Soooo many transmission fluid questions....

BillsSR5 · Aug 11, 2020

Tah-koh-mah said: ↑

I have a Tundra with original Toyota WS atf going on 300k without a single transmission problem. We beat the crap out of it too. I like to stay away from anything that claims to be "universal" ATF fluid whether it's synthetic, dino, liquid gold, unicorn blood, or mermaid secretions, doesn't matter to me. I know people who have problems with maxlife and went back to Toyota WS and problems went away. I had a Sienna van that drove great until I switched to valvoline maxlife and in about a month developed a shudder that I could not figure out how to fix. I switched back to Toyota WS and it went away, drove smooth as butter. Same thing with a 4runner my uncle had, he switched to maxlife at 100k for about a year and noticed it just wouldn't shift the same, would sometimes slip from 2nd to 3rd but he drove it like that until he told me about it. I asked him to switch back to Toyota WS and he tried that and it fixed all his problems, it's now going on 370k without a single problem since, and he beats the hell out of that thing. Again, use what you want and believe what you want. I'm just here telling you my experiences with it, and I got more stories, but I gotta go work. Toyota transmissions can be a fickle bitch so I would use the oem fluid designed for it. Just my 2 cents.
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I agree 100% about using a universal ATF in a AISIN trans spec'd to run optimum on a WS or T-IV required truck, I have also read here from people using a CASTROL or MAXLIFE who claim decreased shifting performance compared to when they used the OEM specific ATF, universal ATFs will work but not as well as the OEM specific ATF because the viscosities will be different at certain temperatures to fulfill the one size fits all trans.Universal label as compared to specific ATF for the trans. theres also thread here from an expert in Transmission Sciences that says WS ATF is garbage and you should get it out of you trans as soon as possible

andrewtheadventurer · Aug 11, 2020

Just changed my ATF last night. Valvoline Maxlife ATF is WS. Drain & Refill with turning the truck on for a bit in between while switching through the gear to cycle the fluid. Took about 8-10qts to get it a clean red on the drain. My pan temp was at 80-90* while draining and it only drained about 1.5qt at a time. Process was simple and inexpensive.

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Soooo many transmission fluid questions....

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BillsSR5 Looking out for #1

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Soooo many transmission fluid questions....

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#22 andrewtheadventurer Well-Known Member

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BillsSR5 Looking out for #1

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andrewtheadventurer Well-Known Member

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