Can I change flush it, leave it, or drain and fill?

Hello beautiful community
So my Tacoma didn’t have transmission fluid replaced for a long time, nothing wrong with my transmission it shifts smooth and runs good. Should I change flush it, leave it, or drain and fill? Mileage is 210k .

 

Drain and fill.

 

You will find this discussed a lot here on the forums. A general consensus is that in a case such as yours, if after 200K miles the fluid has never been changed, then don’t touch it. if it has been serviced a time or two, then doing a couple of drain and refill operations should be OK. It is a good idea to drain the fluid, drop the pan, and inspect the magnets and see what’s in the bottom of the pan and pick up screen. If there’s a lot of goop, that’s probably clutch material, and you don’t want to take that out of the system.

I suggest you track down some of the older discussions about this and read up on it. There are a lot of opinions. A flush is probably not worth the risk it represents, again, assuming that the transmission has not been serviced much (if any) before.

 

Mine had 135K last year and hadn't been done. I did a drain/fill. No way I'd flush even if it was newer.

 

Short answer is : Dran & Fill

Longer answer: Drain, Drop pan, clean pan and magnets , new filter, and refill.

Longer Answer : All of the above with a flush. But only if the flush is done correctly.
You never want to perform a flush with old fluid.
You only want to send new clean fluid down the system to flush it.

Also FWIW. If your truck has the tow package.
You can do a flush yourself. It’s a bit of a task and slow.
But the ATF cooler makes a great “flush” point.

DIY here. (I never done. Don’t intend to)
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-full-flush-for-automatic-transmission.68462/

 

I did the DIY full flush back in April, 10k miles later and no issues have arisen. I think that it was the first transmission service for the truck, and it was at 203k miles at the time.

 

Save your money, drive it until it dies then rebuild it. Changing it now won't prolong when it needs to be rebuilt. Chances are good it'll go another 100,000-200,000 miles if left alone.

 

I don’t see anything wrong with the DIY procedure.
I am just going to stick with 50k drain and fills. Maybe sooner depending on the situation.

 

If I had been more on top of things, that would have been my plan as well. Wanted to get as close to a clean slate as I could and start doing the 50k cycle.

 

My truck had no known history of the trans being serviced. I did a drain and fill at 226k. Actually I did several back to back. I also did a drain and fill at 295k. I'm at 330k now.

 

I made the mistake of replacing the fluid in a transmission that hadn’t been regularly serviced, once the clutch material wasn’t in there it slipped horribly.

 

Need some advise on this same topic, 2006 Pre-runner, Currently @ 194K, I have never messed with Transmission oil change on a regular basis but I am having an issue where I am not able to get into 4th Gear. what are my options. My wife said that it had a check engine light, while I was gone on a work trip for about 2 weeks and now its not showing up. I am thinking of taking it to auto zone to get a code reading even if its not showing anything to see if something comes up.

But on the mechanical side, what are my options?
A. open up "overflow plug" to see if anything comes out, if not add Toyota AT Oil, until refilled?
B. Drain and fill the transmission fluid, Basically a simple transmission oil change?

I will keep looking into issue but I would like your feedback if you dwelt with something like this.
Thanks !

 

Get a bluedrive scanner , it connected to your phone via app. And it’s great way to see live data etc as well. It costs about 100$ or less .

 

Am I on the safe side if drain and fill only ?

 

Yes, and something else to consider is multiple drain and fills, how ever many times you want, I would recommend 4 minimum.

and then in a few weeks do another 4, that way you’re replacing much of the old fluid without forcing anything through the lines/system in an overly aggressive way.

 

Around 250k I did a drain and fill when my rpms went high on take off and they went back down after doing a dump n fill.

cant hurt to do it twice for more good ATF

 

I would vote for the drain and fill, new filter, gasket and a few quarts replaced.
At the very least, you'll verify you're at the right fill level.

 

Did you flush it or just drain and fill?

 

This is a well known condition that takes place in unserviced transmissions when people replace the fluid in high mileage conditions. The clutch particles act as gripping agent that now gets flushed out leaving worn clutch plates that will slip.