No need to service the A/T transmission under normal use?

A coworker pointed out to me that Toyota transmissions never need to be serviced under normal driving conditions throughout the lifetime of the vehicle. I thought this was all bull but after pulling my dipstick on the tranny and reading the fine print on the label around the collar, it does indeed say that it never needs to be serviced unless used under severe conditions. I never tow or do anything extreme with my truck outside of day to day driving so do I really want to trust Toyota and go with that memo? My truck is creeping up on 100k and I doubt the tranny has ever been worked on it's entire life. The fluid is still clean and looks good so I'm not worried about it yet just thinking about the long run. What say you? I myself just can't see driving 300k+ miles on original tranny fluid but maybe I'm wrong. I plan to drive this old truck into the ground so I want her to last!

 

Valid question for sure. If it were me in that scenario I would re-evaluate in another 50k. I know what you're saying though, it seems nuts to go potentially 300k without servicing it.

I go by what the fluid tells me, mine was dark red almost reddish brown @ 135k so I changed it using Toyota fluid. I do a lot of mixed driving, with daily off road excursions and sitting in traffic so I chose to dump mine.

Hopefully others will chime in with their thoughts and personal experience.

 

You need to find out if he's going to have his wallet out when your A340F grenades from lack of the recommended 30k-35k drain & fill....

 

your friend is WRONG!!! do a tranny pan drain and refill every 50k miles and a full tranny flush and fluid replacement every 100k miles, period.

not changing the fluid is just like never changing the oil in the engine. yes you can get away with it but you shouldn't do it. I had a friend with a t100 truck that never changed oil from the day he bought it, after about 5 years owning it, he found he needed to add about a quart of oil every 6 months or so and he put 250k miles on it that way. smoked a little when he sold it but he never ever changed the oil or oil filter in it. just goes to show, you can get lucky but you shouldn't ignore maint schedules or you risk breaking things.

 

When mine went I got quotes up to $3200 for rebuild (which I found out is "reasonable")

 

yep, when my chevy tranny grenaded, I went to cottman and they redid it for $2800

 

I do a full flush/fill every 60k. I'm at 90k now on my 2nd gen. Ran 300k+ on my last one, an 88. Highly recommend frequent service. I also chang my oil (standard) every 3k.

 

THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Your car is not a new BMW, those have a lifetime fill ATF fluid, its about $15/quart.

Guess what....EVEN THOSE need to have the transmission serviced every 60-75k miles with new fluid and filter!!!!!!

 

If you never change the transmission fluid it will last the lifetime of the vehicle: until the transmission starts slipping/blows up or whatever.. It's just that this life will be a lot shorter than if you were to change the fluid every 30k or whatever. Honestly, doing a drain and refill every 30k seems sufficient. But since you've done nothing, I would do a drain and refill every 5k 3 times and then start doing it every 20k( ~2 years). Or get a flush although I hear varying stories on them.

 

Complete waste of money doing it every 5k. That's like changing your oil every 1,500 three times in a row. There's no point in doing so, unless you like throwing money to the wind.

 

The thing with a drain and fill is it doesn't empty all the fluid, only what's in the pan (1/3rd the capacity if I remember), so you need to do it like that to replace the majority of the fluid.

Also on the first drain and fill I would pull the pan and replace the screen/filter and clean the magnets.

Say no to flushes also, all you need to do is drain and refill a few times every 30-50K and a screen/filter replacement at the first (Or last) drain and refill.

 

I believe he wa staying every 5k drain and refill to make sure you got most of the old fluid out if you weren't gonna do full flush... That being said I pulled my tranny line at the bottom of my radiator and drained it into a bucket a couple quarts at a time until it was coming out clean. Takes a lot but a lot faster then just draing and refilling a lot

 

Exactly. ATF with 100k on it will not be clean. And the entire system holds like 10-15quarts if not more.

 

Think I did 9-11 and it still wasn't pure red yet but it was sufficient enough for me at the time, gonna do it again and have about 20 qts to be safe

 

Learn something new everyday. Everytime I've heard of a transmission service, they'd either perform a drain and refill or with a flush. Gonna start a thread in the 2nd gen's to see what others have done before.

 

There's a big thread on that already.

 

The ATF does more than lubricate/ pressurize in pumps to move forward/backwards, it also collects & traps "transmission flash" Which is that filmy looking shit that looks solid but isn't & it rides on top of ATF fluid making it discolored...

Hi Jake !! .... Just remember that all 1st gens are drain & fill & ANY 'yota auto thats a sealed system (no dip stick for trans) is FLUSH & fill which I'd leave for a good trans shop to do, let the responsibility rest on them if something fucks up...

 

Well I just started another one

 

Ban

 

Hey Doug Yep, forgot the newer trucks had the sealed tranny, makes them a PITA for a normal person to service.