Wgoods89

So i was replacing the front drives side cv axle on a 2000 lexus es300.. welllike an idot (in a 4wd truck mindset...) when i pulled the axle out... yep, you guessed it.. i wasnt ready for for it, didnt even dawn on me til there i sit huge puddle of tranny fluid.. >.<
anyways... moving on from my mistake (without knowing when or what kind was used last) do i just top it up? Do a full drain and filter replacement? And what do you guys think about the valvoline maxlife-d? Manual says a type T-IV, my local autostore only has valvoline being the only equivalent on hand otherwise ill have to order.

LeX2K

How many miles on the car? I will refrain from recommending ATF, no matter how many times I do people go out and buy what they want anyway. You can "top off" the ATF but that's a guess do it properly, check ATF with a hot engine/transmission, engine running level surface.

Your transmission may have a media type filter if it does they have been known to clog with age and mileage.

Wgoods89

160k total miles.

Oro

Debating whether or not to change transmission fluid is the same as debating whether or not to ever change engine oil. There really is no debate. Not faulting you; there is a lot of misinformation out there on this for multiple reasons.

Transmission fluid breaks down and gets dirty, just like engine oil. It just does it at a much, much lower rate. The *general* best practices theory is to a) start with a clean fill, and b) then swap out just the pan volume (roughly 1/3 of total volume) every 30k miles.

Maxlife is a low-viscosity fluid designed to boost mileage. IME TIV is a better match for performance as engineered, but the LV fluid won’t cause harm. The last time I needed some, the local Toyota dealer parts department was helpful and gave me a discount that made the price the same as MaxLife from Walmart, so it was a no-brainer. Check out your local Toyota dealer if you can. Valvoline Import Multi-Vehicle is a better match to T-IV than MaxLife and can usually be found without too much difficulty, also. Get three gallons and run 10 qts through the transmission and 2 qts through the PS system. Service the PS system at the same time as the AT.

Texasdeere

I would say a full service and No Flushing. Pan drop fluid and filter.

poorsoigrabwrench

Don't flush. Either top it off, drain and refill or drop pan and refill. The toyota fluid is probably best but it is pricey. I've dropped the pan 3 times recently on my 2003 es300 80kish miles. First time was incredible how much gunk was on pan and stuck to magnets. I replaced oem filter with some oreilys filter and gasket, but the oem filter is just a screen on mine and the other one had a lot of cloth which may impede the flow. So after a few weeks I ordered oem filter and dropped it again to replace. You can just clean the old filter screen and reuse. I did like the oreilys gasket though. 2003 may be different but there's 3 -4 bolts that require an 1/8th of a turn at a time with a box wrench unless you can raise tranny off mounts I believe. I got used to just wrenching it but it is a pain on some of them. Definitely possible with the right angled 10mm wrench. I'm currently using castrol full synthetic transmax universal atf which is like $20 something for a gallon. They also had castrol import which seemed to be thicker and probably closer to the toyota t-iv viscosity.