Have you changed your tranny fluid?

And if so at what milage and if not what is your milage. This applies to automatics only. Thanks.

 

Pan dump only. Some have changed it thinking it was there oil. Some never change it. Some change it many times. Some go by the manual. Some have never looked at there manual.

 

I did a pan cleaning & new ATF "filter" (more of a strainer) at 90k miles. Have done several more drain and fills since then. Ill be coming up on 120k this spring, at which point Ill plan on doing a single drain and fill every additional 30k, unless otherwise needed.

 

Did mine at 10k, 30k, 50k, and will do it again at 75k. Just the ~4qt in the pan.

The 10k drop came out dark, but then 30k and 50k were about the same color as new fluid.

I consider it preventative maintenance to restore the additives that help prolong the internals.

 

I have a drain/filter done about every 8 years (comes out to every 17,000 miles) due to towing boat up steep mountain grade numerous times each summer. Also wanted the first one done after reading some trucks come fluid low from the factory.

 

I go by Toyota’s recommendation for special operating conditions - a flush every 60K. It doesn't say when to replace the filter but I do it every other ATF flush. This is same recommendation for all our Toyota/Lexus cars, including our newest purchase, 24 Corolla. Non are hybrid, I believe they have longer intervals.

 

First Time at 45K miles. Did it annually for 4 consecutive years. Figure I got 80%+ new fluid. I'm going to skip a few years and restart annual drain and fills.



Year after

 

I did a pan drop, strainer replacement, complete fluid flush and replacement with Valvoline MaxLife at 88,600 miles. At that time I added a bigger trans cooler that has a low pressure function where the fluid won’t cycle through the cooler during colder temps. At 120,000 miles, I dropped the pan, replaced the strainer and installed a bottle of LubeGuard, for preventive measures.

 

Coming up on 200k. Never done it but been wanting to do something to it.
Is there a good step by step thread that we can read through?

 

Did mine just before 80k. Not bad if you have a scan tool that shows both trans temperatures.

 

Yes, several.
This one also links to another good one that talks about the temp check mode (as well as the updated temp range per TSB on page 110)
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...e-2nd-gen-transmission-pan-and-filter.726329/

 

I started driving in 1974, almost 50 years ago. I've never changed transmission fluid in any vehicle I've ever owned. Never had a problem that wasn't electrical in nature. I had mice chew insulation off wires that caused the transmission to throw codes and shift funky twice. I thought I was going to have to spend $2000 on a rebuild until they found the wires. Charged me $50 to fix it instead.

I currently own a 2007 Tacoma with 243,000 miles, 2014 F150 with 141,000, 2020 Ford Explorer with 66,000 and a 2009 Honda Fit that had 230,000. Unfortunately, someone hit the Honda a few months ago and it was totaled. All have/had the original fluid in them, and all still drive like new. That's almost 700,000 combined miles. Several million miles going back 50 years.

The transmission shop that repaired the wires tells me that they don't see any difference in transmission longevity between the guys who come in and have the fluid changed every 30,000 miles and the guys who drive them till they die. Their advice: save the money I'd spend on servicing the transmission and use it to replace the transmission if it goes bad. The vehicle is more likely to end up in a scrapyard for other reasons before the transmission dies anyway. Like my Honda.

 

I got my license in 1963, been driving stick shift up until the new Tacoma automatic on 12/5.
Times change, and so do the mechanics.

For example, VVT-i wasn't even a wet dream when I was building and hotrodding American big iron.
Today, I have the 3.5L with VVT-i, and fully plan to change oil and filter every 3~5k miles.
These tight engines require synth 0~20w, so I figure the trannies are tight as well.

Particles are scraped off in minute quantities every time the clutch packs cycle, and they drop into the oil pan.
Trannie oil and filter is cheap insurance, same as pristine oil is the life blood of VVT-i hardware.

 

Manual

If I had auto id service it as often as every 40k.

5 speeds tend to be reliable. Which happens when servicing it. Replacing one is harder and more expensive.

as opposed to other transmissions that will break regardless of what you do to them.

a trans service is not hard. And on some brands done under warranty as maintenance for proper operation.

it has plugs and a filter. Filters are not lifetime components.

 

Changed mine at 50,000

 

This is a good question, but from experience it depends largely on the usage of your vehicle and the climate it typically faces. I'm in a relatively mild climate, not too many extended periods of cold or hot weather. Plus my drive is alot of freeway vs street use, not much in the way of off road or towing. With that said.... I'm at about 277,000 miles on a 06 automatic 4x2 extended cab and recently got a thorough transmission service.... prior to that a simple fluid and filter change about every 3 years did the trick as well as a few spot checks here and there to make sure it wasn't brown, black, or seeping fluid around the pan.

 

This might be the silliest thing I've ever heard. I'm sure the boys at the shop who say "save money on service and use it to replace the transmission if it goes bad" know more than the engineers at Toyota who designed, tested, and built the vehicle you're driving.

Pro tip: If the guys at your shop are telling you to defer factory maintenance intervals -- it's not a good shop.

lol.

 

I am at 313k currently. Did a drain and fill at 226k miles. Bought it at 206k miles. Per the service history it had never been done before. I also did a drain and fill at 296k miles.

 

I had my 09 first trans service this year at 95,000. I waited so long just out of frustration of not having a dipstick, I’ve always done my own maintenance on transmissions

 

Bought my 2011 in 2017 with 60K from a Toyota dealer. Dealer had done a full fluid replacement (coolant, oil, trans, diffs) at 60K. I go by the service light for my oil change interval, but check the level weekly. I did a drain and fill on the tranny at 120K, the fluid coming out wasn't as dark as what rnish shows above. I have 135K on it now. I do a lot of towing of weights close to the max rating and monitor my trans temps with a Scangauge II. The gauge makes trans fluid changes easy, you don't have to go through all that pin crossing/shorting on the OBD port to measure the temp of the fluid, you get a direct readout. I've thought a lot about swapping the stock trans cooler for a bigger one, but have only seen my trans temps past 220 one time, for about a minute. Usually they don't go past 175 except on the hottest days and after going up a grade with a heavy load, but they always drop quickly.

What I'm most curious about is when have most owners changed spark plugs?