At's - Flush or Drain & Fill

I just read a long thread on changing your at fluid. Most of what I read was our newer Tundra's have a sealed unit, therefore you should just drain and fill vs flush. It was said majority of metal shavings etc are at the bottom and will be removed at service, that is if the mechanic cleans the screen, pan, and magnets. Would like you guy's thoughts on this matter. I do understand that if we tow a lot service intervals will be sooner. Thanks

 

Sealed transmissions,

Unless you have the tools (pumps) to flush out the transmission leave it to the dealer to do... When they do it i would ask them if you can get the shavings from the pan.. Take them home and clean the shavings.. your going to do what you say? yes clean them and look for hot blue markers or black marks on the shavings if you get one or two its ok if you have many for example transmission is having problems... Also get a sample of fluid. It should still be red color and SMELL IT... Does it smell burned? If it smells burned clutch packs in the transmission are going bye bye from too much HEAT...

 

Yeah I'm not touching nothing. Just wanted to know if it's worthwhile to get it flushed, and should I not worry about it and just take it to dealership and get it drained and filled. Thanks for the insight

 

I haven't thought of this yet on the new Tundra but on my 03 I drained & filled regularly. I saved on labor and materials and knew what I was putting my truck. I could see first hand the condition of the fluid and the pan. I increased the frequency to ensure I also always had good fluid in the system.

If you get to reading about flushes there are horror stories of flushes gone wrong. Some suspect they loosen material and the pressure used to extract the fluid, if not done correctly, can be bad on the system. I don't want to be one of these horror stories on the forums where the mechanic didn't put the right amount of fluid in. I subscribed to the idea that no one cares more about your ride than you do, and I think these guys are under pressure to get the work done and move on to the next one.

Having said all of that I haven't looked at the process for 15 but if I can drain and fill that'll be the plan. On the 03 if you can change your oil and use a torque wrench you can service your trans.

 

Yeah I have read horror stories too. I'm not gonna go that route, just gonna drain and fill. Thanks for that insight bro

 

Thats the fun thing about 1st gens tundras made it easy to work on...

 

Alright I got the manual and this transmission is set up like my Tacoma's. So it's a little bit of a pain to do but you can do it yourself. Basically these are "sealed" meaning there is no dipstick tube to check but that doesn't mean that they are forever transmissions. So what you do is you have a drain plug at the pan. You drain it. Manual says 2.2 quarts to refill if you remove the pan, which is the only way to get to the screen and magnets. So drop the pan, clean it, use Toyota FPIG (which is awesome) and torque the pan back on following the manuals torque pattern and specs. Then fill 2.2 quarts into the WS fill hole, driver side. Then you have to jumper the OBD II at #4 and 13#. When you do this, you move the shifter from D to N back and forth for 6 seconds, and then you will see the D come on and go off on the screen. As the fluid warms to check level, the D will come back and remain solid. So now you have to crawl back under the truck, remove the overflow check plug on the passenger side and if any comes out you let it flow until it's a trickle, all while the engine is running. If none comes out you need to add. You have to do this before the fluid gets out of range check, the D will start flashing at which point it's too hot to check and you have to let it cool to continue.

Torque specs for the WS plug is 29 ft/lbs and for the overflow and drain plugs they are 15 ft/lbs. All will need new washers as well.

I just got the manual for the Tundra. I figured it was like the Tacoma but wanted to be sure. I've done it on my Tacoma twice. Never had any issues or any fluid leaks. I can put up the Tundra's manual's pages for this if you guys want. Here are some pictures of the plugs. Now on my Tacoma I do this every 30k miles. It's a pain, but way better than replacing a transmission.

I leave to go out of country on Monday so I'll do this pan drop when I get back and will post up pics.