15k miles Transmission drain and fill

With all the discussion on the deletion of the trans cooler I decided that I'll do drain and fills once a year or so to keep the fluid fresh. Used two empty water gallons to measure what came out and put the same back in. Next time I'll probably just do 4qts its close enough to exactly 4qts that comes out. I was quiet surprised with the color of the fluid after just 15,000 miles. Only towed a boat once, other than that I dont haul anything besides me and the dogs. Don't really go over 65mph very often either.

 

Do you use Mama Toyota fluid?

 

Very interesting. So you just drained and refilled whatever came out right?

 

Yeah, was contemplating switching to something I can get at Walmart like Valvoline but figured since I'm going to be mixing fluids together that Ill stick with the WS fluid.

 

That's is quite impressive. My son had a '05 Tundra with 170K+ miles on it when we got it and the tranny was butter and the fluid super clean when we got it. My guess is that the first (and only) owner treated his kit like you do. On behalf of the future guy that buy this rig from you in the future, hat tip.

 

I thought so too, did you get the trans up to the correct temp and pull the check plug?

 

Yes sir, that's actually all Toyota ever calls for but they recommend it much later. From what I understand even dealers only do drain and fills which is only 4qts out of maybe 12. When the tranny had a cooler you could much more easily drain all the fluid from the cooler hose but now thats obviously not an option. The filter is just a screen so there is really no need to ever drop the pan either especially since I've heard people typically have issues with snapping the bolts that hold it on.

 

Any chance you are going to send some to Blackstone?

 

I didnt, I do have techstream plus an OBDlink to check the temp and do that whole procedure but I figured that putting in what came out would be a hell of a lot easier than doing the temperature check plug thing.

 

I did put some in a Blackstone test kit, i currently have 3 kits with different fluids i wanted to test but never end up sending them out. This one i think i actually might do though just for pure curiosity, wish it wasn't so expensive though.

 

As long as the new and old were close to the same temp, you should be good to go!
Now I need to get mine done

 

The truck was cooled down so both fluids were ambient temp. I was a bit hesitant to do mine since I had never done one before on a vehicle but it was very easy using the Slippery Pete pump from Amazon.

$17 Slippery Pete Fluid Pump for Gallon Bottles and Wide Mouth Quart Bottles (Not for Standard Quart Bottles) - Transfer Gear Oil, Transmission and Differential Fluid, Antifreeze with This 30cc Hand Pump

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DTS8N7P/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_glt_i_M5BP8H4X17PCC5QSRYFK?_encoding=UTF8
You'll also need a 24mm socket for the fill bolt or a 15/16 worked just fine for me.

 

I would always measure what comes out. For some reason folks report draining different amounts out, like 3 - 4ish quarts. I know I measured 4.5 quarts drained when I did mine.

 

Probably depends on the temperature of the fluid when draining and also if anyone ever changed the fluid before. Mine came out to about 3.73 quarts and I figured with the bit of loss with the wind blowing some of the draining fluid onto the driveway and the amount of fluid that sticks to the drain pan along with the amount of fluid that stays stuck in the pump tube and bottom of the bottles I'd just do 4qts and call it a day. Definitely would recommend measuring though. My drain pan I used basically showed 4 quarts but I still did the water gallon thing along with a scale just to be sure but next time if the pan shows about 4qts drained I'll just pump in 4qts. Theres definitely some room for error considering the silly check procedure Toyota has rather than a simple dip stick theres no way of telling exactly how much fluid is in there.

 

Ordered, thanks! Been looking for a quality transfer pump

 

No problem I definitely recommend it, I also have the Slippery Pete pump for the differential fluid bottles which does work but this one works a lot better, it has a much faster fill rate. I may see if theres a way I can make the one I used for the transmission fit the differential fluid bottles. One tip I would say though and I had seen another Amazon review comment on it. These little black plastic tabs are super flimsy and break. I took it out of the package and one was actually already broken off, so I broke off the other one first before even using it, last thing you want is a piece of plastic floating around in your transmission.

 

That fluid looks pretty nasty for 15K miles...just sayin'.

Please send off your sample to Blackstone, and post your results.

