When to service transmission?

2013 DCSB V6 4L 1GR-FE. 38,500 miles.

Took her into the local Toyota dealership today for trans and propeller shaft grease service, figured I would have the trans flushed. The service tech talked me out of the trans service, said the trans was sealed and uses a high-life synthetic fluid that should not need changed or serviced until 100,000 miles. Is this correct? So I opt'd for no trans service today, and they are only greasing up the zerks in the propeller shaft.

 

Had mine done at 60, 80, and ill have another at 100k.

They didnt offer a flush, but a drain and fill.

 

Correct, drain and fill was recommended at 100k, unless I am towing a lot which I am not. Service tech told me it was an all day job, since I have the two package with trans cooler. They have to let the truck sit for a few hours to cool down, then drain, then fill, then test. I was surprised the dealership was so honest and talked me out of spending $350 for trans service today.

 

Not all day..... few hrs yes.

I have the tow package also, its not a big deal.... they sound lazy and id second guess taking it to them.

 

I'd do a drain/fill every 60,000 regardless if your towing or not... just my opinion. From what I've read here the fluid level comes low from the factory on a lot of these trucks with the tow package... just to be on the safe side had my first drain/fill done at 18,000 miles.

 

The tech may not have meant "all day". If you show up with a hot engine. it's going to take awhile for it to cool down to the correct temp that it needs to be at to open the overfill plug.

 

My maintence schedule that came with my manual says 60k for transmission.

 

Well I followed this drain and fill procedure the other day: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-drain-refill-automatic-transmission.63851/
Took me about 2.5 hours and that was the first time. Total cost was 1 gallon of MaxLife synthetic ATF from Walmart at $25.

 

now they are calling me back to tell me the U joints on the drive shaft aka propeller shaft are also sealed, and cannot be service. wait now. I thought there were zerk fittings in there on a 2013, am I wrong?? or is the dealer smoking crack ?

 

Unless you're 4x4, there are no zerks for the drive shaft

 

Just in case you feel like doing it yourself when the warranty is up.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-drain-refill-automatic-transmission.63851/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-full-flush-for-automatic-transmission.68462/

 

Yes, 4x4 here, which is why I thought I had zerks for grease. This dealer is about to piss me off.

 

There should be like 5 then. I grease every 10k.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/greasing-entire-drive-shaft-u-joints-5-zerks-total.56976/

 

Your better off greasing it yourself... at least you'd know if it actually got done. If your not sure you have zerks just peek under there... pretty easy to see most of them without even getting under the truck (total of 5.) I grease them every 5,000 miles (that translates to every 2.75 years in my case.)

 

There are grease fittings on the driveshaft. I grease mine every oil change.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...th-pics-for-second-gen-4-liter-trucks.289913/

 

I do a drain/top off on my transmission every ~25k miles, the procedure where you drain 3-4 quarts out and then top it back up. Some people do it less, some people do it more, but that's how often I like to do it.

And I grease the u-joints once a year.

 

Not true. My Prerunner has grease fittings on the drive shaft universal joints.

The only correct answer is that some do and some don't. Check visually to make sure.

 

Thanks for the helpful posts today. I'm going to wait until 60k miles to service the trans. I used the pics in this thread to show the tech at the dealership where to grease, and they hit all the zerks for me,

 

Damn, if it took all that.. I'd be looking for a new place to take it to. Or better yet do it yourself. Greasing the zerk is fairly easy. Only one zerk requires you to remove a small heat shield to access.