Transmission fluid

I have 127000 miles on my 2015 4.0 Tacoma. I bought with 107000 but don’t know if the transmission fluid had been changed but I’m seeing videos to not do a drain and fill with this many miles. Should I change it anyways? Thanks

 

I would do a drain and fill and call it good.

 

If the fluid isn't burnt smelling and/or black change it, where people run into issues is when they do a fluid flush on a high mileage transmission.

Note there is a special procedure to check the fluid.

 

I got my driver's license in 1974. I've never changed the transmission fluid on any vehicle I've ever owned, that's several million miles. There is just under 700,000 combined miles sitting in my driveway between 4 vehicles. All have the factory fluid. Never had an issue but if one dies tomorrow, I'm way ahead financially by not paying to get them serviced.

It's more cost effective to just drive them. If it dies, and that is a HUGE if, then get the transmission rebuilt. It literally will cost you more to service the transmission on a regular basis than it will cost to rebuild it IF it ever dies. And I've never seen any evidence that changing the fluid prolongs the life of the transmission in modern vehicles. In the 1950's maybe. Chances are very good that the truck will end up in the scrap yard before the transmission dies even if you never change it.

 

At a minimum, I'd do a drain and fill.
I did one at 100K, no issues yet. Then another at 150k.....still going good.

 

I recently replaced the ATF filter and cycled in new WS fluid into my auto.




The original fluid had 148K so it was way overdue.




Prior to the flush when driving away from a stop it felt like someone letting the clutch out a little too quickly on a manual transmission, a little grabby and manual shifts in and out of OD started making a bit of a clunk. That almost all went away after the fluid change.

 

at around 150k I did a drain and fill, about 170k, I did a full flush, pumped out the fluid from the cooler line and added at the transmission fill plug. Drained 4, added 4, repeated until the fluid was clean. 14 Quarts total then did the fluid temp check with by jumping the obd pins with a wire. Did another drain and fill recently at 240K along with the filter. start with a drain and fill and go from there.

 

A drain and fill should be ok, flushing is not recommended at that point