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I did my 4th drain and fill today. I'm done with these for now. Might do one drain and fill a year or every 12-15K miles. Quickest I ever did one since that Motive makes it super easy to refill. Fluid has nice healthy color now.
Using my screw in adapter I was also able to walk away at times while fluid was pumping in.
24 mile drive on freeway this morning with cooler and thermostatic switch pinned open. High temps below were achieved at end of drive cruising around low speed . Remember one is pan and two is torque converter. Coolant on mine varies from 198-208F. Normally AT temps would have been very close or at coolant temps by end of this drive. On freeway temps basically leveled off and stayed around 160-163F degrees on both. Around 60F outside.
I need to install one of these... it's the only functional addition to the 2020 GX in my opinion. I've been looking at the KOAN supplied unit from Australia: https://www.kaon.com.au/partsfinder/...-2009-present/
but I like the OEM unit... I'll be curious if the 2020 uses the same part numbers as listed in the OP.
Ok, I just completed the strainer and pan gasket at 118,300. Pretty straight forward but it took me awhile as I was working slow. If you're going to do this be advised, it's messy AF. No matter how careful you are, you are going to make a mess. I would lay a tarp down on your garage floor and wished I would have. Make sure you have plenty of Brake Clean (at least 2 cans) and 2 rolls of blue shop towels. First thing I did was empty the transmission which yielded a little over 2 quarts. After I got the pan off, I was able to get about another 2 quarts out of the pan that didn't drain out of the drain plug. That's quite a bit of fluid.
Here is after I dumped the pan into the container. I spilled a bit so it should have been a touch more.
Check the bolts before you pop the pan off. There are *20* bolts, all the same length. I checked the torque on a few and found several to be loose, though I'm confident the transmission has never been serviced on this car. I wanted to get a feel for what 62 in lbs felt like. I removed all of the bolts and left one on each end, then used one hand to hold the pan while I removed the last two and was then able to lower it down. I did jack up the passenger side of the GX a few inches for a bit of extra room. The two bolts by the thermostat housing are a touch tight with the lines in the way but they have enough play to get them out. Once the pan is off, everything will drip from the exposed portion of the transmission.
The strainer or filter, whatever you want to call it, comes off easily enough, just 4 bolts all of which are the same length. When you dislodge it, fluid is going to slosh around. Yay for that. Watch for the O-ring as it will probably be still stuck in the transmission and not on the strainer. At this time, I used a fresh towel with a touch of Brake Clean and wiped down the mating surface for the pan on the transmission side. For the strainer, lube the O-ring with WS. The strainer is 84 in lbs for the 4 bolts.
For the gasket, it comes (Lexus OEM) wadded up in a bag. I unfolded it and found that it wasn't quite flush, so I placed some paper on it to help it get the proper shape. I did this before I started.
4 reams of paper and Acrad35751's instructions seemed to do the trick!
For the pan, I cleaned off the magnets and found that they had some debris on them, but not an excessive amount in my opinion. The gasket came off in many pieces and was pretty much toast. I wiped down the pan and was careful to try and keep is as clean as possible so as not to introduce any foreign contaminants into the transmission. For me, the biggest one was dog hair. I used the gasket tack stuff from Permatex and it seemed to do ok, reminded me a lot of rubber cement. I put down a coat and laid the gasket down, then used 4 reams of paper to hold it down for 3 minutes.
After that, it seemed to stick pretty well, though I touched up one corner. The pan goes into place easily and I alternated corners with the bolts and got all 20 in. MAKE SURE YOU USE A 1/4" ratchet. You could easily snap one of these if you were not careful. I snugged them super light, and then torqued to spec (62 in lbs). I then added about 5 quarts of WS. Once I went through the usual steps, I opened the overflow and NOTHING came out. Turned the car off, put a fan next to the work area to cool the exhaust down, then I added 3/4 of a quart of WS. This time, I got a stream that became a trickle. This is how much came out.
