DIY: Full Flush for Automatic Transmission

No. I actually didn't address drain/refill vs full flush. My point was don't mess with black oil with metallic specks at all.

My formula for a drain/refill in our trucks is drain/refill every 30K. In our Tacomas, you'll replace about 3 qts from the drain bolt, or about 4 qts if you drop the pan. This is a made up formula on my part based on what most other manufacturers recommend and what I've picked up here and there from tran mechanics. For a full flush, follow Toyota's recommendation of a flush every 60K for severe service (off-roading, towing, commercial use, etc ...) or, short of submitting an oil sample to a lab, the accepted range of 70K-90K based on the ATF-color test. The Chris Fix video below does a good job explaining this.

I use MaxLife ATF in all my Toyota products (including the Lexus') because it is WS and Type IV compatible. WS for the Tacoma and Lexus; Type IV for the 06 Camry and 07 Corolla. And at $18 for a bottle of 4 qts, that's quite an affordable product. In my Tacoma I'm doing an ATF flush every 70K. Thus far, I've done two flushes; three flushes in the Lexus ES350, and one each for the Camry/Corolla. For ATF filter, I have a Wix; I replace my ATF filters every other ATF flush.

Now, for my sister's Lexus NX200T, a turbo 4 cyl, I wanted to get a WS-spec-only ATF that is not as pricey as the Toyota WS brand; so, I got a 5qt (not 4) bottle of Idemitsu TLS-LV, made in Japan. At $35, it's not a bad price. I'll be doing drain/refill's on her AT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o690DovjDAc

 

Did 3rd ATF flush on my Tacoma, with 183K miles, yesterday; 8 quarts of MaxLife ATF. I have a Milescraft pump that has worked great in the past, but it's such a PIA to set up. This time I did what I saw somewhere in the 30's post - run clear tube from engine bay down to the trany fill hole, with funnel at the top. This worked great and was much quicker to set up and take down. I happened to have the perfect tubing that fits in the trany fill hole and is held in place tight enough to keep the tube from popping out and to keep ATF from seeping out - 4 feet of Watts clear tube, 1/2" ID and 5/8" OD; got it at home depot.
3 quarts exactly came out of the trany pan. I added 4 quarts ATF. Connected my ATF drain hose at the radiator return line; turn on the engine and shut it off when 2 quarts came out; added 2 more quarts; drained 2; add 2 more; drain 1 - that's 8 qts in and 8 qts out. I had about a quart left over from a previous flush and added that to make sure I wasn't under when I removed the oil level trany bolt. Used my UltraGuage to measure ATF temps - for comparison, I took out my IR gun - ATF temps did vary depending on location on the pan I aimed the IR gun, best spot to measure is flat pan area around the ATF level bolt. The IR temp was 1-2 degrees within the UltraGauge readings. I removed the level bolt at 117 degrees and out came a quart exactly. Old ATF has 51K miles and was 6 years old. ATF color was a deep red; color on the white paper was mostly tan with slight red. Next ATF flush will be 250K and I will replace ATF filter a second time. Will use this method to fill the trany from now on.
What also helped out greatly is a marked 10-quart bucket from HD; look for them in the pain dept. I think they are about $4. They are well marked, making it easy to read the ATF level as it fills up.

 

@mountain lion thank you. Good write up. Ill be passing this along to my son to do on his 4runner.

 

Has anyone seen transmission fluid turn purple

 

What shade of purple? Royal Purple?

 

This was my first drain and fill at 72k bought the truck used with 15k on it. Fluid was dark brown when I dipped the paper towel then it dried to the color in the pic

 

"I use MaxLife ATF in all my Toyota products (including the Lexus') because it is WS and Type IV compatible."

Great writes ups from you guys. Thanks for making this sound easy enough for others to do as well.
I'm trying to set myself up to do this for my 2015 Tacoma. Ordered the Wix filter and looked at the ATF. The MaxLife ATF is synthetic. Is the Toyota ATF synthetic too? And, this Lubegard someone mentioned, is it totally necessary? I'll add it if the consensus is yes. Thanks again.

 

I’ve never done this and I have over 200,000 miles on my 2006 TRD. I remember going over and over with a Toyota service person and she kept insisting that it’s a sealed transmission and it’s designed to never be changed for the life of the vehicle. I questioned that and she was adamant about it, so I figured she was right. Bad advice I guess. Looking forward to doing this when I have some time, someday down the road after repairing all the damage from the last hurricane. I’m afraid of what I might find when I do this.

 

2005 Tacoma 4L TRD 2wd (A750E)

I have been reading up on the DIY trans flush procedures that have been posted both here and elsewhere. I tried getting
into "temp check" mode, but had no luck. Jumpering the 4,13 ODB pins is easy, and it does cause some dash lights to
show (cruise, airbag...). The mystery is this "AT TEMP" dash light does NOT even show when you first turn the ignition
key, yet every other dash light does (airbag, check eng, cruise ctl, etc). Could my light be burned out? Looking in the
owners manual, there is a note that says the "AT TEMP" light is only on 4wd models!

