and allow the car to theirs to last longer. That way, they can sell more cars when your car has a super expensive CVT failure that is almost more expensive than what they would give you for the car.
My experience when I had the CVT (valve body) fail at 116k miles in 2020 was, I took it to the dealership, they said I needed an $8K transmission change, and in the same breath said “Well, but we also have these beautiful new Models 2020 that you can take a look at here “…
I ended up taking it to a transmission shop and they replaced the valve body for $1300. The car is now at 154K. Have done some CVT drains and fills since then, too, as a preventative. I will say that I had never known to change the CVT fluid before 116k miles when it failed.
