Drained my transmission fluid by accident - what now?

Paint the drain pan plug bright red/orange so you know what it is......

 

Valvaline Max Life ATF fluid is WS rated for our trucks. Ran it in the '12.

 

This

 

Not everyone is mechanical, or maybe working on an auto is a completely new thing. Some city folks grow up their whole life without owning a vehicle.
I was rebuilding engines and helping with frame off restorations in high school and have a hard time understanding it myself, but not everyone grew up working with their hands.

 

Got it. What do you think about just putting 3 quarts of one of the other brands that someone mentioned in there with the rest of the fluid that is still in there?

 

Measure what you drained out. Replace exact amount with compatible fluid.

 

Looks like I am doing this tomorrow

 

If you can't get the toyota stuff and need to drive, I'd think you could get away with adding something like valvoline maxlife as a temporary measure.

I'd flush it completely as soon as possible though.

Also, this advice is based on nothing more than my gut feeling so take it with a salt lick

 

I don't know. Maybe the transmission drain plug is near the oil drain plug? So many threads on this:

Oil change mess. drained transmission fluid instead
accidentally drained a little tranny fluid. now what?
Drained my transmission fluid by accident - what now?
accidentaly drained transmission fluid
Dumb dude messed up his transmission, seeking advice!
mistakenly drained tranny fluid
2009 Tacoma Tacoma-Transmission question?
Ran engine on overfilled crankcase
Halp!
removed wrong drain plug
Transmission fluid question..

 

I'd just fill it back up with valvoline maxlife, do the temp check and not worry about it....

 

I love Wal-mart

 

My, My, My...

 

Oh, Dude. Dude.

 

I haven't used Maxlife yet, but many members here have with good success. I emailed Valvoline and asked them what they thought about using it, the attached image is a screenshot of their email response. For what its worth, I'm gonna flush mine the next time with Maxlife.

Although this guy doesn't do the proper procedure to check the ATF level, and there is no reason for you to drop the pan at this time, it could serve as a good reference since the 4Runner and Tacoma use the same transmission. Definitely refer to the guides you'll find here on tacomaworld, he does some cringe-worthy stuff... but I thought I'd add it as a reference point (he used maxlife to mix with Toyota WS).

 

I think I misspoke and that would actually be too little fluid.
The fluid check plug doesn't work like it does on the diffs where you fill it until it spills out and that's the proper level.
You have to check the fluid level at a certain temperature with the engine running. At the right temperature, it should trickle out (like the diffs) but if the engine is stopped it would pour out at that level.
I know this because I did that. After flushing, I didn't get a trickle out of the check plug so I shut the engine off to add more and fluid immediately began pouring out of the check plug.
There is a fill plug that's different than the check plug.
I'm no expert but there's a good write up HERE that I followed and it worked out well for me.

 

Tacoma's tranny drain plug is located a good distance from the engine oil drain plug. Compare this to a Corolla:

 

Yeah, that is what I mean. It happens quite a bit. Was thinking that too, about the plugs being near each other.

 

Maybe a little closer, but not unusually so. It puzzles me also how you would make this mistake.

 

The 1st time I changed my oil I crawled under there and understood exactly how people do it. The so called oil pan is so tiny it even threw me for a second.

 

It's not about the size, but the location. Oil Pan under the Engine, Transmission Pan under the Transmission. I'm not trying to be snarky, I just don't see it. :|

The oil pan is normal size anyway what is it 5 quarts for the 6 cylinder and 6 quarts for the 4 cylinder.

Sounds about normal to me except the 4 cylinder is larger than normal.