Transmission drain and fill overflow question

I did a transmission fluid drain and fill and my overflow plug only dribble a couple drops. I know it should’ve drained more than that and I probably underfilled it. Should I throw another court in there or leave it as it is. I put in 4 1/4 quarts.

 

Have you brought the fluid to the correct temperature before checking the level?

 

Yes, you should set the level properly by slightly overfilling, getting it to temp then opening the overfill.

 

You need to over fill more fluid. Check out 4:36-4:52 in to this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNqYpEpmUng

 

@Vlady yes I have done the steps to get it to the temp.

 

What video @TA2016

 

Very odd you can not see this YouTube video linked in my post #4, but I will try again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNqYpEpmUng&t=4s

 

Thank you @TA2016

 

Typical 1st drain yields just about 3 qrts. I usually add 1 qrt to the drained amount.
I guess add another quart and recheck the level

 

I always measure what drains and replace it with the exact amount. It must be checked at the correct temp or you'll get a false reading. If nothing drains during the temp check you'll need to add a little more and re do the process.

 

Thank you all for the advice. I’ll do it again with another quart in tomorrow

 

If it got to temp and was dribbling then it should have been full. It will only dribble a lot if overfilled. A lot come a bit low from the factory.

 

Almost exactly.
Same in the 4Runner.

 

X2. If it dribbled at all, you're done.
This isn't the rocket surgery that TW has turned it into.

 

For a visual reference, this is the amount of expansion and contraction in 3 quarts of tranny fluid from 180° to an ambient outside temp of around 85°.

The upper hash mark was hot, right out of the tranny, minutes after parking. The 3 quart mark just below it, is dead nut where it settled in after coming to room temperature a few hours later.

 

Just got two quarts exactly. I'm guessing this means it was underfilled from the factory? I never checked when it was new and is now at 130k miles.

I was thinking of putting 3.5 quarts in? Or should I go the video recommendation of .5 quarts more than I drained out? Trying to save a step vs. putting in 2.5 quarts then checking and seeing nothing come out of the overflow?

 

Toyota even notes in the service manual that fluid won't completely stop dribbling from the overflow because it's heating up and expanding in real time. The 35C to 45C temperature window comes and goes in a flash so I had to aquire Zen-like intuition as to when to shove the plug back up in the hole. It's okay if it gets hotter, it's just you have to recalibrate your dribblemeter.

 

TW has made it's best attempt to turn a drain and fill into rocket science, when in fact, it is not.
A few ounces one direction or the other is absolutely meaningless.

There's nearly 4 quarts in the pan alone. Your truck won't miss a few, and it won't care if there's a couple extra shot glasses of it in there.

 

Underfilled.
Add the 3.5 at temp, and let it drain down.

 

#bringbacktransmissionfluiddipsticks