DIY: Full Flush for Automatic Transmission

In hot climate and doing a lot of stop and go; I can really see the benefit of a secondary cooler; however I think during the winter it'll be best to find a way to block airflow to the secondary cooler as it'll help keep the transmission running at optimum running temps. Yeah once your on the highway and you really get going the temps really stay in check well.

But wow 8200lbs is really pushing it for the little tacoma lol

 

I have always been told that as long as the torque converter is locked it's not generating heat. When the converter unlocks and you notice the small rpm increase, such as going up a hill or increasing speed, it's generating heat. But, if you were to try to force the converter to stay locked it would lug the engine, which isn't good either.

On a side note, I noticed last night that Pennzoil makes a 'Platinum LV' fluid that is Toyota WS compatible. Can't say I've seen it for sale anywhere though.

 

For cold weather you could install a thermal bypass valve like this one http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...TRANSMISSION+COOLER+LONG+(OC-4739P6)&_sacat=0
should be easy to do and you're good to go !

 

Huge thanks for this thread. Did my flush yesterday. Everything went smooth. I used a modified sprayer as seen in some of the pics. I did it 2 qts at a time and pumped a total of 12 out and 12 in (3 gallons). I did not drain the pan first. I'm at 60k and figure I'll drop the pan at 100k and see what she looks like. The old fluid at 60k looked like coffee - brown. Glad I did it now. And I don't tow or wheel - just a lot of sustained highway driving at 70 mph.

The other reason I'm glad I did it was I was about a half quart low from factory. I was super careful when I drained to measure everything and put back in exactly what came out. When I pulled the check plug, not a drop came out. I put in another 1/2 quart and still nothing. I added a couple more ounces and she started to trickle.

Only PITA in this process was the temp mode. I jumped the OBD wires and could get it to work but it was too hot yesterday because I drove to the store to buy and extra quart. Took forever to cool down. I ended up letting it sit overnight and then warming it up from cold. That was taking a while so I made 2 trips around my block and it finally hit the sweet spot and the light stayed on. I think I'm going to find a way to get a temp reading without the wire jumping business. I spent way too much time bent over to see the OBD port, and then starting, and pulling the wire, and doing it again...it works but swapping the fluid in and out was the easier half of the process. I think if I had a temp reader it would be even easier than an oil change.

 

My bad. Here it is. I just plumbed the factory cooler's outlet line into the auxiliary cooler's inlet line, then auxiliary outlet line back to factory return line. My normal route involves driving through a bunch of inclines and this mod has certainly paid for itself. As people have stated, over cooling was something to keep in mind, so I went with a 677, since it seemed that a 678 or 679 could have been overkill.

 

Wanted to thank mountain lion for this! Went through this today along with my front and rear diff, and serpentine belt. Shamefully it's the first time in 145k that I have done any of this maintenance. Overall, my fluids were not too bad.

Edit to add that I wasn't able to complete the entire project as my tranny was too hot to check the level due to the damn AZ heat. I'll get er tomorrow morning.

 

Yikes!

 

One of our 3/4 tons was out of commission. The taco tows it well, just gotta make sure to leave plenty of stopping distance. Take it easy and you'll be fine. The road I was on was pretty flat, it's not like I was taking it through the Tennessee mountains.

 

What's everyone going with for fluids?

 

I went with Valvoline MaxLife WS.

 

I ordered Amsoil ATF. Haven't used Valvoline before but I did see a lot of guys went that route. How long can I expect to run this fluid? I'm doing my swap early, only 26k on the truck

 

I went with Maxlife on my last drain/fill. Currently running a mix of WS and Maxlife. These transmissions aren't picky. Toyota or Aisin WS is good stuff though.

 

Valvoline says to follow the manufacturers recommendation.

 

I'm not totally sure about the change interval on the AMSoil or Valvoline and Toyota's change interval recommendation seems a bit long, I'll probably do a drain and fill every 40k on my truck.

 

I used Maxlife full synthetic in all of my vehicles. I have done 3 drain/refills on both of my Tundras, and 2 on my Tacoma.

My 09 Tundra uses the same 5-speed auto as the Taco, and around 97k miles I started noticing a weird misfire type feeling when it would shift through the gears under moderate acceleration. I thought maybe it was a leaky spark plug tube o-ring that had fouled a plug, it didn't feel like typical "rumble strip" type shudder. Amazingly, after changing the fluid with Maxlife the misfire/skipping feeling went away and now it shifts smoother than ever.

 

Thanks, that's what I was thinking, every 50ish.

 

Will this work on only the 2 wheel drive Tacoma or is it also good for the 4 wheel drive?

 

The OP did this on a prerunner. The transmission is the same, just has a different tailshaft for a prerunner.

 

Thanks

 

Thanks for the write-up. Completed this last weekend without any trouble on my 2012 DCSB 4wd Tacoma. Just bought it used with 60,000 miles. I had a full 4 liters from drain + pan drop. Typical slightly fuzzy magnets. WS fluid was typical redish-light tan (smelled different though). Replaced WS with Maxlife Synthetic. Replaced filter & gaskets. Used all four gallons (flushed too long...). Completed AT Temp check mode and topped off. Went on a 10 minute highway test drive and seemed to shift fine. Came home and stopped but still in D and there was a short period of low vibration then it quit. Shift to R, foot on brake, low vibration then quit. Shifted between D & R several times (8-10 seconds each), foot on brake and it slowly went away. Doesn't do it now. Thoughts?

Other thoughts:
If you drop the pan, be sure your rag doesn't leave behind a bunch of lint.
Double check those torque specs. Almost used ftlb instead of inlb...
I pulled the cool hose completely off the trans cooler so that cooler got flushed too.