How to Drain/Refill Automatic Transmission

JLink · Oct 21, 2014

doing this soon...

$16/qt at local dealership
$9.43/qt from Amazon ($37.72/4qts)

$58 Toyota 00289-ATFWS Lexus & Automatic Transmission Fluid WS ATF World Standard, Pack of 4

http://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Toyot...ie=UTF8&qid=1413901594&sr=8-1&keywords=ws+atf

nj636 · Oct 25, 2014

JLink said: ↑

doing this soon...

$16/qt at local dealership
$9.43/qt from Amazon ($37.72/4qts)

$58 Toyota 00289-ATFWS Lexus & Automatic Transmission Fluid WS ATF World Standard, Pack of 4

http://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Toyot...ie=UTF8&qid=1413901594&sr=8-1&keywords=ws+atf
Click to expand...

+1
how many miles on the truck?

nj636 · Oct 25, 2014

I like that they drained an extra 2.5-3 quarts pumping it out with this method:
\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/

mountain lion said: ↑

I did a full flush on my automatic transmission (06 V6 TRD Sport 2wd without towing package) today [45.1k miles]. I haven't seen any detailed DIY write up's on the process so here it goes (feel free to make sticky):

Overall it's very easy to do and not much more complicated than the standard ~3qt drain/fill. The process if you have the tow package is essentially the same, except your ATF cooling lines will be going to a small oil cooler vs going to the radiator. If you have a 4x4, the transmissions will look different than my pictures, but this may still help to guide you through the process.

Outside of having access to a flush machine, this is the next best thing – and free except fluid costs. A very small amount of original fluid does get mixed in, but it’s negligible. Without dropping the pan and attaching a special machine to the actual ATF pump, this works just as well as a standard flush machine. There is a metal screen (not a true filter) in the pan, but from everything posted prior, it’s not necessary to drop the pan and clean it this early – 100k miles or longer is fine.

*Supplies needed:
4.0L V6 w/ Automatic Transmission
1. 13+ quarts of Toyota WS ATF fluid (Amsoil ATL or RedLine D6 are also compatible and fine to use [I bought 15 and used 14 quarts of Amsoil ATL])
2. 2 crush washers from dealer (part #:

$10 35178-30010

35178-30010 ) (you can probably get away with reusing the originals, but they're only $2 new)
3. 5mm hex socket, 14mm socket, 12mm socket, 24mm socket and ratchet
4. Gear lube pump
5. Graduated bucket + milk jug (or the like) to collect old fluid
6. 16ga or thinner wire
7. Torque wrench
8. Pliers
9. Nitril/latex gloves
10. Plenty of paper towels

**Service Specs:

A750E/F Automatic Transmission Dry Fill = 10.9 liter / 11.5 US qts Toyota ATF WS
Drain plug torque: 28 N*m (21 ft.*lbf)
Overflow plug torque: 20 N*m (15 ft.*lbf)
Refill plug torque: 39 N*m (29 ft.*lbf)

***Service (drain) the fluid below 86 *F (i.e. cold)

Step 1: Loosen the fill plug (24mm - WS is stamped in the middle of it) on passenger side of transmission near the drive shaft, you can remove it or leave it in finger tight for now. The rubber o-ring can be reused here - take care not to damage it.

Step 2: Remove the drain plug (14mm) on the bottom of the transmission pan and be prepared to catch any fluid that comes out w/ your graduated bucket. Allow all fluid to come out, if your fluid is cold you should get about 3 quarts. You can rock the truck once it stops draining and get quite a bit more out, but this isn't necessary. Once the fluid has stopped draining, replace the 14mm plug w/ the new crush washer and tighten with torque wrench to 21 ft.*lb.

At this point you've drained about 3 qts, but take note of the precise amount you get.

Step 3: Remove the fill plug you loosened earlier - it's time to add an equal amount of new fluid that was removed from the drain plug. Route your oil pump hose into the fill hole and secure it. Pump in the proper amount. I added 3 qts. Once finished, remove the pump hose from the fill plug, you can leave the fill plug bolt out.

Step 4: Remove your skid plate if you have one. There are 4 bolts (12mm socket) securing it. This makes access for the next step substantially easier and will save you time.

Step 5: Locate the two ATF cooler lines on the passenger side of the transmission. You will see two lines close together running towards the front of the truck. The top line is the oil cooler outlet tube (fluid returns to the transmission in this line) and the bottom line is the oil cooler inlet tube (oil is pumped out of the transmission to the radiator or tow pkg cooler). You want the outlet tube (red) - trace this line the front of the truck to the point where the metal piping ends and the rubber hose is connected with a tube clamp. You’ll see 2 metal lines at the front of the truck just under the radiator and behind the frame. The top/forward most line is your return/outlet line. It eventually ends/connects to the bottom of your radiator or to your cooler. Disconnect the passenger side rubber hose (where red arrow is). The driver's side goes to the radiator(don't disconnect). Only a few drops came out when I disconnected it, so don't expect it to pour out and make a mess.

