Low transmission fluid level

Its possible a service manager checked it himself. Maybe he owns one himself and wanted to put his hands on it, maybe he just cares that much about his customers, its not unheard of. Not all dealerships have bad people.
I'm sure it wasn't only 1/4 full, that was probably miscalculation or just worded wrong, either way, its correct now.

 

I did not mean to imply that service managers who don’t personally check vehicles are bad managers or the dealership is bad, far from it and i’m sorry if I was misunderstood.
Quite the contrary, the service manager is not a tech by job description, but rather an administrator responsible for administrating shop policy, personnel, shop safety, training, solving warranty issues with factory such as billing, or how to bill for checking transmission levels at a customer’s request b/c he read on TW that it “might” be low when such request is not covered by factory warranty unless (low level) is causing an issue.
There are service writers, foremen or assistant service manager that may get personally involved in vehicle issues before it is brought up to his desk and asked things like “checking is not covered under warranty, how do you want to handle this?”.
He also may have to account to the owners for shop $$ expense, profit/loss and or service campaigns such as parts specials, tire specials etc.
He has to attend meetings, recruits/hire new personnel, approve budgets, schedule training approve /schedule vacation leave and a ton of other issues.
Not a lot of time for doing other ppls jobs.
It is very helpful that he understands each and everyone’s job, from the porter, washer, mechanic, parts, service writer, tech and on, so experience as a tech is desirable.
Having said all that, I stopped fretting and checking transmission levels on my new vehicles some 15+ years ago, long before car makers tookout the dipstick.
The chances of me damaging seals/transmission components was a lot greater if I checked it at the wrong temp, ground level, and contaminants introduced to the system every-time I took out the dipstick.
I’m happy to say I saved myself a lot of grief and problems by not checking them.
I also never changed the fluids and got well over 100k in all of them (between spouse and children included) , one of them I kept it 12yrs and got rid of it when the paint, windows and interior fell apart on me, but the drive train, transmission included was GTG!
My last trade was a Toy 4R with 13yrs on the clock, with mint paint, mechanically GTG anywhere, but I just longed for a truck, my personal vehicle pref for DD.

Cheers!

 

If the transmission was only 1/4 full the truck wouldn't move.

 

1 qt. LOW !! Got sr5 on 4-19-16 have 125 miles on it, had transmission checked today 1 qt low.

 

mine was only 3/4 of a quart low

 

Thread revival to the max

 

@qxrtz4321 - Seems Maund treated you differently.

 

Yea seems a bit different but they did say I could leave it for the day and they would test it out. Guess I'll either crack it open this weekend or just bite the bullet and let them have it for a day still haven't decided.

 

After finding Tocoma World and reading this I thought it a good idea to have my fluid level checked. I had 1,000 miles on it. It does have a trans cooler. It was 1 quart low. The tranny seems a little happier now. Could be my imaginationg. I called Toyota corporate to ask for an extended warranty on the transmission. Waiting to here back.

Thanks everyone!

 

I don't want to know if mine is low. I have a hard time sleeping at night the way it is.

 

3/4 qt. low

 

If you think it might be low just check. No sense in driving it around of its low, especially if your keeping the truck for the long haul. Hate for something to fail outside warranty and it screw you over

 

I'm thinking about trading it in on a new RAV4 anyhow. I might keep it till the warranty runs out though.

 

Can you post a pic of your trans cooler? My taco came with tow package but I'm not seeing a trans cooler.

 

Update: Toyota has given me an 8 year 100,000 mile extended warranty. They were awesome! So much better than the bums at Honda!

 

Did you have the dealer check it?

 

What was the process you used for this? I called Toyota and they refused to up my warranty. (Mine was .9 qts low.)

 

The dealer checked it. I called the corporate office after the dealer checked it. I asked for a new transmission or extended warranty from Toyota. A week later the offered me the extended warranty.

 

I asked the dealer to check it at my 10K mile service. The service writer assured me they "check all underhood fluids". That was indeed all checked off by the tech on the paperwork when I picked up the truck (no mention of ATF specifically). If it was a conventional dipstick check, I'd assume they did indeed do it, but I doubt they actually did check the level correctly ... Oh, and when I mentioned the crosswind kazoo noise, he said "they all do that" and I should try putting silicon spray on the window seal. I told him if that was the fix for my new $37K truck, they should do it, not expect me to. He just ignored me. Then he asked me if my truck was a V6. Uhh ... TRD OffRoad 4 cylinder? Yeah, right.

 

My service people were great. I simply asked and they checked it. I did share with them some symptoms I thought might indicate low fluid. I was a pleasent process.