Drain and fill or flush? 60k service

Hey y’all.

just curious on your thoughts on this one. I’m coming up on 60k, and Toyota has quoted me about 1200 for the “60k service”. Which includes changing fluids, and I’m sure some other dealer fluff. I’m waiting on the invoice to review it before I decide on handing them a chunk of change.

When it comes to the tranny they recommend a flush, but I’m not gonna lie.. all the horror stories and conflicting information out there has me worried.

On one hand my transmission isn’t old and beat up, so a flush could work.

On the other hand, a drain and fill is less likely to cause issues.

Anyone have any recommendations or advice? Thanks!

 

Don't let them do a flush, you think they clean that machine after each time? You will end up with junk in your trans from some other pile of shit. Either do it yourself or drain and fill 3 times.
Good luck with your truck.

 

Three cycles of drain and fill on the trans per the factory service manual is my advice.

 

This, it works.

 

If only you knew one thing about this out of the two things you might know.

joking aside.

if you want to do it diy, doesn’t seem that bad. Let them do it if you don’t. If anything goes wrong after they should be accountable for doing the work. But that has sometimes seem to be problematic for some

 

3x drain and fill is sounding better and better lol.

 

Agree, flush machines are BS. It's just a bleed and feed off the oil cooler. Toyota put a drain, check, a fill plug for a reason. Follow the factory guidance, not some upsell on an unnecessary machine.

 

Literally laughed out loud.

 

I gave myself a little laugh writing it

 

Drain and fill. Never flush.

 

All i can tell you, i only did the 4 qt drain and refill on my 2001 tundra every 15k miles as recommended in the manual. That transmission still worked perfect 19 years, and 290k miles later. I always used mobil synthetic atf.

 

Ask them to show you the specific fluids they use and the drums they come from. Once you see they don't use Toyota fluids or even the correct weight in many cases, you'll DIY....

 

Not a Tacoma but I had my Highlander flush at 60K at a local dealer. It's at 100K now and still shifts as smooth as when I bought it off the lot. When it hits 120K I'll be doing it again. That being said, I wouldn't do a flush at one of those lube places or if I've never done a fluid change ever before and the vehicle has like 100K+ miles.

 

How long do you run the engine between drains? I just did a single drain and fill at 30,000, but I wanted to do one more.

 

Flush is a misnomer. It's a fluid exchange (on most shop machines) and I've been doing them DIY for 30 years with no problems. I understand the concept of not doing a "flush" on a higher mileage tranny which wasn't maintained but I do mine every 50K. Just did the Tacoma a few months ago. My wife's Mazda CX5 I cannot DIY though so I do do the drain and fill.

 

Truthfully not trying to be an idiot here, but I swear I've been corrected on this site before in regards to trans fluid being a lifetime dealio, the service manual giving no indication or specified mileage for flush/drain, and only requirement being "check level" (aka look for leaks, says Toyota). Does that mean its a good idea? Doesn't sound like it, but I don't really have a clue.

 

Yes, following this ?

 

A couple trips around the block is ideal, through all the gears and long enough to use the oil cooler. The annoying part is waiting for it to cool down for the final proper level check.

 

The list grows:
Change oil every 5,000! No, every 10,000!
Change gear box fluid every 60,000! No, never!
Get a tune! No, tunes are from the devil!
Tastes great! No, less filling!

 

Dealerships use the cheapest of the cheap generic oil and tranny fluid they can find on the market to service your vehicle. Get your favorite brand and do it yourself.