2019 Tundra Tranny Temps 225-235F

I changed my fluid in mid December last year with Schaeffers 204SAT, the trans calls for 205A, which is a little thinner, but I thought the 204 was the correct stuff at the time. Being a little thicker hasn't hurt anything yet. Plus I live in the south. Just a hair over 30k since I changed it. May change it again soon and post a uoa. My temps run about 205-208 unloaded on the highway, running 75-85mph. may change it out with the 205A this time.

 

So you kind of have a "I've got a solution in search of a question" tone in your posts. That's why some are giving you static. If you have it all figured out, then go with your solution. You don't need a forum of strangers to tell you what to do.

I'm normally the person that says "Try the search", but this topic has been beaten to death and no one wants to read 7-30 pages of rants. The world will tell you this isn't good and you're doing to die, but no facts have been shown to back that up. There are UOAs here that says everything is fine. No one here has had any tranny-related problems (that I can remember) that are proven to have happened from burnt oil. And at this point, there's no actual evidence yet that the lack of cooler will cause a premature death of the tranny (but lots of speculation). I've spent time on BITOG too and there's a lot of good info and a lot of cult-like attitudes there. Don't get lost in the noise.

In short, your tranny temps are normal for the truck. Toyota thinks they are perfectly acceptable, even if you don't. I see those same temps on a regular basis. Heck, I see 253 not towing anything under the right conditions and have seen 257 towing my TT up a mountain pass with the engine wailing. The general consensus is the temp light will go on at 305, so to think that Toyota puts oil that starts to degrade over 200 degrees is a bit chicken-little.

If you want to put a cooler on, go for it. If you don't, then don't. Times change and so do fluids....remember when everyone changed their oil every 3,000 miles?!

 

So far no one has posted anything about a "superior" high temp transmission fluid formulation. When you find a substitute I hope to read your post about how well it has held up.

Feel free to post and share any real UOAs that show us the WS fluid is "spent". I've seen two or three posted here and to everyone's surprise the fluid has held up remarkably well in all of them.

 

https://priuschat.com/threads/toyota-atf-ws-used-oil-analysis.177311/

Within the first two minutes of searching. I am sure I could find many, many more given the time to do so.

 

This thread has done much to alleviate my depression over COVID Shutdown V3.0.

 

Says the guy with 25 posts who started the 50th transmission cooler thread.

 

Did you use a 2005 highlander and 2013 Prius as your proof?

This has the be a joke thread.

 

These are also different transmissions. It seems to wear good in the tundra. By no means am I fan of WS, but the results the members have posted here look good. And blackstone says they're good. To really validate this transmission temp ordeal we need more UOAs on the tundras, not other vehicles with different transmissions. Otherwise the data that has been recorded already states everything is in spec and its good.

I run the same transmission fluid in my tundra as I do my 7.3 with the E4OD. I change that fluid every 30k and its near the end of its life. In my tundra, I can go 50k without worrying too much. Different transmissions wear differently.

 

It is the fluid's properties we are after, regardless of application.

 

Different transmissions do wear differently, but the constant is the WS fluid. I was asked to post UOA's of the fluid. I did. Do the properties of the fluid morph with regards to different applications? WS is WS is WS.

 

It’s also doing a good job of emptying my fridge of beer.

 

It wasn't clear what the problems with those fluid samples were, if any.

 

Well this is specifically regarding the tundra. Not any other vehicles. One transmission can be alot harder on fluid than another. Which is the difference between a good uoa and bad uoa. The aisin transmission in the tundra does good with the ws fluid.

You can take WS, run it through 10 different vehicles for 50k miles, and they will all have different uoas. Now did those fluid properties morph? No. They didn't. Transmissions wear different from one another so you can't say that just because ws isn't good in another application, that its not good in the tundra. Just because the tundra likes ws, doesn't mean another vehicle does.

 

and for people who TOW regularly and are afraid of high temps

As for part 2. Most people who drive them don't care one way or another....but they aren't on the forum reading about their Tundras exploding when the temps hit 230+

I tow two times a year, so don't care or worry about my transmission temps. I'm way under weight and it's flat as a board where I live.

