Transmission fluid change

Bought a 99 tacoma a couple months ago. Has 268,000 on it. No idea when the last transmission fluid change was or if ever. No issues with shifting. All seems ok. Should I change fluid or just leave alone. Don’t want to mess anything up if it’s never been changed.

 

If its never been changed i would say leave it alone

 

Remove the dipstick and examine the color. It should be a reddish pink. It not, change it

 

For as easy as it is to change and as inexpensive vs how much damage it could cause (particularly if it was NEVER changed) why WOULDN’T you change it? Too many people don’t do the required maintenance or take too long to do it so this seems like a no brainer to me. Id do it if I were you if only just for the peace of mind it would give me.

 

Pull the plug, drain it, drop the tranny pan, clean the magnets and filter screen, use Toyota FPIG, refill, run it 3 months drain and refill 2 more times over 6 months. Voila clean tranny fluid!! Install a tranny cooler too. Good times

 

Park visitor - he can give the parts person at the dealer his vin to see if his truck has a filter. If not, just a drain and refill will do the job.

I was wondering the same thing about my 03 and it turns out my truck doesn't have a filter. Just a metal hollow part inside the pan.

 

You're going to find so many mixed opinions on whether to change it or not. I'll share mine

Do a drain and fill. You're not flushing via a machine with pressure so don't worry so much.

If you're worried about mixing fluid, check your dipstick and see what it says. DexII? DexIII? Use that. If it makes you feel better, grab it from Toyota Parts Dept. I refilled with Valvoline Max Life ATF.

I used to be freaked about draining the ATF fluid, haunted by those vids on youtube about dislodging something in the transmission if I drained the fluid. Glad I got over my fear. Had to actually. You see, I have a 1999 4Runner A340F in my Prerunner now. When the salvage yard took it out of the 4Runner, they drained it. So, I had ZERO choice but to fill it. Runs fine.

 

Funny thing about that strainer, they're in all of them and they can be different shaped so the VIN# is a good idea. When I pulled the pan from the 99 4Runner trans... the strainer didn't look dirty at all. I actually would have re-used it but the little cork seals on the strainer were brittle so I just replaced the entire strainer.

 

Area51, I was scared st11less about changing mine. For a novice DIYer, it was a piece of cake. I changed my oil, tranny fluid and my rear differential fluid all at the same time. Took 1 1/2 hrs. Easy peasy

 

That's awesome. Yeah bud, as soon as you start jumping in it's all good. Most important thing IMO is prepare yourself with the proper tools, research and take your time doing the job.

 

Dude, I watch enough YouTube videos to know when I am ready to tackle anything. I watch them over and over again so I am confident that I know what tools to use and what to expect.

Btw, I am having a blast doing this shit!!!

 

Ride it till it dies, you'll gain nothing at this point and may speed up the failure. Getting 400,000 miles out of a transmission on the factory fluid isn't unusual. And you can easily spend more changing the fluid to get to 400,000 miles than it would cost to rebuild the transmission.

Chances are good it is still fine. If it is, changing it at this point won't help. And there is a possibility the transmission is compromised. If so, keeping the old fluid in there will buy you some time. It could last another 10K-20K miles. Changing the fluid on one that is already going bad just speeds up the process. They usually die within 1000 miles in that case.

FWIW, I started driving in 1974. I've never changed the transmission fluid on any vehicle I've owned. That's several million trouble free miles. There is almost 1/2 million combined miles sitting in my driveway with the factory fluid still in the transmissions including 231,000 on my Tacoma. If the transmission falls out on the ground tomorrow, I'll replace it, I'm way ahead financially.

The local transmission shop tells me they see no difference in transmission life between those who change it religiously, and those who ride it till it dies. Transmissions die or 2 reasons. You let them get too hot, or it is a poor design.

 

Drain and fill at a few oil change interval then call it good. YMMV but I've seen a few people drop the pan to get to the "filter" only to find nothing there. Not sure if the work is worth it IMO.

 

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

 

Why do you all assume it's an auto trans? The OP did not specify.

 

I’ve got a 50/50 chance, them good odds

 

exactly what I was wondering, I think because he called it "fluid" people assumed auto but everyone really did just go with it lol.

OP - if it's a manual trans, change the oil in it. Won't hurt anything and it's good preventative maintenance if you don't have any idea when it was done last. There's no dipstick, pan, filter, etc. for the manuals...just remove the fill/drain plugs, drain it and re-fill it. Good to go.

 

I think it's because it's kind of a no-brainer for a manual but automatics have the issue of people flushing and then having issues after. If anything, it's an educated assumption.

 

I admit that I assumed it was a manual and you are exactly right, that is a no brainer (I know because I’ve changed mine 2x over 165k miles and 20 years). But even for an automatic tranny don’t let people on YouTube scare you into not changing ANY fluid. What would you think if they told you to never change your engine or diff oil as you might break something? You’d be correct in thinking they’re an idiot so why believe them on the tranny if all you are doing is draining and refilling (I am not talking about flushing here)?

And as far as the tranny lasting fine without any fluid changes you’ll probably never know because how many vehicles die because of a transmission vs rust or engine failure or something else? Changing fluids is just cheap insurance to me. The engineers design them to run on fluids that only last so long and are designed to be changed so why do we know better than the folks who designed them? I sure don’t.

 

Just saying, after my first manual transmission and differential fluid change (using the correct fluid) mine now makes a noticeable semi-whining sound in warm weather only when starting out in first and halfway into second. I’m not that concerned tho. Also, upon Googling this, I found a surprising number of people reporting the same sound after changing their fluids for the first time. Anyone care to venture an explanation as to why? I don’t think it’s shortening the life of my manual transmission and differential. Why would it?