How to Drain/Refill Automatic Transmission

I have a 2008 TRD (V6) w/ the towing package with almost 50k on it now - which is recommended - the drain/refill or a flush? The local toyota dealer says that Toyota recommends a drain/refill only and not to flush. Also, unless I missed it, does mine have the AT temp light or does something else light up when doing the temp check?

Thanks for your help!

 

Just did this and here are a few observations that have probably been mentioned

I bought my truck with 40k and did a full flush. Was going to take it overseas and did not want to deal with the tranny for a good while. Wound up getting posted to Mexico instead and that is where the truck is now.

I currently have 78k and did this procedure. It's very easy and straight forward. I dumped 2.25 liters and put in about 3 liters. It seems to shift better (smooth)

A few observations

1. The oil was dark but did not smell burnt. I towed 4000lbs over 4000 miles plus I do quite a bit of off roading. Hell, most of Mexico is off road especially where I live

2. It kind of difficult to get exactly what came out back in. Not impossible but easy to spill and mess up your accounting. Besides its so easy to do this procedure that it makes no sense.

3. My AT light came on after 4 shifts from N to D I continued to six shifts

4. The problem with AT oil or any oil for that matter is once you reach the temp limit on any oil it's ability to do its job is greatly diminished. I like to err on the safe side. That's why ill keep on changing the oil as per this procedure on a regular basis. With no dip stick it's impossible to smell the oil so it's a guessing game. For 90% of Tacoma owners the recommendations work just fine. If you tow in mountainous country or other sever duty activities it's a good idea to play it safe.

BTW - a big thanks to the OP

 

Use the MountainLion method. Almost as easy, drains all the fluid instead of a few quarts.

 

I used this post this weekend to do a drain and fill. Went great. Thanks to the OP and everyone that's added to the discussion.

-Dan

 

I'll have to check it out. Maybe in 20k - it's overkill as it was but I just wanted to see how dark the oil was.

 

Performed my second drain/fill today. First was around 95k, this one around 140k. 2005 Tacoma Prerunner V6. I can verify that it does have the A/T temp light. I could not get it to come on last time (couple years ago) but this time, I saw it come on for a couple seconds when placing in park - which verified I was in the check temp mode. Of course this was after following the jumper wire procedure. This time I followed the instructions of the original poster here (Fortech) while last time I was following the Toyota instructions which said that "D" would flash (incorrect). Anyway, this time when it got up to temperature, the A/T temp light came on steady (115 F), I shot the pan with an IR gun and it showed 100 F. So that shows a 15 F difference in fluid temp and outside pan temp.
Drained out 3 qt 8 oz; put back 3 qt 16 oz; got up to temp; pulled the overflow plug and 8 oz trickled out. So I'm back at my original amount install from last time. Last time I had to use the IR gun so I waited till the pan got around 105 F, knowing the fluid would be hotter. My test here shows the fluid that time was probably 120 F so still below the 130 F max.
Anyway, old fluid looked pretty good. Not sure if changing it is overkill but I like to be cautious.
I've read old Toyota literature from around 2005 which pretty much states the fluid is meant to last the life of the vehicle and only a level check is needed (example - at 100k).
Be careful to keep things clean. You do not want to introduce dirt to the transmission and cause a failure or additional wear - while you are trying to perform a preventive maintenance to make things last longer. Also be careful about the proper torque on the fill, drain, and overflow plugs. You don't want to ruin your day by stripping the threads.

 

Sub'd

 

After reading through this post, I have decided to do a drain and fill my truck has 50K miles.

I do have one question though, I have a OBD2 scanner that displays the transmission temp. It shows Trans Temp 1 and Trans Temp 2. The temperatures do vary from each sensor. Does anyone know which one is to be referenced?

Thanks
Shawn

 

If it's the same temp 1 and 2 as what the Scanguage can now access, I believe that 1 is pan and 2 is converter. To verify, if you drive around at lower speeds (unlocked torque converter), the TC temp should be higher then the pan temp.

 

FWIW, the Scangage website gives you the wrong codes to program the Xgage. Those numbers are for the TC temp. It's posted here somewhere the settings for the pan temp. It's a change of just one digit in the code.

PK

 

I accomplished a recent drain and flush. The truck had around 22k miles on it. Daily driven on the street, no off-road or hauling or extreme conditions, the fluid was already turning brown.

Out with the Toyota WS, in went Mobil 1 ATF. I know, not approved, warranty voided and all that. The truck acts better drives better, and may have seen an increase in fuel mileage.

Yes I spent some time researching the fluid change to the M1. Basically the research pointed to the concept that WS is nothing special and is not synthetic.

Just what I did to my truck, I don't say do or don't do to your own. But it does work.

PK

 

Drained my fluid, way to much came out, then I followed the method in my Haynes manual and every thing is great. She used to shift hard in to second but now it is as soft as ever.

 

what's the mountainlion method ??

 

full flush -- it looks pretty easy but in my case I had the whole transmission flushed at 40K with 16 liters of toyota WS oil. that took care of all the break-in sediment and i figure after that if i do this procedure every 20k then i am still in the over-kill zone but better safe than sorry. if the oil ever comes out smelling burnt then ill go the mountainlion rout.

do a search, i believe its listed in the quick links tab above

 

I jumped the gun and drained it all myself one time. But improvised and put a pump from an industrial soap bottle (after cleaning of course) directly into the AT fluid bottles, attached a small clear hose on the "out" end and pumped it in through the drain hole lol.

 

can you explain that a little more ??? through the drain hole ???

 

Haha, yeah. I was working at a mine on the border in the middle of nowhere. My boss said he'd let me do my trans.fluid/filter while on the job. I drained it all out without even thinking of looking for a filler hole (dealership only). The only way i was getting back home was to somehow get the fluid back in. Here's what I used:

Trans.fluid (of course)

Industrial pump from a product similar to that "orange" shit that gets your hands clean.

2.ft clear plastic tubing (nothing fancy)

Squirt nozzle that i cut from a cleaning product (Think of the needle-like nozzle on caulking tubes but smaller)

Place the pump directly into the AT fluid bottles>attach plastic tubing to the "out" end of the pump>place needle-tip nozzle thingy that you made into the other end of the plastic tubing> wedge the nozzle into the drain hole> pump just a lil over the correct amount back in (you'll spill a little when replacing plug)> replace plug> and your good to go!

 

Today I performed the process as described and everything went perfectly. As another reference point I have 30k miles, 2005, I tow a 20" boat and am supercharged. I changed the fluid because I noticed after towing for 30 miles the trans started to shift funny.

I pulled 3 qts out and plan to do this again in another few weeks. Here is a picture of the fluid compared to new fluid. What are your thoughts?

 

I'd say the fluid color is due to different fluid, or used versus new. Generally it should NOT have a "burned oder" as would come from burned clutches with in the unit. I just got my 2012 Tacoma and after reading this now I understand why, after crawling all over the truck the other day, that i couldn't find a dipstick and I thought maybe they had a closed system. Not a bad idea and Toyota must have faith in their seals. Also and this is an idea that I think would work. I have an EXTECH True RMS Multimeter 430 that has a temp sensor that can be immersed in liquids that can go to over 1300 F. So I supposed it could be used to verify the correct trans fluid temp. Congrats to the fellow that this post and trans fluid video.

 

^X2