How to Drain/Refill Automatic Transmission

My advice is before you do anything, make sure you can get the truck into temperature check mode.

 

I was planning on using an infrared thermometer to check the temperature. I figure once the pan is just below the temp it needs to be it should be pretty close. I see a lot of people are having a hard time with getting it in temp mode

 

Practice it a couple of times. I was able to get it on my 1st try and no problems any time after either. If the ambient air temp is cold it can take awhile.

One thing that has made it easier for me was an OBDII connector. I permanently jumped 4 and 13. No wire jamming necessary.

 

I just did this yesterday. It is really easy to get into temp mode. I will recommend that you use solid stand wire. I only had stranded and it was a PITA to get it to fit. Also I would say the wire needs to be 18 gauge or smaller to work.

Your temp range is only 15 degrees and I am betting that an infrared can be off by that much especially going through the pan.

 

Finally switched to the solid 18 gauge wire. Worked like a piece of cake. Chocolate cake.

 

Well, I tried the bottle pump/garden sprayer method hooked up to the inlet/outlet of the transmission cooler with 3/8 tubing.

I was able to pump 4 qts in with zero coming out. I decided to drain from drain bolt via the bottom of the pan. 8 ish qts came out.

Hand tightened the drain bolt and then used my torque wrench to snug to 21 ft-lbs. The drain pan bolt kept spinning, and not catching torque, but I got it snug with a smaller ratchet.

Pumped in 5 qts via the bottle sprayer. Got the trans up to the 115 *F - 130*F measured by my scangauge II.

Used a 5 mm hex key on the level check bolt. Drained out approx 1 qt. Repeated the procedure bringing the trans back up to that 115*F - 130*F and got a little more out but not much. I probably could have stopped at the first fluid level check.

Hand tightened then torqued the fluid level check bolt to spec.

 

actually 7.2 qts came out cause you put 4 qts in the pan besides the 3.2 in normally holds. That has to be a record on what the pan can hold. The overflow spout must of been underwater so to speak.

 

I'm confused about your comment that you put 4 qts in and none came out. You do know that you have to start the engine and let the tranny pump push the old fluid out, right? You start the engine and let it push tranny fluid out the cooler line and into a bucket. When it sputters, you turn the engine off and use the garden sprayer to push 4 more qts in. Then repeat. Just pushing 4 in with the sprayer will not push anything out the other hose.

 

Ahh.... I missed that part. I didn't realize I needed to have the engine running to pump fluid out.

 

Thank you for this outstanding article! I recently completed the procedure on my (Gen 2) 2006 V6 Automatic 4L and have a few inputs that might be helpful.

1) The proper temperature range for my Vehicle (Gen 2, 2006 4L 4x4, 750F Transmission) is 97-115 Deg F. Not 115-130 Deg F. I confirmed this by reading other information, and ultimately by following the OBDII jumper wire procedure and measuring with a thermal gun. My truck got happy (ATF light went on) at 97deg F as measured by the thermal gun on the bottom of the pan. I have no doubt the original article is accurate for that truck. This is just a note to everyone that apparently the temp range differs for different vehicles so be careful.

2) An easy wire for the OBDII jumper procedure is an old school paper clip. Typical car wire has strands of smaller wire that complicate getting the ends cleanly in the OBDII connector and there is risk of a small stray wire shorting to the wrong pin. Paper clip worked perfectly. The small kind not the heavy duty kind and make sure there is no plastic coating or anything. Old school, regular paper clip.

3) Next time, I may choose to skip the OBDII hotwire and just use the thermal gun. These are cheap and widely available now because of Covid. I bought mine on Amazon for $20. Going back to point #1 if you are not 200% sure what the right ATF temperature is just use the OBDII method because it is fool proof.

4) I tried several methods to get the Fluid in the transmission fill port. The one that worked best for me (and is reasonably cheap) is to get a siphon kit (with a squeeze bulb) at Advanced Auto. Start standing on the passenger side door, route the siphon tube under the truck over the frame, over the exhaust and into the Transmission fill port. Get it in there about 2" so it does not pop out. The tube is snug on my truck from the routing over the exhaust and does not wiggle much. Then crawl out, stand by the passenger door, hold a bottle of WS about waste high with the siphon tube at the bottom of the bottle. Hold the bottle higher than the trans input port with your left hand. In my case this puts the squeeze bulb just under the truck. So squatting is the best position (left hand up holding the bottle, right hand down holding the squeeze bulb). Squeeze the bulb slowly with right hand. A few drips came out of my bulb so I have a rag or cardboard underneath. On my siphon bulb there is an arrow for the direction of flow and that has to be in the direction of the transmission. When the bottle is empty, grab another and keep going. No 2nd person needed, no bottle pump etc. Pretty easy when you get the hang of it.

5) My final thought here is start with the vehicle cold! I made the mistake of driving to a friends house for a flat surface. The trans was warm and it took a LONG time to cool down and even then the results did not feel right. I repeated this again in the morning (with the transmission cold and warming it up per the procedure) and that worked flawlessly.

 

Pretty sure your temps were colder because you were using a thermal gun on the pan. Fluid can be hotter than what the pan reads at.

Also to each their own, but my bottle sprayer method cost me about $10. I don't know if I would call that expensive.

ODBII method is reliable and accurate so I would just do that personally in 5 years from now when I need to do it again.

 

97-115F is in the service manual for a 2015 see below. I also called my dealer and they confirmed for my vehicle.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R9h0kR2EnE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej_6BZpK3gg

 

I've said this before....the temperature is not important if you use the OBDII to get it in check mode. Zero guess involved.

As often as this needs to be done....it's no inconvenience to do it the right way.

You can make it even easier by purchasing an OBDII plug and permanently jumping the wires. It's plug and play.

 

What about these instructions and the temp check.

These are for the Toyota Auto tranny 2005 - 2015 A750E

750E = 2x2. 750F= 4x4

I agree with @Plain Jane Taco you need to jump the pins.

Even some tech at Toyota can verify with the wrong info. there’s multiple choices when it come to the correct temp. What that guy in the video posted for a 2015 and the below info from the FSM do not match for some reason. Thus the importance of just jumping the pins.

 

Where did you buy the OBDII plug?

 

Let's agree to agree. The transmission fluid temp specs are different on different vehicles. I added that comment because the original article mentioned the temperatures and I thought it would be helpful to outline they can be different. The OBDII approach is fool proof.

 

Amazon. Been a couple of years ago

 

Amazon still has them

 

Just did a tranny flush last weekend. The garden pump sprayer is the cat's ass. I drained the pan and dropped it. Replaced the filter/screen and pan gasket and buttoned it up. Used the sprayer up by the driver's side headlight and pumped a gallon into the system. Ran the motor and let it pump old fluid out into a graduated paint bucket. Pumped equal amount in. Kept going until I had 2 gallons of new fluid in. It was cherry red at that point so I stopped and kept a third gallon for later. Drove around the block and let it idle a few minutes. Jumped the pins and it was in the temp zone. Pulled the check plug and about half a quart came out until it drizzled. Put plug in and called it good.

All this is to say forget trying to fill it from underneath. Push it in with a pump while standing upright. Sooooo much easier.

 

Thank you sir.