should I switch to synthetic atf?

I just did a drain & fill. I am one of the ones who wasn't sure if the fluid had been changed by the previous owner, so by the time I went to do it, it was recommended not to (150,000). I then read on here to examine the color & I passed the test for the drain & fill ('bout 175,000). So I have been slowly doing this. drain & fill, put miles on it, wash, rinse repeat. When I did the filter at the 175,000, the pan & magnets looked decent. On the drain & fill only that I did yesterday, I noticed some small particles. So my question is two fold.

1. Will synthetic help to better preserve its present state (I am not having any problems that I have noticed & would obviously like to keep it that way).

2. If I should switch, since I have not yet started the truck, would a repeat drain simply drain out the new fluid I just put in? In other words, I imagine it has not yet mixed with the remainder of what is in the engine area. Good to doublecheck though....

 

So also, I just checked on the drain & fill capacity. My Haynes has 2.1 qts. I drained 5. What gives? Not sure if I checked the Haynes on other charges, so not sure if the same thing happened. Seems to me it was 5 because that’s what I anticipated this time when purchasing the atf. & yes. I check it when it’s hot.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RumPXivBlk8

@MTgirl can you put this in the right forum please?

 

The manual is wrong. Every time I drain it, at least 4.5 quarts come out. From everything that I have seen, it's not worth the work to drop the pan. The fluid flows very fast through the AT so you can drain and fill and drive a few miles and drain and fill again. When I did mine, I drove it a few hundred miles before draining and filling. Did it three times back to back. Fluid comes out pink and looks good now.

 

I think you can. At least that's what I did about 30,000 miles ago, and all has been well.

Mines was never changed and was all black when I removed it. Drained and filled full synthetic every 15,000

 

Are you changing your ATF every 15K? If so, are you doing so because of special use conditions? I ask because I have been changing every 40-50K and I thought that was a bit of overkill. Should I be changing mine more often? It has been dark when I changed it, but not really black or smelling burnt.

 

The idea is to get it to the point where you have nice clean fluid. However, for those of us who let it go too long or bought it & were unsure if it had, or it didn’t appear to have, been changed, we need to slowly, but consistently change it over. If anything seems off, cease changing & consult on here or a pro. I do mine about once a year.
(I will add here that it is important that before one does this, the color matters. There are different ranges & if it looks & smells burnt, it’d be wise to back off & consult, whether it be on here &/or with a pro.)

 

thank you…. I guess this is why I didn’t find info on it. I didn’t check for other forums. I only searched 1st gen.

 

I’ve been changing it after a recommendation here, so that it wouldn’t be too sudden for the transmission, yet quicker to go from black fluid to red

 

Drain and fill vs. flush I think - @taysdad are you completely flushing the system link in the Timmy's Toyota Time video or draining the pan and refilling what comes out?

 

When I did mine, I just did a drain and refill x2. Looked good enough after 2. The full capacity is not going to come out - it's stuck in the internals.

 

I also did the filter the 1st time, so the pan came down. Also gave me a chance to check the magnets &!the pan, clean them. Plus if it looked like changing the fluid was not such a great idea, I could abort mission.

 

Ah, that makes perfect sense. I guess I am a bit slow on the uptake.

 

@Kristi with a K I’ve been using Mobil 1 full synthetic ATF since 90k miles and I’m at 159k now with no issues. Truck shifts very smoothly. I suspect you’ll be fine making the change.

 

Not at all (slow on the uptake) says the girl who’s go to phrase is “I shoulda _____” (known, said, etc). Plus I imagine it is better to go by miles as opposed to time? I have been in traction so much (this could be a if it wasn’t for the fact that much of it has been redos, aka, shoulda’s) that for the 1st time ever I qualified for the low mileage insurance credit last year, so I waited a bit longer than a year.

 

I also should add here for anyone that passes by this thread that I believe there is a video color link on here to changing older than old fluid. If memory serves me correctly it cautions on flushing depending on a certain color? Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
The reason I bring this up is I just did a search for color charts online & while very helpful to see what’s going on (water in the fluid, etc), the ones I saw recommend flushing if it’s black/dark brown. I believe flushing is strongly discouraged. Change & filter, inspect the pan & magnets, yes. However if one is nervous about even doing this, there is plenty of info & help on here as to how to proceed.
All of a sudden I feel like I am repeating myself…. I guess if I have this has the added bonus of the online chart discrepancies.

 

& thank you for this vid link. I quickly jumped through it just now. Perfect timing because I just bought myself a scanner. Hopefully it will be able to monitor the atf.

 

I'm currently in the middle of this as well. I am debating the flush vs just refilling since the fluid is very dark. Last drain and fill was about 75k ago with T-IV.

My question: I dropped the pan and replaced the filter. Has anyone used the rubber gasket that comes with the filter or did you go the route of red transmission gasket maker? I'm wondering how the rubber will hold up since the gasket maker from factory had lasted 167k without leaks.

Thanks for any insight.

 

I used a regular trans gasket. Interesting because now I am wondering if mine was indeed changed before I purchased it. This was my unknown & caused me to hold off changing it. When I got on TW I learned it was ok. Anyway, the fact that mine had a gasket on it, not gasket maker, is making me think it may have been changed....
Course that's all about me. However it's also the reason I did not question it as you are. There was a gasket installed, so I used a gasket. I did it about 65,000 ago & it's been fine....

 

I'm going to do a drain and fill this weekend.

Planning on doing at least 2 cycles.

Should I be concerned about mixing (the old) non-synthetic with the new MaxLife synthetic ATF?