Looking in the Tacoma '05+ FSM posted various places, I find on pg AT-135, that there is no mention of any "AT TEMP"
light for the fluid fill procedure. Instead it is the "D" shift indicator light, which I have not seen mentioned in any
of these postings. This same page lists the ATF capacities for various operations (drain & fill 1.4qt, valve body
3.9qt, torque converter 5.6qt, entire trans 5.6qt). Most of this seems way off, so maybe the "D" indicator is another error.

Update:
It turns out both the owners manual and the FSM are incorrect w/respect to the dash light. I was finally able to do the flush and get the "A/T Oil Temp" dash light to work (see pic). I had purchased a garden sprayer, but I ended up using 5/8 OD clear tubing run on top of the tranny and up over the engine to a funnel I hung from a corner of the raised hood. I kept this line in place for the entire process and had no drips. My initial pan drain netted 4qts, and I pumped 2qts at a time from the detached cooler line. Used MaxLife to replenish as I went.

Note: To get the expected check mode dash light behavior you must enter the mode at an oil temp below 86deg. I had an IR temp gun for comparison, and I can confirm that the AT pan temp, cooler line temps, or engine pan temps are not reliable indicators of AT oil temp. These different locations heat and cool at different rates than the oil. I initially tried to enter check mode when the AT pan temp reading had cooled to 80deg, but the AT Oil Temp light was immediately lit indicating the oil had not yet cooled below 115deg. That's a big difference.

After waiting an hour until the pan temp was in the 70's, I had no problem getting all the expected dash light behaviors: Upon starting the car the check light will be off, after 6 or more rapid shifts from D to N, the AT Oil Temp light will flash on for a couple of seconds. Shifting into park it will again flash on for a couple of seconds, and then remain off until the check temperature is reached - about 15min for me. Once the light turned on solid, the temp gun measured the AT pan temp at 92deg, once again showing it to be far different than the oil temp.

Even though I measured all the old oil and replaced the same amount + 1/2qt, I ended up draining 2qt when I did the level check. I'll check again later, but it seems the trans was overfilled at some point.

 

Just did the full flush (13qts) with MaxLife... 220k on it so she was ready. Fluid didn’t look too bad- dark obviously but trans was working fine when I dumped it, works fine now that it’s filled back up. I won’t wait another 200k to flush again... but I will probably go 100k, maybe 150.

 

My 05 Tacoma does not have the trans temp light....Does anybody know what scan tool I can purchase that will read the live trans fluid temp? Thanks so much for any help

 

Are you sure? I didn't think my 2005 2wd Tacoma did either, but it did (see post #1370). Getting the "AT temp" light to show took a few tries, and I had to do the D-N shifting faster than I thought.

 

Keep a close eye on the dash when you first turn the key ON. When everything first lights up during that 'test' phase or what it is the cluster does. You should see the AT light then

 

Ok I could only make it through 32 pages before having to ask. I have a 2012 Off-Road A750F and I did the entire process but got hung up at the A/T Temp mode. I got it to illuminate after shift 6 into N but never again going into P. I did it maybe 12 times and never got it to illuminate going into P. Still ran the truck in idle….for 40 mins…here’s the variable though. Its 26F out in MN, it may never got to temp but I couldn’t stop thinking about if it was even in the mode.

anyone else get the A/T Temp to come on after not seeing it in illuminate going back into P? I also left it in neutral once but didnt do anything either.

thanks ya’ll. I’ll give detailed writeup of the woes and wins after I get the overflow temp level thing figured out

 

If you have a tow pkg, your second tranny cooler may be keeping the temp too low; cover the aux cooler in front of the radiator with a rag.
The fan clutch keeps pulling air thru even a idle and 26f exterior temps may be chilling the aux cooler and foiling your attempts.

 

is the spec for the oil temp between 97-115? Or is it supposed to be at 115 degrees? I'm asking in case I just get my OBDII scanner to just tell me the temp.

 

@GreggyG It's 115-130 for 2nd gen auto per original drain/refill thread.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-drain-refill-automatic-transmission.63851/

Any where in between. Keep in mind the ATF temp keeps rising as it idles; thus, I check the temp as it approaches 120.

 

Thank you so kindly!

 

Alright... Reviving an old thread with a new question. Did the full flush and swapped out the filter as well. Now the truck slips when cold and has a significant delay going between forward and reverse. Sometimes it'll drop out of gear completely. I've checked the oil level once when doing the initial flush and again tonight and it's set correctly.

My only initial thought is the new filter assembly isn't sealing correctly and I'm losing suction. The old filter was held in pretty tightly by the old oring. The new filter went in easily and had some side to side play until I put the 4 bolts in. I did double check the oring size because this didn't seem normal but the new and old orings we're identical. I'm guessing my next step is to drop the pan again and try another identical filter swap. Anyone have any other ideas?

 

Just checking, what fluid did you use?