How to Drain/Refill Automatic Transmission

I must have missed something. Gearcruncher has always been one to recommend fluids other than WS.

 

You are correct but this is only during "pan drops" when the " pan is removed " and when the remaining WS fluid is still in the converter .
I am not a fan of mixing fluids of different brands .
The friction modifiers in the factory fluid are much different in other brands . Different Friction modifiers fight each other
Change all the fluid to another brand or keep WS if you are only changing out half the fluid.
I have been preaching this since 2012

How to properly service your transmissionn fluid and why is this the proper way.
Yes , I am a transmission tech
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...e-2nd-gen-transmission-pan-and-filter.726329/

 

I think this advice is extremely important and critical if just doing the most basic atf pan flush/fill.

I was ready to perform a trans pan flush/fill and had 5qts of Valvoline atf ready to go. I had thought WS compatible fluid were pretty much the same..it just needed to be WS compatible. Kind of like 5w-30 is pretty much the same in viscosity but slightly different in ingredients and additives.

I was wrong and luckily decided to ask @gearcruncher for advice. I was luckier to receive his answer in time before I started. My flush/fill went without a hiccup and I'll admit to a possible placebo effect, but I swear my trans auto shifting is much smoother.

 

finally getting around to this this weekend.

Can a few peeps tell me what the correct amount is to refill to have a little extra overfill when checking the level. Dont get mad, ive actually read a majority of this thread that i dont feel like going back through. I didnt note how much i put in last time i did this. I thought the consensus was 3.5 qts? I know people will say whatever you take out plus half quart. That should be good if my level hasnt changed in 60k miles, but i like having that backup volume in case something looks odd

 

@ejl923 I filled with 4 qt. This was the most basic flush and fill without removing the pan. By calculations, i wasted a quart. But then again, i wouldnt have be confident with only .25 qt to determine the trickle flow.

 

I think ill go with that, sounds about right, thanks.

I have a little more info on the Ultragauge front. Went out at lunch today to see if i could figure out what UG temps the light comes on and off.
For reference, i am using the Tacoma pan temp codes found in the MX supplement. I think this is imprtant to note, there were a few codes floating around before UG published some.
When i started it up, i was already in temp check mode (light on steady) so i couldnt tell you when it comes on. I was reading 105F. So we know its at least reading low in comparison to whatever Toyota is reading. It started blinking somewhere between the jump from 113-114.8. I think this somewhat corroborates with another member who thought 95-115 was the UG range.
I guess this means if someone only uses the UG, they will be draining more out than normal because its at a higher operating temp. If you wait for UG at 115, it would be out of range. I dont know what this means volume of fluid wise.

 

My light came on at 97 degrees. I do the fluid check at 100 or so.

 

One of these days I will get this transmission shudder corrected without anymore stupid mistakes. It all started by attempting to add the Lube Gard shudder fix. I just came across this thread a few minutes ago so another trip for transmission fluid just in case. I watched a couple of YouTube videos on how to refill the transmission. The last one (mistake) I watched showed how to fill to the proper level without using the AT temp light because I couldn’t get it to come on using the jumper wire and letting it idle about 35 minutes in 60 degrees. I shifted through all the gears but learned today I didn’t do it properly. I had drained the transmission and removed the pan. Changed the filter. I measured the fluid and replaced the fluid adding about another half quart. After letting it idle for about 30 minutes I drained the excess fluid from the overfill plug. I got more about a quart BUT the motor wasn’t running just like the guy did in the video. That was last week and I have driven about 400 miles. Tomorrow I will follow the steps the OP posted to the letter.

Like putting the gas grill together, I bet I can put a second grill together in half the time and correctly and will do a much better job when I do the next transmission service.

Turns out the shudder was a bad u joint.

 

What was wrong with using the shudder fix?

 

Nothing was wrong with using the shudder fix. I started another thread telling how I used a 2” piece of a Braums Ice Cream straw as an extension for the nipple on the shudder fix tube to get it in the fill hole. Of course it slipped off and went in the transmission. That caused me to drain and remove the pan. It wasn’t in the pan. Someone on TW suggested trying to suck it out with a shop vac. It worked. I bought the truck a month ago so I was glad this caused me to service the transmission. I added the shudder fix to one of the bottles of transmission fluid.

 

Lesson learned…read the instructions carefully from the OP. Once I really read and followed his instructions to the letter, the AT TEMP light came on. Another trip to Autozone for two more quarts of fluid. It took 1.25 quarts to properly fill the transmission. I have checked everything from the post against what I did and the transmission operates smoothly. Still have to replace the u joints.

 

Did this yesterday, drained out a little under 3 quarts, refilled about 3 qt 20 oz, and probably pulled out close to that 20 oz when overflow was checked. Set the temp check mode, then took out the jumper and plugged in my UG. It was at 100F and the light was steady so I went ahead with the level check.
Also, yes unnecessary, but I was on Amazon one time and found a universal OBD connector and for $5 made my own jumper I can plug in. I have a bad back and I was going back and forth with playing with my UG and temp mode so I thought why not. If anyone ever buys one of them, the pin readouts that are provided with them are not always correct. I went through them and checked and some were incorrect., then jumped the two I needed.
I also added some lubeguard so we will see how that fares. Two short rides and all seems good.

 

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.

 

My 2010 is between 97-115 degrees

 

thank you

 

what OBD scanner? I believe the toyota spec is 115-130, but the UG reads this same range as 97- 115 (ish)

 

I have a cheap bluetooth one that connects to car scanner pro. I can't get an exact consensus on the degrees from my online research.

 

there were 2 different temp ranges depending on year, but I dont know which years go with which ranges. best bet is to enter temp check mode, then plug in your scanner, and when the light comes on see what the temp is.

 

interesting idea. I also wonder if it's okay to just shoot for 115, because that the high end of one and the low end of the other.

 

or, just enter temp check mode, plug in your scanner, and verify the temp the light turns on and off at like a couple of us have done for the ultragauge