Loosen and slide this clamp down to free the connection between the hose and the piping. I needed to use pliers to *carefully* pull the hose off as it was stuck on there pretty good). Attach the 3/8 clear tubing to the metal pipe at the connection you just removed. You may need stretch the tubing out some on the end to get it on the metal pipe easier. once firmly attached, you can route the clear tube into your bucket (or use a clear jug with quart marks lined off - I opted to use this so I could see it filling easier).

Step 6: With the tube routed into your bucket, you're ready to start the engine and allow the fluid to pump out into the bucket. It pumps out at about 1 qt every 7 seconds. I did this by myself, but had enough time to start the engine, get out and watch it fill. Do NOT rev the engine, just let it idle. I turned the engine off once ~2.5 qts had pumped out. Be sure not to allow more than 2-3 quarts to come out, you don't want the internal pump to run dry. You can also shift from Park through all the gears if you wish, though I'm not sure if it makes a difference. I did this once for the heck of it.

At this point you've flushed out over half the old fluid (~3 qts from the drain pan + another ~2.5 qts from cooler/rad lines). This will be your original fluid and should give you an idea of how dirty it is.

Step 7: Time to add more new fluid - reconnect your oil pumper to the fill hole and add in approximately what you removed in the previous step. Once the new fluid has been added, remove the pump hose again from the fill hole. Dump out the old fluid in your bucket/jug into a waste container or the empty qt. containers. It's time to repeat step 6.

You will do these two steps several times to your liking. I would recommend repeating these steps until you've added at least 9 qts (not including the original 3 from the pan [total 12]) - although you'll notice by the time you've done step 6 twice, the fluid coming out is considerably cleaner and much redder.

You could probably get away with only adding the original 3 qts and doing the steps above with 7-8 qts (total of 10-11 new qts) to save some $$ on fluid. I ended up using 14 qts total, and the last 2 qts that came out almost looked like new fluid...so a little bit of a waste and probably overkill w/ this much.

Be sure to save at least 1 quart of new fluid in case you need to add more during the check level process.

Step 8: Once you've flushed ~12 quarts or the amount of your satisfaction, remove the 3/8 clear tubing from the ATF cooler line. A few drops will come out of the metal end, but not much, so don't worry about it gushing out. Reconnect the original rubber oil cooler outlet line to the metal piping going back to the transmission and put the tube clamp back in place. Assure that the line is snug and firmly attached. Clean up any ATF that may have spilled.

Step 9: You might want to add about 1/3 qt extra when you're all finished so that you don't have to do the fluid check level more than once - just let the extra drain out to the right level. Replace the fill plug bolt to hand tight - you'll torque it down later, or if you're forgetful you can do it now (29 ft.*lb).

Step 10: At this point you should have approximately the correct amount of fluid in the AT and everything is reconnected. It's time to perform the fluid level check to ensure that the right amount of fluid is in the transmission. I will briefly go over this as a great write up has already been done by ForTech (http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/63851-how-drain-refill-automatic-transmission.html ). Do NOT use an IR thermometer - the pan reading won't be anywhere close to the internal temperature.

Cliffs notes version, but I highly suggest reading ForTech's post:

Make sure you're parked on level ground,
Start truck, shift through all gears several times to get new fluid moved all around.
Using a small wire, jump pins 4 and 13 on the ODBII port.
Start the truck, you should see a lot of your dash lights flashing.
From park, put truck in neutral for 2-3 seconds
Shift down to drive for ~1 second, enough for it to barely engage the gear then go back to neutral then back to drive after ~1 second. (repeat 3 times, total of 6 shifts).
Once back in neutral after 6th shift, you should see AT Temp in red light up for 2 seconds on the Tach face plate.
Shift back to park, you should see the AT temp light again for 2 seconds then go off. If you don't see this, you've messed up and need to do it again.
Let the truck idle until the AT temp light stays on. It's close when it starts flickering. It may take up to 20 minutes of idling to get to temp, especially in colder environments.

Step 11: With the AT Temp light on and the truck still idling, remove the check plug(5mm hex). Be mindful of the Y-pipe / exhaust as it's hot and you will burn yourself if more than lightly touched. Also have your catch bucket ready. Hopefully you've added a little more than what's needed and fluid will come out. Allow fluid to drain until it's a light/thin trickle. Add your new crush washer to the bolt and replace the bolt torquing to spec (15 ft.*lb). Turn the engine the off.

