Is it worth the risk to drop the pan on my transmission to replace the filter at 230k miles????? Transmission was never serviced when I bought it at 150k. Even at that time no transmission shop would touch it.

 

The transmission seems to go fine through the gears when it's cold, but when I start driving thru town it doesn't seem like it wants to come out of first gear. What I mean by that is, it will take the Rpms up to 3500 and won't shift, so I'll let off of it and it still will not shift. But it will eventually shift smoothly or it will jam into 2nd causing the car to jerk

 

Well if it has never been serviced I bet your fluid viscosity is nil. A filter and new fluid would be a cheap fix it type of experiment. Don't know why a transmission shop would not touch it as it is an easy cheesy everyday service type of thing they do. You could do it as a rookie in an easy 2 hours, watch a You Tube video and pretty soon you may end up having your friends beating on your door to do theirs. I would buy the Walmart brand DEX VI fluid, about a buck a quart more than DEX III. You might substitute a quart of the Lucas Stop Slip transmission fix for a quart of your replacement fluid, it can help free up valve bodies and components.

 

Trans shops don't want to fluid and filter change a high mileage trans because it's a potential to make the problem worse. The old fluid has alot of clutch material in it which is helping the worn clutches grab, fresh fluid will rid all that clutch material from the fluid and could make the clutches slip even more etc.

IMO that high of miles I would drive it until it won't go any longer and replace it. The damage is already done so get what you can from it. Start saving for a trans though, could go completely any time

 

^Agreed.

Could also be a Throttle Position Sensor issue... With the weird shifting and whatnot, I've had it happen. However, in your case, I would think there's an actual transmission issue.

 

It does shift just fine when going through it manually

 

I've never come across a trans shop that won't change a filter willingly lol