Transmission experts on fluid level

Folks,

I need someone to ease my mind. How critical is the level of the transmission fluid?

I changed my fluid 9,000 miles ago. Truck still runs fine, but naturally I am wondering if the shifts are rough because it's a Tacoma or because the fluid level is off. I believe it is off by maybe 0.5 quarts, if at all. The only reason I think it is off is because more drained out than when I filled it up. Also, my truck wasn't perfectly level although it wasn't far off. My mind tells me that the fluid level can't be that critical since Toyota doesn't give us a dip stick to check it accurately and trusts that the "drain until it drips" method is as accurate as we need to get. Thoughts on this?

2013 V6 with towing package. I did the ole trans pan drain and fill.

 

I just did a transmission fluid change last week, without the filter change, @ 100K miles. I did a 1:1 fluid replacement change with a little (0.1L) to top off. As soon as I saw transmission fluid leaking from the overflow, I stopped filling, plugged up the OF drain, added that 0.1L of trainy fluid, then plugged up the fill. No problems with the shifts. 1/2 L is a lot of fluid to be in the less!! I'm a weekend mechanic who reads Chilton manuals and has a "real" mechanic friend I bounce questions from.

Did you use the Toyota brand "World Standard" transmission fluid?

Hope that helped.

 

OP - how much fluid did you drain?

 

The only thing to do since your concerned enough to ask is enter temp check mode and pull the overfill plug and see if fluid trickles out. The transmissions are meant to be slightly overfilled so you can let it leak out to a trickle when in temp check mode. This ensures you are at the correct level that the transmission manufacture recommends not Toyota.

 

I've done both my cars with no dipstick, I like to have someone raise rpm to around 1500 when topping these trans off. The reason for raising idle is to ensure torque converter and transmission cooler is full. You did have engine running I presume? The fluid level is just as important as ones with dipstick.

 

I drained just at 3 quarts. I refilled with 3.3 and then warmed it up. Once the temperature was between 115-130 I then pulled the overflow and 0.5 quarts came out. Could this be due to thermal expansion of the fluid?

 

I did have it running. I made sure not to make that mistake. Haha.

 

Yes fluid will expand. I did two bmw autos and installed scanner and watched for trans temp bmw recommended. Never have done Toyota but I'm sure there is a temp range they want you to be at while checking fluid. Bmw temp was not fully hot to avoid scalding.