Step 12: If you had a good bit of fluid come out and are now at the proper level, torque down the refill plug(24mm / 29 ft.*lb) if you did not do so in step 9. If you did not add enough fluid - ie nothing came out - replace the check bolt, turn off the engine and then add 1/3 to 1/2 qt more new fluid into the fill plug. Go through the steps in Step 10 to the get the AT Temp sense mode back on and check the fluid again as described in step 11.

Step 13: Replace your skid plate if you removed it from step 4.

Step 14: Double check all your connections and bolts - Clean up any spilled fluid on truck.

That's it.

A few comparative pictures:
Original oil(left) / Brand new(right) [color is probably no indicator of usable life]

After 12 fresh quarts were flushed through (left)/ Brand new (right) [12qt sample was only slightly darker, but not much].

I will be sending a sample I took from the drain pan when it was hot to Blackstone to see what condition the oil was in after 45k miles. Should be a week or so and I'll append the results to affirm whether or not this early of a flush really needs to be done or not. Regardless - early/preventative maintenance is worth it to me.
Click to expand...

wake100 · Oct 26, 2014

nj636 said: ↑

I like that they drained an extra 2.5-3 quarts pumping it out with this method:
\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/
Click to expand...

They are doing something different. The thread you commented in is about a drain and fill. The guy you quoted is doing a flush... He got more than 2.5 quarts because he repeats the steps...

thewarriordinghy · Oct 26, 2014

any1 in GA can help me do this?

wyotaco06 · Oct 26, 2014

This process seems complicated for a first timer but it's actually just as easy as an oil change...minus the part of pumping the new fluid in.

Quick tip: buy a paint bucket with quart lines in the inside to measure how much oil came out. Have done this 3 times now, and it's always 2.9-3qts. Make sure you do it on a flat surface.

The first 2 times I did this, I went through the temp check mode steps. Now I just drain out the 3qrts and pump 3 back in.

KeithB · Nov 3, 2014

Did the drain and fill yesterday. First thing, I had made sure all bolts (drain,fill and overflow) could be loosened first. Also made sure I could get the truck into AT temp check mode. I had done the prep work the day before. Tested the temp check mode out right after returning from a drive. Light came on blinking indicating ATF was too hot to test level as expected.

No problems except I was going on half an hour waiting for the AT temp light to light up indicating the correct temp to check the fluid level. Outside air temp was 43F. Felt the pan with my hand and did not really feel very warm. Started wondering how the transmission fluid would heat up of the truck was not in drive. If the gears aren't turning, how is the fluid supposed to heat up. Is there a pump that circulates it when the truck is idling? Anyway, so I took it for a quick 1/2 mile run up the road and back. Then re-set the AT temp check mode because I wasn't sure if moving the gear selector after already in temp check mode would mess it up. Light came on right away.

I had drained out 2qt 4oz. I put 3 qts back in. 11 oz came out of the overflow. So I figure I was just over a 1/2 quart low before doing the drain and fill.

Truck is nearly 6 years old with almost 100k on the clock. First time doing the ATF drain and fill. No noticable difference in the way it drives. Shifts feel the same. I do feel better that it has the right amount of fluid now. Guess it can't be too important though since Toyota seems to be shorting everyone from the factory.

kennymillertime · Dec 7, 2014

I can not get my truck into check temp mode? what do i do sat and let my truck idle for one hour and still can't get it on its about 35 degrees out

esse10 · Dec 8, 2014

what folks have been finding( me included) is that on some Trucks you have to shift through the gears pretty quick, instead of pausing a second or two like the instructions says just shift through the sequence a little faster. In Your case Since it's too cold outside the tranny might get cold real quick and change modes in less time though, my guess.

udelslayer · Dec 9, 2014

Why don't you just drive it? Sitting idle under no load isn't going to heat anything much. They're not going to overheat and catch on fire in park like a 1983 S10 2.8L.

I don't understand why they don't build these things to be changed out easily. Yota is really pushing hard to make you stealership it. Although I think my trans sucks, I am glad it has a dipstick. Its the only reason you have to go through this secret handshake BS.

4x4Active · Dec 18, 2014

udelslayer said: ↑

Why don't you just drive it? Sitting idle under no load isn't going to heat anything much.
Click to expand...

Because not everyone live in the same environment. A half a mile drive for me can reach 115* but that dont mean your will or it might be even over the temp that you can check the fluid level. Its from [FONT=&quot]115°F to130°F[/FONT]. They would then have to wait for it to cool down. Best method and wont burn the wallet is get one of those bluetooth OBD2. Got mine on Amazon for $15 buck. Drove around and back to the garage when it hit 115*.

Anyways.... I did mine today. It was easy. I think mine was factory under filled. Didnt measure how much it came out but by the weight. Its not much. About -/+12 oz came out after putting in 5 quart But the process was damn easy. Just the pumping is a bit of exercise. temp was easy with a drive and monitor using torque app.

