How to Drain/Refill Automatic Transmission

5?

 

This is a very good write up and I appreciate it. I have gathered the required supplies and will try it this weekend.

However, I have few constructive questions.

1) The Transmission holds 5.3 L. The procedure changes about 3.2 L. What about the other 2Ll left in the Torque Converter? Obviously it is not an entire fluid change.

2) Is the fluid level 'that critical' ? What if you did not go into the 'Temp Check Mode',..just put in what you took out? What would happen if the transmission was slightly overfilled? Or slightly underfilled.

3. Since the procedure changes 68% of the transmission fluid it would seem logical to perform this procedure once, wait a week and then do it again, then repeat and one would essentially have changed 95% of the fluid/ ...Or am I mistaken.

 

I think you have it a tad wrong: the Auto tranny and torque converter hold in total about 11 qts. 5.4 litre would MAYBE be just the transmission; so the TC would hold closer to 4 more litre with a one or two for the cooler and feed lines.

So the remaining 2 L is JUST in the transmission.

Many people have reported their transmission being significantly under-filled from factory. That suggests to me they aren't nearly so worried about a precise level as the meticulous procedure suggests. When I do mine, I'll drain the pan refill till it dribbles out then operate it for 15-20 min's to heat up the fluid, run it through the gears several times, and then open the fill-test port again and let the expansion drain out. Then button it up and not worry about it.

If you're POSITIVE the original level was right: then use a measuring bowl and replace exactly what drained out. That should work well too, IMO. If what you drained out is really close to 3.2 litre, then you'll probably be comfortable the level was close to right in the first place.

 

I thought about this procedure over and over and over. Even gathered and purchased the required components. But after careful thought I decided to go ahead and have the stealership flush my transmission. My Taco has almost 68,000 miles and it is time. The price for the flush is $259.00 plus Tax including fluid,.. which makes it about a $300 total cost.

BUT,..all the approx. 15 quarts has been changed. I just could not see where changing 3.2 quarts of transmission fluid was accomplishing anything overall.
Thank goodness the service interval is 60k. My Taco has been a very very good Taco and Frankly,..ol'Blue deserves it. I want this Taco to last a looong time.

Anyway,..let your conscience and your pocket book be your guide.

Happy Truckin.

 

Taco Update.
Just got my truck back from the stealership for a Transmssion Flush.
They only charged me 182.44 for the flush not including tax. That included the fluid!!! Very reasonable IMO.

And fast service to boot.

 

save your "F"in time and take it to jiffylube.

 

Funny how being in a hurry can cause such issues. I knew that the drain plug on the oil pan was 14mm, and I've changed the oil in our irrigation motors countless times (10 motors, and we do it twice a season) plus the countless other oil changes.

Anyway, I was in a hurry and accidentally took out the drain plug on the transmission. It was too hot to put the plug back in, so I had to let it all drain out. Long story short, even though my truck has been through hell on our farm, there still wasn't any need to change the transmission fluid. But now that I spent the extra money (the hand pump, the 24mm socket I didn't have, fluid etc), and taken all the time, the truck is shifting much better. I don't know why, either.

I still think I need to put more fluid in the transmission but I don't want to overfill it, as with anything I think just a little low is better than a little overfull. I never could get the A/T temp light to stop blinking but I know it was warm enough, and I wasn't getting any fluid coming out of my overfill plug. But like I said, the transmission is performing much better now. There was a slight lag when shifting into D from N beforehand, and it's gone now.

There isn't any harsh shifting between gears. Anyone know why this has cured it? And furthermore, am I right in thinking that just a little low is better than a little over? I put 3 1/4 qt back in, and everyone here seems to have put less than that. Even if it was low from the factory the extra 1/4qt should have compensated for that. Any advice would be welcome.

 

If Toyota would just put the dip stick back in, we would't have to go through all this @#$t. I had a problem with my truck at 15K, got it with 11K. It was slipping, brought it to the dealer and had to pay $115 to have 1qt put in, it was low. They clamed that someone opened it, it came 1Qt. low. Toyota does not cover the fluids in the truck so why don't they give us the tools, ie. dip stick to check the ATF

 

Maybe so they can charge you $115 for a qt of transmission oil.

 

Thanks for the informative posts. I just completed a drain and fill on my 2009 Pre-runner at 30K, and everything was "as advertised" in the initial post...the same light and everything. It took a little over 3 qts total; I installed @ 3.5 and got a little back out. I was surprised how long the transmission took to cool off. After a 40 mile drive, I changed the engine oil, diff oil, and drained the radiator also...these were all complete as well as draining and filling the transmission. I immediately got the "hot" indication when I started in diagnostic mode. I waited @ 30 more minutes and STILL got the hot indication. Total time from turning the ignition off from the drive to getting a successful indication was about 1.5 hrs. It did, however, react EXACTLY as the video in the original post.
Thanks Tacoma World Pro's!

