What Is a Power Flush?

Chances are pretty good that you have heard sometime in your life as a car owner the term "power flush." Now, after you have heard this phrase, or term, you probably have asked yourself the rather simple question of "What is a power flush?" As with most questions you experience, there are two answers. There is a short answer and a long answer.

The short answer is that power flushing takes a machine from outside the vehicle to help remove the old fluid and quickly replace it with new. Like I said, this is a short and rather simplistic answer that does little to really help you understand what is involved. Now the chances are pretty good that this short answer is not going to be good enough for the budding gear heads among our readers, so here we go.

You can power flush any system that requires some type of fluid for the proper running and maintenance of the vehicle. Typically, there are two systems in the vehicle where power flushing is used. The first is the cooling system, and the second is the transmission system. The reason that these two systems where power flushing is the most often used is simply due to the fact that it is easier to do a power flush (which does replace the old fluids with new, while doing some basic cleaning) than it is to actually remove the differing pumps, gaskets, filters and associated parts when doing a routine servicing.

There should be a word of caution mentioned here though. That is, that if the proper care is not taken when powers flushing any system then you are going to be faced with potentially blowing out any old seals in the system. If this does happen, you'll now it since it is a little hard to miss all the fluid that is going to be spraying everywhere. When you having your system flushed, simply ask your mechanic (if you are having him do the job) to use the machine that does not add any pressure to the system; rather, you need to use the machines that are actually designed to help circulate everything smoother. Each system is going to be a little different since the viscosity and fluidity of each liquid is going to be different, so if you are looking to do your own power flushing, be sure that you consult with the local automotive supply shop clerk for the proper piece of equipment.