Drain and fill at 208k miles. Should I be worried?

So here's the deal. Sometimes what tends to happen is, ff the old fluid was complete crap, you begin to loose all the friction material on the clutches. Eventually you are metal on metal but because the lubricity of the old fluid being so low, your gears don't slip. When you add new fluid, the new lubricating fluid causes your gears to slip.

If you don't have any gears slipping, you are ok but be assured the life of your transmission has been shortened considerably by waiting so long to do a fluid change.

 

I definitely didn’t wait. I’ve driven the vehicle for fewer than 600 miles since I purchased it. No idea how long that fluid has been in there though. It looks bad. So, on a used vehicle with high mileage, would you recommend leaving it alone and accepting that the trans is just going to last however long it lasts, or would you recommend changing fluid on the assumption that if it isn’t shot, you might save if, but if it is, it wasn’t gonna last long anyway?

 

Here’s mine at 125k. OPs might be normal for 200k.

His looks kind of purple to me. Is there. A purple tranny fluid?

 

My old fluid is very purple. Perhaps this suggests that a previous owner did something to maintain the trans? While the plugs were pretty worn, they were Densos. It’s pretty clean for 208k and not burning oil. It had the TSB 3+1 springs, TPS recall, and silver painted wheels. One of the two previous owners cared at least a little bit, which does give me some piece of mind. The spare is original and was made in ‘07, so I need to replace it ASAP. The u-joints are greasable Spicers, and there’s grease flung out where the originals went bad. When the ones on my 2010 went out at 59,000 the dealer replaced them with the very same Spicers, so they could have been replaced at a dealership. Generally I think has been reasonably taken care of for a two owner(I’m the third) with 208k.

 

Don't forget about your front and rear dif. Sounds like you're on top of things.

 

Its hard to say. If the clutches are still intact, you would want to change it. If not, changing the fluid could make it undrivable. However, if its at that point, driving it will lead to an inevitable failure, maybe while driving it, leaving you on the side of the road. Basically, if its that bad, change or no change, you need to rebuild or replace the trans. This is why I generally pull the trans dipstick (if it has one) and check the fluid. I don't buy if its burnt and I'm leery if its very clean. Its not uncommon for the seller to do a drain and fill. Test drive it and check the fluid again.

 

I haven’t done it yet, but it’s high on the list. Life is kinda crazy right now, so I’m currently limited to a couple hours a week and not much money per month that can go to it. I have the gear oil. I might get it in today, or it may have to be later. I gotta do the transfer case too.

 

Only purple ATF I read of, is B&M and a Mercedes type ATF. Even royal purple ATF is red. ATF is dyed red to aid in fluid identification and also for locating leaks. It's been reported that the Toyota WS ATF used in the A750's can turn purple, almost a port-wine color.

 

Red and blue make purple. I wonder what causes a blue color to be introduced?

 

Looked up "Toyota ATF WS Purple"

https://www.rav4world.com/threads/heads-up-ws-atf-turns-from-red-to-purple-in-direct-sunlight.76885/
https://www.rav4world.com/threads/transmission-fluid-purple-color.289873/