Verified no leaks several times and took it around the block a few times. Everything seemed fine. Let it sit for an hour then crawled under it again to check for leaks and everything is still dry as it should be. All together I'd say I spent about 3 hours on this, which is a long time and I think you'd be quick if you had access to a lift. Working on the floor of the garage sucked for this. Anyways, saved a ton of money. I think I will do one more drain and fill and then call it good for 30k which will take us 3-4 years to accumulate that many miles. I really want to thank everyone for their posts on this subject, especially @Acrad35751 whose posts/pictures were very beneficial. I hope this step helps someone in the future. Other than the time and the mess, this is very straight forward and an average amateur mechanic (as most of us here are) can easily handle this.
I would further add that a fine tooth 1/4 ratchet would be ideal, something like a Snap On or Matco and I would recommend an extension that is knurled. I have Snap On 1/2 and 3/8 extensions that are knurled, but my 1/4 ones are Crapsman. My fingers were slipperly due to the WS and it took extra time working the pan bolts. I'll be adding a new 1/4 extension set to my tool box in the very near future.
Also, I didn't see the need to spray the transmission internals with brake clean. I'm sure you could if you wanted to, but I wasn't sure about how sensitive the exposed pieces were. If you wipe anything down, make sure you are careful with the towels you're using so you don't introduce dirt or debris into the system.
•••This post will more than likely be edited multiple times. Think of this as a draft
Feel free to comment…. Just trying to get my steps in-line before I do a simple drain and refill on the AT fluid. This one seems like it can be a little more complicated than other vehicles I have changed AT fluid on as this first I have dealt with for the overflow design on the level check. I understand some may want to do some full change out through the AT cooler lines and/or change the filter. I am not going to do either this go around.
If I knew absolutely certain my current factory fill was correct I would consider a drain and refill without all the other steps but since that is unknown I am gonna attempt factory check method.
- Vehicle placed on 4 ramps for more room to work underneath. Made sure vehicle was level and wheels were chocked
- Turned vehicle to power on without starting. Connected OBD Fusion make sure that I could get a reading on “AT Oil Temperature 1”. (Pan Temp)
- Turned vehicle power off.
- Placed appropriate container with measurement marks below drain plug. I want to see how much drains out.
- Cleaned off AT fill plug. Fill plug is located on the right rear side of transmission.
- Removed fill plug / make sure rubber gasket does not get lost. Important to first remove fill plug.
- Cleaned off AT fluid overflow check valve
- Remove AT fluid overflow check valve. With engine off there is more fluid in the pan than when running. A measured amount in my later post came out. This is optional. One could just fully drain from the drain plug.
- Cleaned off AT drain plug
- Removed AT drained plug and drain AT fluid into container
- Reinstalled AT drain plug with a new crush washer / torque: 15 ft-lb
- Pinned open the AT thermostatic switch with a paper clip. A screwdriver to push in switch will be needed.
- Used an old oil contain to exactly measure how much came out. I then added 1/2 quart to this amount so I could ensure I got an accurate fill level later on.
- Refilled transmission with (drain amount + 0.5 quart) with new fluid.
- Tighten the AT refill plug with old o-ring on it. I will be replacing with a new o-ring once we are sure fluid level is accurate. I probably retightened to like 10 ft-lbs. I wouldn't go full torque spec in case you under-filled and have to remove fill plug again.
- Hand tighten AT overflow check valve with old crush washer (only if you optionally removed during drain)
- Start Vehicle and cycle through gears a few times with foot on the brake and go through all the gears for about 30 seconds.
- Return to park.
- Double checked to make sure I could connect and see temps with OBD Fusion. I was able to keep the phone down with me under car so I could watch temps.
- Make sure you have your drain container down there again
- When temperature hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit I removed the AT overflow check valve and drained excess fluid until a slow trickle of fluid started coming out of AT check valve. Be careful not get burned with hot fluid or the nearby exhaust. I then reinstalled the overflow check valve bolt. I would be prepared to put a new crush washer on the bolt right after removal. Check valve torque 15 ft-lb
- You should now have the factory spec correct AT level
- Turn off vehicle
- Replace O-ring on hand tightened fill plug and torque to: 29 ft-lb
- Remove pin from AT thermostatic switch
- Go for a test drive to ensure shifting is correct.
- Check for any leaks when you get back from drive.
- Clean up the mess
Arcad, are these instructions still correct? I know you’ve done a few drain and fill since then. Hopefully not too different with an aftermarket cooler, which took about half a bottle of WS to fill
05-22-19, 08:25 AM
