TR690 CVT Fluid Flush
Hello everyone — I know CVT fluid discussions have been talked to death, but my situation seems a little different from most of what I’ve read online.
I recently purchased a 2018 Subaru Outback 3.6R Limited with the TR690 CVT and about 108,000 miles. As far as I can tell, there’s no record of the CVT fluid ever being serviced.
I called my local dealership about getting a fluid drain and refill. After explaining the situation, they told me the normal service interval is around 60k miles. However, because the vehicle is already over 100k miles and likely has never had the fluid changed, none of the techs “felt comfortable” performing a drain and refill. Their reasoning was that there could be a significant amount of metal shavings accumulated in the transmission, and that changing the fluid could potentially cause issues. Basically, they advised me to just leave the original fluid in it.
That advice doesn’t sit right with me, and I’m considering doing a drain-and-fill myself if needed (I originally called mainly to ask about getting OEM CVT fluid cheaper through the dealer).
Has anyone here done their first CVT service over 100k miles on a TR690? If so, how did it go?