Sorry, Another transmission question?

I just got a 2000 Tacoma prerunner. And don't know the service history. Previous owner had the truck for 4 years and only drove it about 15,000 miles. Current mileage is 277,000.

The transmission fluid if pretty dark. You cannot see any red in it when I clean the dipstick.
I've read conflicting reports on weather changing the fluid is a good or bad idea.

I was thinking of just draining the system and refilling and then driving for may 100 miles and then repeating. Of maybe even just draining a couple of quarts, add back the same volume in fresh fluid and driving a while, then repeating that a few times.
Is this a stupid idea? should I leave it alone?

Also if changing the fluid, is the Toyota Type T-IV peoples go to? I've read in some post about people using Valvoline Maxlife multi vehicle Transmission fluid?

Thanks

 

My suggestion would be the drain, fill, drive a few hundred miles and repeat. Given the age of the old girl, I would go with the Toyota recommended fluid so as to minimize potential problems.

 

Mine looked like used motor oil at 115k miles and I did the drain and fill every couple hundred miles. Probably drained and filled 4 times total over the course of a year and had no issues. I used valvoline atf

edit: I have almost 140k on the truck now

 

Don't leave it alone.

I have used the Valvoline Maxlife ATF a few times doing this and never had issues. I prefer the complete drain/fill at one time method so I don't have to worry about it again.

Check level of fluid if it is a good level then proceed.
Step 1
Drain the pan
Fill with same amount

Step 2
Have someone run the truck with the tranny hoses in a bucket.
Drop a quart, stop the truck
Fill a quart
Repeat step 2 until fluid looks good

Took me about 2.5-3 gallons I believe.

 

I'll throw in my $.02. Changing the fluid is the only idea. I don't know how these wive's tails start. This is my experience. I have owned my truck 12 years. 99 3.4 with 293,000. I had changed the fluid maybe twice in 10 years... Just a couple of months ago I was starting to get high trans temp. I decided to drop the pan and change the filter DOING IT THE CORRECT WAY this time. I'm glad I did! The filter had sludge all over it. This was my process. I drained fluid and dropped the pan. Noticed that I purchased the wrong filter which turned out to be good because I put the pan back on and it sat for a full 24 hour period before getting the correct filter delivered from Amazon. When I dropped the pan again I was surprised that there was pry another quart in there that had filter down the system while sitting. I was positive I got almost every last bit of old fluid out. The other benefit to dropping the pan is that you can access and clean off the 4 magnets inside the pan that help collect any metal particles. I had a lot of sludge build up on mine. The other benefit is that the filter kit included a nice rubber gasket for the pan. Normally they are FIP gasket or grey RTV. This was easier and it does NOT leak out of the pan any longer!!!! All in all, new filter, new pan gasket and refilled to correct level and she's GUCCI! While I had the fluid drained I installed a trans cooler in line with the stock radiator cooler behind my grill and my trans runs at like 188 now on the highway. Yesterday in 115 degree heat coming back from the lake on the highway going between 78 and 80 the trans temp was 197. That was with 2 12ft kayaks in the back and a big 52 quart cooler with ice... Check out my long travel build in the LT section, EL HONCHO to see the pics and install details of the trans cooler. It was like $35 and worth every penny.

 

What filter kit did you get?

 

Let me look through my Amazon orders... hold up.

 

Ok so I misspoke about the gasket. I remember what happened. I liked the gasket that came with the incorrect filter better so I returned that one with the gasket from the filter that did work.

Here's the CORRECT filter for 3.4 2wd prerunner. The 4WD filter is different.

$31 WIX Filters - 58805 Automatic Transmission Filter, Pack of 1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C9Y1CC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is the incorrect one but I believe it's actually the correct part if you have 4wd.

$28 ATP TF-211 Automatic Transmission Filter Kit

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P1932E6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here's the trans cooler...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C3F3SO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

If you are going to drop the pan make sure you can remove the dipstick tube easily. I assume it is the same a a 4runner, and I did this one time because I wanted to change the filter. Could not separate the dipstick. Made for a very interesting drop of the pan.

This time I just put an inline filter in.