 

Precisely. If "our transmissions can be a lot harder on fluids than another", doesn't that seems to implicate that the WS in "our Tundra" would have been compromised earlier/prior to the Prius' or Highlander's tranny?

 

Application matters not just the fluid.

Heat is the main factor for degradation. The vehicles have different efficiencies on how well they dissipate the heat on how quickly they generate heat.

Wear rates and filtration matter too. The transmissions wear differently and the particles end up in the fluid. Poor filtration means more metal ends up in you fluid.

 

No one here is implying that a Tundra's transmission is going to explode after the temps hit 230F. I am certainly not. Just was soliciting others' feedback/real life experience who may have been in a similar situation to determine if my temps were an outlier, or within spec for the circumstances. As some have implied, the trans temps do seem a bit higher than normal. That is what I am/was after. Simple as that.

 

I wasn't meaning you thought it would. But with the amount of transmission cooler threads and discussion, you'd think it was a Tundra Pandemic if you didn't know better.

I would say 99% of owners will never have any issues based on the amount they use their trucks for actual towing

 

Not necessarily. Even if you posted several Tundra UOAs we still would need to account for vehicle utilization and enviornmentals. The most aggressive utilization posted here was about 40K to 50K with 3K+ of heavy towing. Oil looked good regardless.

 

Not sure if this is helpful as mine was a 17 but I spent the past summer towing my 6k lb Travel trailer in average summer temps 80-90 ish basically every weekend. I used a scan gauge also after reading here an many folks saying to watch temps.. My observation was if I ran in S4 an tow/haul I usually would not get above +/- 200 degrees on relativly flat ground. An would spike up to 230-240 on long grades. I also observed if I tried running in D with tow haul I would run much more consistently around 220ish range an temps just stayed higher in general. Did I loose sleep over hitting 230-240.. nope . I wouldn't want to run there all day though.. hope this helps..

 

I’m just here to get my post count up.

 

True. However, if they were able to monitor their temps, and under normal circumstances they were at 230F and then found out the temps were at 250-260F towing, I am sure they would also post here (or any other relevant forum) to determine if those temps were "within spec" for the circumstances. Just what I was after. A simple determination of what was considered normal ATF temp for an unladen Tundra cruising on flat land at 70F. Of course, this is under the assumption that the party involved was a gear head like many of us. But that is why these forums exist. For people who have similar interests to congregate and solicit feedback and/or offer solutions for "perceived" deficiencies (in this case being the absence of the cooler).

 

Thank you. I appreciate the information.

 

I'll see you on the market place peddling your wares good merchant.

 

What the results that have been posted have made clear is that our tundra "isnt" hard on the fluid. These transmissions are built incredibly well and they have very minimal wear. I have a thread where I tore open my transmission filter after changing it. Virtually no particles in the filter, or on the magnet. That was the original filter at 176k miles. These trucks aren't hard on fluid at all. Does it get a little hot in the newer tundras? Yes. But does the transmission produce alot of wear or clutch material? No.

 

No one has blown up a transmission as far as I know, and if you do warranty will cover it. If you install the aftermarket cooler that can be grounds for your warranty to be voided, be aware of that. If you are so worried by an extended warranty and be done with it.

While your at it might as well start an MPG thread too

 

Yes, the transmissions in our rigs have been proven to be very robust indeed. And as others here have stated in this thread, 230F seems to be a tad bit higher than normal under the circumstances I had encountered. As far as your 176K rig, I assume that was pre-19, with the cooler?

 

That is sub-optimal. We need additional threads on one or all of the following:

• Will these tires fit?
• How do I improve my audio?
• Will this Gen X part fit my Gen Y Tundra?
• What is the best <part>?
• My tonneau/hard shell is leaking! Halp!
• Will <part> improve MPG?
• Chrome Delete How?
  
• CAI Yay or Nay?

I'm sure I missed some..

 

My last tank average was 14.2.

 

Yes, but towed most of its life by the previous owner, and I tow a 7k camper all over plus off road alot. So trans temps were up there, along with the added stress of towing. I've seen 240 towing. So 230 unloaded wouldn't concern me.