Trans Fluid

Has anyone used the castrol trans fluid for our toyotas,I need to service my trans this weekend and was looking at fluid today and its a lot cheaper than the other 2 they had there. What u think...

 

Toyota WS fluid is what the auto takes. Be prepared, it's expensive. Toyota has us by the nads on this one.

 

yes it is ws fluid for toyota, made by castrol oil and its 6.95 a qt compaired to 11.00-15.00 a qt.

 

You mean Castrol Transmax? Go look at their website. You'll see it's not on the compatibility list.

 

I just got my transmission flushed for the first time at 100,000 miles. I called the dealership to ask price and their procedure and they quoted me $165, said they flushed entire system with machine and it took 12 quarts. Said it was done to Toyota specs. I called twice to see if I got the same answer twice and I did, so I made the appointment. Work was done and I was paying and looked at the reciept to make sure they used WS and they had not used Toyota fluid at all. They used Valoline Max life. I question the girl and she told me they use all Valvoline fluids there. I went home and emailed Toyota and they replied by saying they should not have used anything other that Genuine Toyota WS and they recommended getting the Valvoline flushed out imediately. So I call the dealership and talked to the manager and his excuse was valvoline had a better waranty. I told him what Toyota Corp told me and he said to bring back in and they would use Toyota WS at no charge. I asked him how would I know they used WS? Could I watch the process including them pouring in the proper fluid? He said yes, if thats what made me happy. So that is what i did. 12 quarts Toyota WS into the flush machine then into my truck. So I got my transmission flushed twice in less than 100 miles for 165 bucks. Toyota WS is the only way to go per my conversation with Toyota Corperate.

 

+1

"Toyota compatible" currently means that it meets the requirements for Toyota T-IV.

If your trans has a dipstick, it takes T-IV (and can use Castrol/Valvoline/etc).
If not, it requires W$.

 

Thats the problem with dealer ships you dont know what they are doing to your truck and what you are getting. Thaats a good price for a dealer to do the service seeing how WS fluid is like 9.00 a qt from them plus they flushed it. Thanks for your answers I ck. out the fluid (Castrol) and read that it was not to be used in our trucks...

 

I believe that the only reason i got 165 dollar price was because they were using valvoline fluid. The invoivce said the valvoline was 5.97/qt. Plus labor and fees/tax. If they had charged me for the real WS I am sure it would not have been that price. That is why I wanted to watch the do-over process, it would have been too easy for them they to say they did it again and really did nothing. That was the first time I have taken my truck to the dealership and it was a good reminder not to take it back.

 

FWIW, the Valvoline Max Life is per Valvolines site a Toyota WS rated fluid.

http://www.valvoline.com/products/brands/maxlife/automatic-transmission-fluid/37

My readings about the different fluids on the Bob is the oil guy site, which is loaded with oil and fluid geeks, seems to indicate the Max life is probably a much better fluid than Toyota WS brand.

The information, which is from Toyota, indicated the fluid is pretty much a non synthetic just a low viscosity ATF.

I was pretty disappointed to read about Toyota WS, and even though not rated as WS, I went with Mobil 1 ATF. Did a complete flush myself and installed a remote spin on filter.

Honestly, for my truck anyway, the overall smoothness of the transmission improved, even moving the shifter out of P no longer has a notchy feel to it.

If you consider how many fluids were previously Toyota Type IV rated and now are not WS rated, then compare that to if the transmissions have evolved in each model, you would see that it is unlikely that all the newer transmissions were modified for new fluid. More likely Toyota went to the lower viscosity ATF for mileage improvements, disregarding longevity.

PK

 

Thats good to know,I might just go with that fluid.I wonder how much that is a qt.

 

I have done 4 drain and fills since I hit 50k miles with the valvoline max life dex/merc. It seems to be a much smoother transmission now. Each time I did it I had the 4qt jug and when I pulled the over flow plug at temp, plenty came out to satisfy that the trans was filled. I know advance auto and auto zone sell those jugs for close to $17, but it's always nice to have an extra qt bottle around just for the hell of it. Also invest in a $5 fluid pumper that attaches to those jugs, it will pay for it self on the first pump.

 

Thanks I got everything today and will give it a flush job tomorrow/friday.fluid was just that 17.00 for a gallon so I got 3 of them.

 

^What procedure are you planning to use?

 

Drain and refill is all that's needed... "Flush" is neither needed nor recommended.

The procedures to ensure a proper fill are posted in a thread on this forum.
The overfill plug is used, but the trans must be at the proper temperature or the level will not be correct.

 

Not sure what process he plans to utilize. Mine was done by removing the return line from the cooler and adding new fluid a bit at a time until fresh fluid appeared for an entire qt.

That process is here somewhere.

PK

 

I'm sure the tranny is smoother. As I mentioned, my research found Toyota WS to be nothing special, and merely a non synthetic low viscosity ATF, almost similar to Dexron VI.

When I started to see how the viscosity of approved fluids such as Max Life compared to WS and the M1 I run, that convinced me to do this on my truck and not worry about it. No regrets yet, and don't expect any.

PK

 

Thats the one Im doing.Its the same as you did but Im going to use Valvoline Max Life Fluid,also changing out the plugs it has 60000 milers on it.

 

got it all done,not to bad of a job.I did remove trans pan and filter just to clean it . Just wanted to do it,Im glad I did it was pretty dirty and the magnets were cover with funk.Havent drove it yet to see if it shifts better but Im sure it will.Plugs were a piece of cake to change and toyota only charged me 4.90 per plug.thats better than the parts store were selling them for.Anyway thanks for all the help and the process that was wrote up here is right on the money.....

 

If I'm not mistaken, your V6 takes copper plugs. The parts store likely quoted you Iridium plugs.
The 2.7 takes Iridium.

 

Did you re-use the pan filter, or did you use a new one? If new, what kind of surface prep did you have to do to ensure no leaks?