 

How do you pump back in 100% of a specific measured amount-with the draw tube not being able to pick up all of the fluid in the bottle of clean fluid?

Also, how much fluid remains in the pump and lines?

 

Changing every 15K miles you will wear your clutches out. The darkened fluid is caused by clutch material and you guessed it that adds friction material to the fluid which makes your clutches work better. So. now with new fluid the clutches will slip more because the fluid has to build of its coefficient of friction again by wearing your clutches. Old fluid looks perfect. Why trust the Toyota engineers that it doesn't need a cooler but don't trust on change interval??

 

Thank you OP. Just rolled 20,000 miles on my 2019, will go ahead and drain/fill and will order the pump you recommended. Wishing you many many miles of smiles with your Tundra!

 

Thats exactly why I ended up just putting in 4qts rather than what I measure out which was 3.7qts

Sorry man but that is very incorrect. I believe you are mixing up information. There is one instance that is believed to be better off not changing fluid and that is if you have a vehicle that has high miles and it has never been changed it recommend not to do a full flush because the machine that forces the fluid in can end up pushing metal particles that have built up over time into places they shouldn't be causing damage and possibly taking out a gritty fluid that is actually helping a damage transmission last longer by causing more friction than there is supposed to be. Changing your transmission fluid with a drain and fill will not cause more wear on your transmission, if you have what you are referring to as "friction material" in your transmission fluid, that material is going to cause things to wear out faster. Similar to how sandpaper would be referred to as a friction material and if you rub it on wood it will wear out that spot on the wood, where as of you rub oil on the wood that obviously will not happen. I do understand this is a forum and all opinions are welcome but what you are saying is just wrong. As far as the cooler goes I do not believe it should have been removed but I also do not want to spend the time and money on adding one as I do not tow and also dont typically drive much longer than 20-30 minutes at a time and I monitor the temperature of the fluid on every drive and definitely believe Toyota only removed it to pinch pennies knowing that it will work just fine but definitely will shorten the life of the transmission but by that time it will be out of warranty so they win.

 

Thanks man! You as well! Let me know if you have any questions, YouTube also has lots of informative videos if you are a visual learner as myself.

 

So far everything I've learned from the Toyota head mechanics and local transmission shops is that clutch packs are greatly affected by dirty fluid other than clogging or fluid starvation, those last two are symptoms of poor/no maintenance. The more goo builds up, the more likely to create a big blob that will be eventually taken for a ride by new ATF/WS and clog something. Basically, you get 3 options:

-Never change it and hope for the best, maybe it'll last more than 100K mi., at this point, changing the fluid can do more harm than good.
-Drain and fill 3-4 times in a 50-60K mi. period (what actual mechanics recommend), if you missed it, flush it and then adopt that schedule.
-Drain and fill every 10K miles and sort of overdoit, while expensive -just as overdoing engine oil- it will not hurt.

"sealed" and "lifetime" gets thrown around a lot because it creates revenue when some poor soul forgets to change the fluid. Inventory that never leaves the warehouse costs money.

 

Transmission shops are self fulfilling prophecies. They want failures, they need failures to stay in business. I would follow Toyota schedule. Nothing more nothing less.

After 180K miles on my Lexus a solenoid went bad in the transmission, I had to drop the pan to replace. Pan was spotless, filter was spotless. Owned car since new only transmission service was open transmission pan drain plug 2 quarts came out 2 went in every 60K miles.

Lexus wanted $500 for solenoid I went to pick a part $10 that was 8K miles ago.

 

If you don't want to buy from AMZ...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/233651694635

 

I thought this was interesting.
‘Certainly seems east enough to flush...

https://youtu.be/cutlJH5KR2Y

 

Don't watch this hack.

In that video, he suggests pumping all the old fluid out before adding any back, and when he does, he overfills the transmission pan/housing to avoid multiple additions. Not my style. He's selling Amsoil...poorly.

 

After he initially drained the pan and replaced the filter, he added more back in than what initially drained.
I was wondering about the other side of the return line once he unhooked it...hence my comments about it being interesting.
I think it would have been better to have fresh fluid pumping back in the return line. Then leveling off with the check plug.

Sufficed to say, the flush seems to be an easier process than I initially thought though.

‘And it’s definitely a sales pitch.