2018 Tacoma suspected low tranny fluid

As stated above you will need some type of pump to get the fluid from the container to the fill port. They sell pumps for a few $'s that are sized to screw into a standard quart size container, I used one of these and it did the job, $7 at Harbor Freight.

 

lemon?

 

Well heck - a pump makes all the sense in the world!

What size is the filler plug - I assume its a 24mm?

The largest Metric socket I have is 22mm and its not even close! I was able to get a 15/16 standard on it, but its got some wiggle and I dont want to round off the edges of the plug.



And I thought this was going to be a quick and easy check! Now I have the feeling I will need the better part of an afternoon to get it checked.

 

As I recall it is 24mm, HarborFreight sells individual sockets for ~$3. You might be able to grab it with an open end adjustable wrench but I would go with the right size socket.

 

Just came back from the dealer and I was low on trans fluid for a 2016 sr5 rwd. Given that..what kind of damage was done to the truck transmission driving it with low fluid?

 

Just a heads up. The Toyota ATF fluid comes in a quart bottle. But the cap is for a gallon. Made mistake of buying a pump for a quart bottle. Autozone sells a pump with a combo quart/gallon cap for cheap. Use it once and throw it away.

Yes the refill plug is 24 mm. It is located on the passenger side, half way up facing sideways to passenger sort of hidden from view when on a crawler. With exhaust pipe in the way of your reach.

Overfill plug is 5 mm hex. Located on driver side. Bottom location facing downwards.

Read the transmission thread with the instructions. Had it printed out because my short term memory can't keep track of the shift to D or shift to Neutral or whatever. That is to trigger the temperature monitoring.

You have a narrow temp range to check the level. Basically, you have to warm it up. If you pull the overfill plug while cold out pours a whole bunch of AT fluid. Ask me how I know. When it reaches the right temp, your Multi Function Display will Display "D". That is when the fluid gets released into another chamber. You then scramble underneath the vehicle to unscrew the overfill plug and check how much fluid comes out.

If there is none, you are low. You have to fill. But wait! Remember that exhaust pipe in your way of pumping the ATF fluid into the refill plug? Yeah, it is hot now. Ha ha, joke is on you.

If there is a gush, you have to wait until it slows to a trickle then you are golden.

But wait! The gush hasn't slowed and the Mulfunction Display's "D" is now flashing. Which means it is over the temp measuring range. Which is no time at all. Ask me how I know. So the instructions say shut if off and let it cool back down. So you have to rush back under to fasten the refill plug again to avoid that gush back of ATF fluid. Ha ha, joke is on you.

So basically, a PITA.

To anyone doing it, first fill at least a quart. Pre-loosen the overfill plug to finger tight. Wait for the minimum temp signal. Rush down to completely remove the overfill plug. Watch the flow and the temp indication. You have a really short period of time between ranges.

In my case, I put in a quart. A quart came out to a trickle. So it was full.

 

Yes it does. For $40 you can have all the tools needed to check transmission temp.

 

This is maddening!

I was surprised once I got my OBD2 reader to display trans temp how fast it got over 113 and kept rising.

 

Yep. And service manual calls to immediately stop engine and let the temp go back down. No explanation.

 

I'd even be skeptical of the mechanics doing it exactly as procedurally described here.

 

Checking if the fluid is low is easy, topping off is a little bit trickier since you need a little bottle pump and some hose to make it easy.

I would reccomend checking the fluid yourself (since that is pretty easy) and if you know it's low you can have the dealer fill it, then check it again yourself after they fill it.

 

What's this easy process of checking the fluid level?

 

I can do it with a small pan, one allen wrench and about 10-15 min time. no lift or jack, just fire up the rig first thing, put it in the check mode, then when the D goes steady hop under the truck and open the drip plug with the allen key.

 

Without filling it with more fluid, how do you know if it’s low when opening the overflow plug? The manual specified how much transmission fluid should come out to determine if it has the correct amount. The only way to do that is to overfill it slightly to begin with.

 

There will be some small amount of fluid in the check plug tube when you first pull the plug. Then it should drip a small ammount steadily as the truck warms up. So if you pull the check plug when the D goes solid and you get no drips after the initial drain of the check plug tube wait until the D starts to flash again..if you still have no drips then your trans is low. The fluid starts to expand as it heats up so as long as you get some drippage while the D is solid or even a few seconds after then you are probably fine. If you get 1 min after the D flashing again and no drips you are for sure low.

 

Ah, makes sense