 

I have a question about using a scan tool to check fluid temps. Can this fluid temp reading be done with a scan tool that shows data stream etc show trans temp? Or do you need a special toyota only scan tool to see it?

 

Thank You! What a great post!

 

When did Toyota move the recommended interval from 60K to 100K? Can you provide documentation of this?

I'm not necessarily doubting you...I'd just like to see Toyota documentation.

Thanks,
John

p.s. 82K on my truck with original fluid. seems to run fine other than what I call hard 1-2 shift occasionally.

 

I just read through this entire thread and I never did see any indication of how to check if the truck was truly level. Even on level ground these trucks don't sit level, but list a tad to the left. My driveway certainly isn't level.

I imagine putting a level on the trans pan & adjusting the level with a jack will work fine.

I only decided to read through all this because the last time I took my truck to the dealer they recommended that I change the trans oil. My truck was 2.5 years old at the time but only had 18,000 miles on it.

I told the guy it was nuts to change the oil at 18,000 miles, & there was no specific mileage mentioned in the manual. Normally I'd change the trans oil every 60,000 miles on an automatic under normal use, and intended to have them do it at that time.

In 3 years I've now put 21,000 miles on the truck, so you can see it'll be about 9 years old at this rate. I don't drive a lot of miles, and just have the engine oil changed twice a year which is about every 3000~3500 miles.

My only concern is that the trans oil might go "stale" just from age, even without many miles on it.

Is 9 years too long to run the factory trans oil with out a complete change? I'm thinking maybe the dealer recommended a change at under 20,000 because they know they'll only be changing 1/4 of the oil at each change, but don't really want to reveal that fact when they hand you a bill for $300.

 

My opinion,,, a few degrees of off-level from center or front to back shouldn't be a big deal. Personally I wouldn't go to the level, of a level, as long as I wasn't on a serious slope.

As for the fluid change interval, I drive about 9k a year, not as low as yours, but close. My plan is to drain the pan at 30k intervals. I know the pan drain vs. flush debate all too well, but I consider the tranny fluid a different animal than engine oil. The tranny is not subject to the combustion process so the requirement to completely change out the fluid is not as strong as it is with engine oil. Tranny fluid mostly needs an additive package replenishment, and doing a pan drain will add those additives back in and drain any metal shavings along with it. I might also do a pan drop just to clean the magnet (I just realized I don't know for sure that the Tacoma has a pan magnet).

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it

 

Just did this last night, super easy... Thanks OP

What I saw on other forums....In regards to the "magnet" that you are speaking of is used to attract bits of metal that flak off due to normal wear of your engine. However, I've never heard of magnets being placed in the transmission pan, then again I didnt drop the pan on mine but have on older toyota pickups and 4runners. Usually what you have is a magnetized pan bolt. When you remove the pan bolt to drain the transmission, the end of the bolt is magnetized to collect bits of metal so it won't be recirculated back through your engine.

 

Interesting. I've always had a magnet inside the pan on all my other vehicles. I haven't had a magnetized bolt. I'm guessing you mean the drain bolt though. If so, much better idea as the need to drop the pan in that case goes away.

Anyone know the actual answer for a GenII Tacoma?

 

I tried to get my tacoma into the at temp check mode to no avail. I have the service manual and it really isn't too concerned with the non-tool people. The service manual does say that D will illuminate for 2 seconds. I assume that this is for folks without 4 wheel drive. It also calls for 6 shifts from D to N. Do you folks consider the movement from D to N a shift or each time you move the shifter (ie three times back and forth)? The book says 6 times, pausing 1.5 seconds between D and N. I never got the indication. Got all the flashing lights, but no at temp mode indication. Anyone have the similar experience?

 

That's a typo in the service manual. The "AT TEMP" light is the one that is supposed to illuminate.

Did you see my video on the first page of this thread? Everything you need to know is outlined on the first page.

Post back with your results.

 

I just completed this on my 2009 Prerunner. Very easy and thanks for all of the input. I drained a total of 2.1 qt from mine, added 3 qts.

Attempted to get it into AT Temp mode with no issues. I did have a problem as it started flashing immediately when it hit P.

I live in Arizona and the outside temp was around 108 today, so I assume I was already very close to operating temp since the fluid sat in my garage and the truck hadn't run since the night before. I attempted AT Temp check mode about 5 times and got the same results. After running it a bit I loosened up the overflow plug, got a large stream, let it go until it was a small trickle and tightened everything up.

Took the truck on a 5 mile test. Trans shifted better than when I brought her home!

Fluid was pretty brown, big color difference than the new, truck has 63k.

Overall great write up and big money saver, my nearest stealership service department wanted to charge $349.00 plus tax and told me that it was not necessary until 120k because Toyota switched to the world transmission. I laughed at them and picked up the parts for $36.00 from their parts dept. 4 qts, 2 crush washers, 1 oil drain plug washer, and an oil filter. Not a bad savings!