Coolant, transmission fluids change maintenance??

Afternoon,

My 19 SR 2.7 4x2.. has just around 30k miles.. maintenance light on for cabin engine filters and tire rotation.. bought 2 filters on Amazon to diy and getting new tires soon as they are Orginal now with Florida heat, uv so better to change. Wondering since my truck is essentially behind on the maintenance for a 2019 truck- being driven 2x miles- should I change the coolant and transmission fluids soon or those are strictly true mileage and not age dependent?

 

Coolant 100k miles or 10 years whatever comes first. Tranny going to vary person to person but I do 30k miles or 3 years. Just drains and fill no flush

If it were me I’d service the tranny if you can afford to

 

Thank you for the prompt reply and info.. what does a tranny service cost these days? Just wondering what i should expect to pay so not to get taken if i have a shop do it.

 

Unsure about cost for tranny. Plenty of YouTube vids if you are handy. Personally I get nervous messing with the tranny usually just have someone do that.

also not me for coolant after the first 10 years/100k miles it’s 50k miles or 5 years every subsequent service

 

I’ll look into it. Thank you

 

I respectfully very much disagree with the recommendation to do a coolant flush at 10 yrs / 100k miles. That is nowhere near frequent enough.

Coolant is like oil. It circulates constantly and loses it properties, especially with respect to anti-corrosion additives over time. Mileage elapsed here is not the issue, it is time elapsed. Your truck is at least 6 years old. I highly recommend an ordinary drain and refill of your coolant.

This is a 1 hour DIY job in your driveway. 2-3 jugs of *pre-mixed* 50/50 coolant from the auto parts store. Maybe $60 at $20 per gallon. You cannot use tap water from your garden hose and concentrated coolant. The most difficult part is not making a mess. And burping the air bubbles out. See YouTube. Drain it. And refill it. You should *not* need a coolant flush, where cleaning agents and new coolant is circulated under pressure at a dealership cost of hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

If this is not your cup of DIY tea, then have it done at your local Jiffy Lube the next time you get your oil changed. Like your oil. Drain it out, refill it. There is even a drain valve (called Petcock) on the bottom of your radiator. YES - it is plastic, and YES - it may be brittle. So give it a spritz of penetrating lube first and proceed gently. Others will have different opinions to just disconnect the lower radiator hose, but I tend to disagree. One, that results in a colossal mess. Two, and more importantly, the coolant - although it circulates, is stagnant above the Petcock. And that is a prime location for sediment to accumulate and rot out your radiator. Use the Petcock valve. You may need to probe the opening with a wire to get the fluid draining. If so, I have made my point.
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More advice:
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Again, mileage is not your issue with respect to maintenance. It is age.

I don't think you have a "tire rotation" light on your dash but rather a TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) warning for dead batteries in your wheel sensors. After 6 years, it is entirely reasonable the button battery (like a watch battery) inside the rim has died.

If you are going to have your tires replaced - even at 30k miles - then be sure to replace all 4 TPMS sensors when doing so. You don't need to understand how it works - you just need to do it. Every tire store in the USA can do this when installing new tires.

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If yours is a Florida truck, you probably have zero corrosion to worry about. I would also suggest a transmission drain and refill - like your coolant, but not as critical as your coolant IMHO - at some point soon.

Then brake fluid.

 

Check out this video and see if you feel comfortable doing it yourself.

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

 

I'm not advocating you do this, but my 2007 FJ has the original factory coolant. 169,000 trouble free miles and it still floats all the beads in the tester tube. And if there are any corrosion issues for my bad behavior, it has yet to rear its ugly head. That shit last forever.

But then again, what the hell do I know?

 

I replaced coolant and hoses at 18 years and 250,000 miles. All was fine. Been driving 51 years, never changed the transmission fluid in any vehicle, never had an issue. Cost varies a lot. Somewhere between $150-$300 is typical, but some places will try to talk you into a flush and charge $1000-$1500.

I do recommend new TPMS sensors with new tires. I buy mine on Amazon and take them to the tire store when buying tires. I drive more than you and that works out to new sensors about every other set of tires. Or about every 6-7 years. They run $40-$60 for a pack of 4. Any tire store will install and program them for you at no extra cost. Buying them at the tire store will cost you $40-$60 EACH. It's better to replace them when buying new tires even if the old ones are still working. The old ones won't outlast another set of tires, and it will cost $10-$15 each to have them installed if you're not buying tires. Effectively doubling the cost.

 

I don't trust the additives in coolant to do their job for 100,000 miles and 10 years seems like a real stretch: It's a long time. Coolant becomes acidic over time just doing its main everyday jobs: In addition to protection from freezing, it protects all of the aluminum, steel, brass and everything else in the in the heads, block, water pump, head gaskets, radiator and heater core, from rust and corrosion to help prevent leaks. Coolant is cheap considering prices of the components it protects. I wouldn't feel confident leaving it in for ten years.

It's an easy job and I change it every 30,000 miles. Toyota pre-mix pink stuff: about $30/bottle. Compare that to the parts and labor for a water-pump, radiator or >>heater core r&r <<. Yikes.

Likewise, no matter what might fail or explode on an A750 along it's journey to 200,000+ miles or beyond because of lax maintenance practices, it's going to be a whole lot bigger bill than a few quart bottles of Genuine OEM Toyota WS fluid every 60K max for a drain & fill. No flushes for me or draining and re-filling it multiple times.

 

Being a Florida truck, like mine, we have pretty high humidity to deal with, this is the enemy of brake fluid. If you have the original brake fluid in it, I’d add that to the list.

Brake fluid doesn’t really care about mileage but 3-5 years is a good interval, and it’s relatively simple when you have it jacked up to rotate your tires. It vacuums up moisture which we have a lot of down here, probably preference on the lower end of that time interval.

 

and check out the whole list for future maintenance
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-maintenance-maps-get-300k-miles.789809/

 

You can’t go wrong with just following manufacturer’s recommendations. Some guys enjoy more frequent maintenance intervals, and I’m not saying they are wrong…I typically do oil changes more frequently but everything else is by the manual

 

For coolant, get a pack of test strips and test every oil change or so. If coolant starts to trend acidic then change it. Same with brake fluid. I got a pack of 15 that test both and will last me a while.

 

this may have already been posted but, if you plan to keep the truck for the long term, i would change all the fluids based on age and mileage.

 

This is a good point. Brake fluid is hydrophilic - meaning it absorbs water including the moisture in the air. This degrades the fluid and can cause a soft pedal feel over time. Also, it is important to remember that brake fluid doesn't circulate. So where the fluid is stagnant by the calipers and rotors, the never ending heat cycles can also degrade the fluid quality over time. And this is why you usually get black fluid when you crack the bleeders. Sometimes, there can be so much sludge that even when you pump the brake pedal repeatedly it only comes out in a trickle. In such case, a vacuum should be applied. You should get a solid pulse of clean and clear brake fluid every time you pump the brake pedal from all four corners. No bubbles!

Also, while test strips are a good practice, they can be fallible for one fundamental reason. And that is one is only sampling the fluid at the top of the proverbial container. Like the master cylinder and not where it matters most which is at the brake line ends. Ditto for coolant where the sludge and sediment are at the bottom of the radiator. And inside the cooling passages of your engine.

HTH! Cheers and best wishes!

 

Exact same video I followed. A lot easier than many think.

 

I’ve always worries about that video because he actually adds .5 quarts more than what drains. Could that hurt the tranny when you start it and heat it for the reading through the check hole?

 

Going off what is listed in the recommended maintenance in the owners manual mate

 

No worries, I simply think that is not frequent enough. Cheers!