High Mileage Transmission Drain&Fill

Finally got around to uploading this. This is at about 275k miles after draining and filling twice since 246k. At 246k, the fluid was black.

 

I think there is a bit of confusion with the words being used… a drain and refill is not a flush. A flush with power equipment might agitate and possibly disturb any settled particles. As stated earlier, if there is an issue after the trans service that trans was on its way out. The thing that is important is replacing the filter. If the filter is plugged with burned friction material, you are on borrowed time. If the trans/fluid is questionable I will exchange it a little at a time by pulling the return line off the cooler outlet on the radiator and starting the truck and let 2 or 3 quarts drain, reinstall the line and add new. Yeah, I agree, pain in the rear.

fwiw, I haven’t found a high performance filter for the Tacoma automatics yet… a high performance filter will pull fluid from the top of the filter as well as the bottom. Domestic automatics can have a deep pan installed and the filter will have an extension so that the filter sits half way down and doesnt pull any of the crap right off the bottom of the pan. A magnet put on the bottom of the pan on the outside will hold all of the ferrous material in one spot until the next service. Engine oil drain plugs used to have magnets build into them for this reason but now they want the motor to wear out so you have to buy a new car.

 

When I bought my truck (01 dbcb 3.5 350k miles) I had no maintenance records on it. The first thing I did was change all fluids, including the transmission. On it I used the Valvoline Transmission fluid, did the drain and fill 3 times over 2000 miles. Truck shifted much better and smoother. A year later when I dropped the pan to install the Trans-Go kit and new filter, everything was clean and sexy inside. Just don't ever do the power flush process on your transmission. It will force bits and crud loose and clog other places. Just my .02 cents

 

Before you guys cook me... It's a 3.4 I know, just fat fingered it.

 

ditto on the fat finger… I have gotten into rereading all posts just to make sure autocorrect hasn’t changed the meaning of the sentence and yet still, things are changed.

 

'High-performance' filter?

You do realize that the filter in these automatics is simply wire mesh right?

 

Wrong

 

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with draining a few quarts from your transmission and (PROPERLY) re-filling it to the appropriate level.

You did not cause any harm to the transmission by doing this. If there is something wrong now, it was wrong before you drained it and filled it.



Flushing a transmission and drain/fill are 2 completely different things. I don't think a flush is really a good idea. But a drain and fill is basically an oil change on your engine. Except in the case of the transmission, you're only draining about half (or less) of your oil, because a lot of it is still in the torque converter, and doesn't drain.

 

Exactly 100% correct