Should I Change My Transmission Fluid?

I have an 02' PreRunner and bought it used with about 130k on it. Now has close to 165k. I've heard several things about whether or not to change the tranny fluid on it. Some say not to touch it unless you are sure that it has been serviced before. Some say do it but not to get a full flush using a machine. What is y'alls input here? The fluid looks okay, but I'd keep my peace of mind if it was changed and I knew it was fresh.

 

I bought my 2003 Tacoma March 10th, it had 91,000 miles on it and I changed the timing belt, thermostat etc and then flushed the transmission fluid. I hear different stories on what to do and I research it to death. I've come the conclusion either way I should have done the opposite so I went ahead and had it flushed. It was pretty dirty, had a hint of red in it and that was it. The guy I bought the truck from was a complete idiot so it's no telling what he had in there. All I can say is 2 months later and a 1,000 miles later all is good. It could fall out tomorrow morning but if it does it does. I know that doesn't help but that's what I did. I also had the transmission flushed in my wife's Trailblazer last year, it only had 85,000 miles on it and it's a 2003. It's doing fine too.

 

the "old wives tale" of tranny flush making it stop working is just that, a myth. its from back in the 70's when trannys were sloppy and had lots of trash circulating in it so the trash and crud actually "helped" to add friction to the clutch plates and when fresh clean new fluid was replaced this took away the crud that was helping it still work. used car lots used to use an old trick of putting sawdust in the tranny so it drove great when you bought it and a week later (after its too late) you finally find out the tranny needs new clutches.

todays trannys wont work with all that crud and the worst thing you could ever do is NOT flush the tranny and replace the fluid. also the new fluid should be full synthetic to give the best protection and longest life out of your tranny.

the guys who go around saying flushing the tranny will break it are like the bigfoot guys, they mean well and are trying to be helpful but they are just spreading false rumors that they heard it somewhere and believe its true but cant give you one single example were it ever caused a problem.

now as to the thing about shop flushes doing damage this is sometimes true if they use a pressure flush machine because it can blow out the seals if its not working correctly.

the best and safest way to flush your tranny is done very easy just like you change the oil in your engine. all you need is 2 gallons of max life high mileage full synthetic tranny fluid (if its an auto) and you disconnect the tranny hose from the radiator and let the tranny pump out the old fluid as you refill it with fresh.

now start the engine and let the tranny pump out fluid until about 2 quarts comes out then turn off the engine and add 4 quarts to the tranny then start the truck to let the tranny pump out fluid until about 2 quarts comes out but this time you are
only adding back the 2 quarts that came out.

continue to repeat this process until all you see is clean fresh fluid come out and your done. at the end let the fluid run down so it needs some added before reconnecting the hose so you can top it off to the right level.

one gallon is used to push out all the old fluid and the second gallon is just enough to finish the job and top it off at the right level. overall I think it holds about a gallon and a half of fluid total