2012 ATF drain and fill issue - fluid mix

long time lurker, first post. learned a lot on here, thanks.

I bought a 2012 ACLB TRD OR with 105k about a year ago. As far as I know the previous owner never changed the tranny fluid. I'm at 120k now, never had an issue with anything on the truck. I read the threads here about drain and fill, but was short on time so took it to my local goodyear service center and had them drop the pan, drain fluid, install new filter, etc. I made sure they weren't going to use a flush machine.

Transmission started having trouble 10 mins after I picked it up. Rougher shifting, slippage, not shifting down as it was before when I came to a stop. I thought maybe they didn't put enough fluid in. I checked the ATF level using the "wire in OBD-II port" method I read about on here, looked fine, so took it back to the service center and explained what was happening.

Talked to the tech, they didn't use WS fluid.

They're gonna drain and fill again, using Toyota WS fluid this time. However, I know that doesn't come close to the full 10-qt drain (including the additional cooler w/ the tow package), and now I'll have a mix of old WS fluid, new WS fluid, and a few quarts of the Valvoline fluid they added on Monday.

Any recs on what to do now? My thoughts are that I do the ~3 qt drain and fill with WS fluid myself again in a month, and try to further dilute the proportion of Valvoline fluid. I could take to a stealership, but I think they'd just want to do a drain and fill, and tell me I just need to use WS fluid, which I know, but failed to communicate to Goodyear.

I'm starting to understand why you older guys prefer to do your own work on your trucks. Doing my own spark plugs and rear diff fluid next week.

 

You took a completely fine running vehicle, and they return a non properly running vehicle back. I’ll say they are 100% responsible for what’s going on and therefore they are responsible to fix the issue they have created. I’ll be furious. And again, DIY everything. Cheers! Btw I only use Toyota AWS fluid

 

Hope they didn't add Trans fluid to the Oil...

I run Valvoline MaxLife without issue

 

What Valvoline fluid did they use? There are some fluids that are valid substitutes for Toyota WS and it’s stated on the bottle.

 

If they did exactly what you asked "drop the pan, drain fluid, install new filter, etc" you already have a mix in there. Dropping the pan doesnt drain nearly the full amount in the system. Im a bit surprised the wrong type ATF would give you an issue unless the fluid was grossly the wrong type (like motor oil or whatever) but I could be totally off base Im not sure..

Just to confirm, you did the ATF level check following the procedure exactly, correct? ATF was at the proper temp range as indicated by the light, and the engine was running?

 

I did a drain and fill at a local trans shop at about 75k. Mixing 2 fluids is fine as long as they are compatible(my trans shop uses Valvoline). Trans has been buttery smooth ever since. I'm now at almost 110k. There should be zero need to have to refill with the Toyota fluid. IT sounds like to me they didn't put the correct amount in. Stop driving the truck if its shifting weird, you can cause damage.

Personally I would ask for a refund and take the truck to a reputable trans shop in your area and have them look at it.

 

Given that the tech's solution was to drain and fill with WS, I am assuming that they didn't use a valid substitute, but that is an assumption. I'll confirm.

Yes, was really hot here yesterday evening so couldn't get the ATF light to stop blinking after I drove home (temp too high, if I read correctly) but checked it again at 6am this morning with the "A/T OIL TEMP" light on, engine running. No trickle, barely a drop came out, but I think that would just tell me that it wasn't overfilled, right?

 

i wonder what kind of valvoline fluid they used? they probably used dexron/mercon. you need to get all that crap flushed to get it all out.

 

Makes sense. Thanks.

 

I did a drain and fill of about 3.5 quarts of Valvoline Max Life atf and have had no problems. I wonder if they messed something up installing the new filter.

 

I would be more worried about them trying to "fix" a trans problem when they clearly can't perform a basic drain and fill.

 

That tells me its too low. Maybe not by much, maybe by a few qts.

 

To be fair the average lube tech probably has no clue the engine needs to be running and at the right temp to perform the level check. Im betting OP is a few qts low.

The fluid type could be a compounding issue, but Id focus on the level first.

 

If it turns out that they didn’t use the correct fluid, as others have stated, a drain and fill only replaces a fraction of the total fluid in the system. You would have to have all the fluid replaced.

 

definitely need a full flush with one of those machines. drain and fills in this scenario just won't cut it.

 

update for those who responded - thanks for the info. I appreciate it.

Turns out after more talking to the shop, they didn't use a Valvoline fluid originally, it was their generic bulk ATF. They drained today and added back 4.5 qts of Toyota WS fluid. I drove it around for half an hour and put it through various sequences, it seems back to normal and none of the issues from yesterday reappeared. I'll probably do a series of 2 or 3 quart drain/fills on my own over the next couple months to get the proportion of generic atf down as low as I can. I'll check the level again tomorrow AM when I can get the temp right, but I suspect it was a mix of too little fluid added back and the use of a non-WS rated fluid, based on what everyone has said. Regardless, thanks for your responses and tips, I'm learning

 

In my opinion that’s an unsatisfactory fix. You have 2-3 quarts of incorrect spec fluid still left in your transmission and each drain and fill only fractionally fixes that.

I would have insisted on all the fluid being removed from the system and replaced.

 

I would certainly be inclined to do a couple of DAFs with WS or Maxlife. I wouldn't trust, for one second what fluid they put in it or whether they performed the correct temp check procedure.

 

Welcome to TW! Glad you got it prety much worked out. Gotta watch out with some if not most of those tire shop franchises like Firestone and Goodyear, including dealers due to a turn around of service techs. Even dealers buy their fluids in bulk, so what you think your getting really isn't. You might see if you could supply the parts of fluids that need to be changed.

The drain and fill is pretty easy to do. You may want to think about getting a bluetooth OBD2 along with a phone app (Torque) to help with the fluid temp check. A few threads here on TW that can help you with the process of setting up the PID's for transmission fluid temps.

So where is the obligatory picture of your truck?

 

I would drive for about 30 min then go back so they can do the drain and refill with the right fluid, and repeat that a couple extra times.