Here are a few pictures for those who do not know where the fill port/plug is located on a V6 4x4 OR.

After crawling under the truck ( from the passenger side). Looking up from the pan you will see the plug. Its almost directly above.

Here is a closer up.

The plug will say WS on it.

Here is my pump. I brought on Amazon for 11 buck. Its felt pretty good quality. Have not failed me. I was on my stomach pumping with the bottle on the ground. Not bad at all.

The parts tech was trying to tell me that my truck has a dipstick. Man I wish. But this is a easy DIY. A bit longer than a oil change and dealership trying to get a few hundred for this. Damn

4x4Active · Dec 18, 2014

kennymillertime said: ↑

I can not get my truck into check temp mode? what do i do sat and let my truck idle for one hour and still can't get it on its about 35 degrees out
Click to expand...

If you cant get it into check mode. Try doing it fast. I was able to get mine into check mode by doing it fast after a second or 2 pause from P to N. If all failed. Get yourself a bluetooth OBD2 and torque app. Which would total to about 20 buck.

BTW..... You can let your truck run/idle for hours or days and nothing will happen if you cannot get into check mode (temp light stay on for about 2 second after the shift)

volks71folk · Dec 20, 2014

This is all drain and fill. Does anybody have a write up for just checking the level of the fluid? Tusks

metrick1215 · Dec 20, 2014

If i send in my Ultragauge and get the MX update, can i do this without the entire shifting to get into mode processes?

4x4Active · Dec 20, 2014

volks71folk said: ↑

This is all drain and fill. Does anybody have a write up for just checking the level of the fluid? Tusks
Click to expand...

Basically the same thing man..... You skip the first part and go straight into temp mode and make sure its the correct temperature. Open up the overflow plug and check the level.

metrick1215 said: ↑

If i send in my Ultragauge and get the MX update, can i do this without the entire shifting to get into mode processes?
Click to expand...

If it show the temperature. You do not need to go into the temp mode (shifting)

notbrigum · Jan 18, 2015

Ok, no problems. Crush washers are cheap, get them the next time you're at the dealer, don't mess with re-using them, especially since you're normally only into these plugs but once every 3-5 years, not like the oil where if you have a small drip you can redo it in 4 months. Re. getting it into check Temp mode, first time didn't work, watch the video, it's quick, In, Out, In, Out, etc. Works. Also, here in AZ I had a hard time getting the fluid to cool off from AT Temp light ON > Off, so I could confirm it would rise to the correct temp. Every time I would put in into Check Temp mode, wouldn't go Off, just stayed On (I know, that means it's correct, but if you're wanting to REallly know for sure, you want to see it start Low/Off and then rise to On) Just saying. Easy but messy, especially with 13 y/o son learning/helping. Keep many garage towels around for cleanup. Thanks all.

novataco · Jan 20, 2015

Toyota service tech is telling me its not necessary because its a sealed system. However if its good preventative to do it I am ok with that. I would likely have the dealer do it because i don't have the time right now.

I have a 2006 TRD Sport V6 4x4. I have 130K, all highway and city, no offroading, some 4WD in snow or heavy rain only. Am I ok to stay put or should I have the tranny flushed and refilled?

WeberSarge · Jan 20, 2015

In my opinion , I'd flush a trans about every 50k - it's just peace of mind insurance . And that bs that this oil is "good for life of vehicle" , yeah - right . Depends on their definition of "life of vehicle" ....bullshit . You really expect not to do damage even with only 130k on the odometer ? Not in my opinion of working on mechanical stuff for over 40yrs .

Same goes with the antifreeze - someone would have to flat-out prove it's not causing corrosion inside any part of the engine or radiator/heater cores , valves ect . I say even with the uber-expensive antifreeze about 5yrs is tops ...
Sarge

Tinkerab · Jan 23, 2015

thank you to all who have contributed to this thread and especially the OP.

I did the drain and fill last night and had a bit of an issue. My driveway has a bit of a decline so even with my leveling kit the front end was sagging probably 3 inches from the rear.

First i removed the fill plug then the over flow. roughly 1.5 qts spilled out of the over flow at this point. I then opened the drain plug and another 1.5 qts or so came out.

I then followed the fill process and while the truck was warming up I jacked up the front end to level it the best I could. It still sat slightly tilted forward. Probably by 1 inch or so.

As I did the overflow a ton started pouring out so I quickly plugged it and tightened it up.

In your opinion is my pan/overfill plug damaged or will everything be okay if I simply do it again on perfectly level ground? Also will putting a level on the bottom of the frame be a sufficient measure for being level?

Once again thanks to all the contributors.

123GO · Feb 12, 2015

rb11701 said: ↑

What would be considered a small trickle to you guys who have done this?
Click to expand...

A strainfully hard piss steam if your past 60yrs....lol

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