Wisconsin Tacomas and bad financial advice

It's definitely a good way for dealerships to bilk extra money out of customers, if nothing else.

 

This post was the first mention of it and I kept reading the thread. The consensus was it was a gamble. And with this truck being the only vehicle we have at the moment, it's not one I'm willing to take.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-auto-trans-fluid-change.548642/#post-20030846

 

I had mine flushed by a local shop (non-dealer) about 20k ago (at about 110k) and it's been fine since. I had concerns beforehand but the owner said he does it regularly to his Tacoma without issue.

 

I’ve just done drain and fills on all the ones I’ve done. Easy enough and minimal chance of screwing something up.

just need to follow the temp check procedure on the auto

 

Correct and every time a 4Runner gets traded in that's never had its fluid changed, we get pissed because it comes out looking nasty and that's one of the best transmissions Toyota has ever made. Keep up with your maintenance on those engines transmissions, and they will last half a million miles.

As far as the coolers go, the tacos have them regardless of package. It's hundreds change the cooler setup in 19. So the non-top package ones have a coolant line running through the transmission pan as opposed to an external cooler, those you could do a drain until on and hopefully the best. Annoying, Yes. We're not happy about it, but that's what they went with.

Would you rather pay $300 for a flush? Or $8,000 for a transmission? Your call. That's how maintenance works. You either pay a small amount of money up front, an ounce of prevention, or you pay a lot of money down the road, a pound of cure.

So you'd rather scorch your fluid and toast your transmission that way? I mean to each their own but I've had plenty of them come in that have been way overdue and because they get driven hard or long range or towing but food comes out nasty. Good way to introduce torque converter shudder too lol.

I mean if you're not race car, driving your truck or towing all the time, it's probably fine... Maybe... But the thing is that fluid absorbs heat from the transmission and wears out over time. If it's never changed, it will damage the transmission. At the very least, if you do a drain and fill every 50,000 or 70,000, you'll be in much better shape than most people who think maintenance is just a way for dealerships to steal money from people.

Not to sound like I'm trying to bust anyone's balls, just a pet peeve of mine. When people say the maintenance isn't worth it. It's worth it. Any of the stuff I've talked about in here stuff I do on my own trucks and I trust my daughter's life with this vehicle so... You know I'm being serious.

 

Well, my transmission is perfectly fine, but the A/C light is flashing after 5 seconds or so. I wonder if I did something to it on the trails. Not sure that's possible though, it looks pretty protected.

 

Or, I could just do a drain and refill as the manual recommends.

 

That falls under the "ounce of prevention" category

 

Get em

 

A/C light?

 

Most people trade their vehicles off before 150k miles so you can take care of it when you prep them for the used car lot lol

 

I think that’s what happened to @Tigerian truck if I remember right

ac clutch was toast. Took like 10 minutes to replace and all is well

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/air-conditioning-blues.94709/

 

Service history is part of your trade-in value. If we look up your service history and you don't do Jack, you get a lower trade in value. Every dealership does this. Lol

 

Yeah, the one on the dash to turn the A/C on and off. It comes on for maybe 5 seconds then starts blinking. I was able to hit it and look under the hood. The clutch appears to be activating as it does spin the compressor, but then it stops. and the light goes Blinky - Blinky.

 

Damn you Larry......

 

I see now, thanks for sharing. I think the only concern would be doing the "two bucket" method where you are trying to use the vacuum pressure to suck in new fluid from the cooler return line. I don't like that method either. However, if you were to fill the trans cold, drain out 2-3 quarts from the cooler return line, shut it off, then repeat the process there is very little risk (as long as you are paying attention and don't forget to shut the truck off, it's kind of important). That's what I plan to do on mine using info in the 2nd gen DIY thread and what hundreds have done before.

But yeah no matter how you do it the key is actually doing the maintenance as others have been saying. Good on ya for getting 'er done.

 

I'll let the other certified super technicians chime in because I don't know the intimate details on Toyota compressors yet, but on that fun Honda CR-V I just bought the most common failures are a thermal sensor on the compressor housing that likes to die, and a bad relay in the box under the hood. You could test the relay yourself by swapping it with another one in the fuse box (if you can find another one that matches in the same area), but I can't say if the Taco has that thermal sensor.

 

ive been waiting a while for one of these

https://blog.acmetools.com/milwaukee-m18-70000-btu-forced-air-propane-heater/