Just hit 60,000. What to do about changing trans fluid.

So I passed 60,000mi this weekend with my automatic transmission. It says to change the trans fluid. I know it is a closed system and tricky to change, so I asked the dealer how much it would be. They said $147 which sounded low to me and they said yes we only do the drain and fill.

Is the drain and fill all I need or do i need to totally flush it out? Or should I not be worried about changing it? I am not adverse to trying myself, I just thought having a record of it being done on carfax like reports in the future might be good.

 

190,000 miles on mine, never been changed, never will.

 

It’s easy and fun to flush it yourself:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-full-flush-for-automatic-transmission.68462/

 

Above link is great. Just filter through all the BS chat and get to the detailed instructions.
Your truck has the auxiliary transmission cooler in front of the AC condenser so flushing should be easy.
Get a new pan gasket (OEM or FelPro TOS18736 for V6) and clean out the residue or it will mix in with the new fluid. New filter is not necessary, just clean the original one as it is a fine metal screen.

 

I got a new filter and gasket kit from NAPA, the kit was under $25. Not worth cleaning old filter in my opinion. Simple and cheap just to replace it.

OP, just make sure you have a torque wrench that does inch pounds if you decide to drop the transmission pan to clean it/replace filter.

 

no need to drop the pan. Buy 13 qts of WS ATF from toyota and do a full system fluid change via the link above, Pretty simple process. expect to pay 8ish bucks a quart for the fluid. Dont let the dealer do it.

 

just had the '05 flushed.......

$170ish IIRC........2nd time..........166K miles

 

Are you sure they didn’t just do a pan drain? Doing it yourself takes +$80 worth of fluid (12 quarts). I find it hard to believe the dealer only charges $90 in labor for a full flush.

 

when I had the auto trans on my old 2nd gen V6, I flushed the ATF via the transmission cooler's outgoing lines. When I compared the color from Toyota's WS trans fluid to my " Old " fluid... it was BARELY dark and I did that on 132,000 miles.

If you had a manual, I would say F' yes for sure!

So to answer your question.... you're good!

 

Follow that link in post 3. You will sleep better.

 

I might do the full flush at 100,000, sitting on 80,000 now so I have time to think about it. Truck still drives like when I got it at 35,000.

 

Good lord I thought 60000 was high miles on my 15

Ok solid. Reading through the whole thing makes it seem less daunting. I guess what freaked me out last time was jumping the wires.

 

One of the things I Learned while doing mine was that the temperature of the transmission fluid is important when refilling. I have a scanguage and it helped insure the correct temperature and fill level.

 

If you’re worried about jumping the wrong wires go to Amazon and buy an OBD2 port male connector and jumper/solder the appropriate pins on there. Then when you plug it into the Tacoma's OBD2 port you know the connection is correct. I created a OBD2 dongle which lets me jumper either my Tacoma or my wife’s Pilot. Cost me $7 and 20 minutes of time.

 

I had to re-read that. For some reason I thought you were trying to connect your tacoma to your wife's pilot.

 

You live in SoCal and it's $8ish a qt? Wow. In many other areas it's $12-$13 a qt. at dealer Best price I can find on ebay lately is around $8.75. Maybe you were pitching an ebay price.

OP - the $147 will get you a pan drain. No way they can flush the whole system - parts and labor for that.

 

This is a good idea, I’m going to do this. Will make it super simple to get into temp check mode.

 

Good Lord don't listen to this fool. Transmission fluid does not last forever...

Find a good local shop and pay them to do a power flush. Not just a flush, not a drain and fill, a power flush.

 

Just gotta ask around Thousand Oaks toyota got me a case (12) + 1 single quart for 109 out the door with tax. Typical selling price is around the 12-13$ mark, but if you go look, im buying 13 quarts, you can do better and they usually will

 

i had a shop flush mine. the receipt had a lot of quarts of TF on it. (11?).

i dont remember it costing that much. maybe $370ish. nothing has broken on my truck yet..so it was not expensive in my mind. i did it at 80,000 because i was towing a bit more back then.