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I am doing my first tran fluid drain and fill right now. I am only getting 2 qt out so far, not 3 qt most folks talk about. I opened drain plug right after I turned off the car when my obd2 read 115F. the car is on level surface.
Can you explain this part? "I opened the drain plug right after I turned off the car"? Are you talking about draining the pan? There is no need to get the ATF to a specific temp to do that, just warm things up to aid the flow, only when you're doing a final fill level check. When you do the final fill level check you must have the car running. I'm just trying to figure out which step you were on.
Can you explain this part? "I opened the drain plug right after I turned off the car"? Are you talking about draining the pan? There is no need to get the ATF to a specific temp to do that, just warm things up to aid the flow, only when you're doing a final fill level check. When you do the final fill level check you must have the car running. I'm just trying to figure out which step you were on.
Hi I did this on purpose as I was thinking if fluid out is about 115F, and assuming factory fill was accurate, I should be able to put in similar amount at 115F.
I drained about 3.3qt out total (initial drain + overflow under 115F). And I added about 3.4qt WS.
I did temperature check with my obdlink mx+ obd2. I highly recommend you get obdlink mx+. I took advice from acrad, it is simply the best for me.
I just finished up a transmission fluid change on my 2017 GX460 with 40,000 miles and thought I'd add my notes. I pretty much followed the procedure posted by @Acrad in post 43 except for two things. @yyymmm31 mentioned stripping the pan when torquing the drain bolt to 15 ft-lb so I torqued the drain plug (and overflow check plug) to 10 ft-lb. I didn't bother with the optional step of removing the overflow check plug during the draining operation. Looking back, I should've as it would've been interesting to see how much came out. I ended up draining exactly 3 quarts from the drain plug. I pumped in "about" 3.5 quarts and did the temperature check with the obdlink mx+. I put "about" in quotes because there was a little bit of spillage. I was using Toyota ATF WS fluid and the bottle that it came in didn't fit the pump that I bought. I couldn't screw the pump on so I had to pump leaving the top of the bottle open. A bottle tipped over while pumping and I lost what I'm guessing might've been a few tablespoons of fluid. When I opened the check plug at 115 deg F to get the fill level correct, a good sized blob of fluid came out and then went to a steady drizzle. I let it drizzle for a few minutes until it seemed to slow and then put the check plug back on. I've got some pics that I'll upload later.
Exceed fluid that drained from the overflow check plug. Condition of the fluid after the exchange. What new fluid looks like. Amount of old fluid drained from the drain plug. Condition of the old fluid.
My rig has 65k miles, and the dealer advised that transmission fluid appears to be contaminated/burnt and it's time to exchange the fluid.
Can the dealer actually see the fluid given that it's a sealed system or are they just recommending it for the sake of making money (helping prolong the transmission)?
They could just as easily tell you scheduled maintenance that is listed in warranty service guide at 60k miles as well.
One could probably expose an extremely minimal amount of fluid view the level check valve to a white paper towel but I haven’t heard of anyone doing this. This is a really small bolt with light torque.
Or just a finger sample from what residual resides in fill port area….
My rig has 65k miles, and the dealer advised that transmission fluid appears to be contaminated/burnt and it's time to exchange the fluid.
Can the dealer actually see the fluid given that it's a sealed system or are they just recommending it for the sake of making money (helping prolong the transmission)?
May or may not be "burnt," but at 65k, if it hasn't been replaced before now, I would say it's time to do it, anyway. It's great preventative maintenance if you plan on keeping the vehicle for a long time.
A small sample can be taken out from the fluid level check plug and it can be closed immediately. Seen on a couple of videos from 'Toyota Maintenance' youtube channel, when he performs a complete inspection of any toyota vehicle. If your dealership is reputed and has good technicians, they can definitely pull a small sample out and assess the condition of the fluid. Its a good preventive maintenance to replace it at 65k though.
You can replace the HEX check plug with the plug that is used for the drain and take the worry about stripping the hex plug. They are interchangeable and I've been doing this for several years.
First drain and fill and was done a year ago when the truck had 120K miles, now it's at 139K and wanted to do the 2nd drain & fill and bad luck struck.
Loosened the fill plug, everything good there, the went to loosen the drain plug and it felt tighter than usual, went ahead and loosened it. Got the drain pan ready and felt that the drain plug was un-screwing in a kind of a funny way and had to use the ratchet to unscrew it all the way, drained the oil.. Took a look at the drain plug and it seems fine, didn't notice anything odd off the threads. should have looked at it closely. Got about 2.5 qts out.
One nice trick to get another qt out, I jacked the rear diff up and removed the ramps on the rear tires and lowered it down, since the front is up, this allowed another qt of the fluid to drain out, so got around 3.5 qts out.
Cleaned the drain plug and put in a new crush washer and was trying to screw in, but it wasn't going in hand tight, tried in different angles and it didn't budge. went ahead and used a ratchet to get started and screwed in few turns till it felt very light snug, got a torque wrench and set it to 15 ft-lb and started torquing, made another 3-4 turns and the screw suddenly lost resistance it started rotating freely... DOOMED I wanted to un-screw but to my dismay, its just freely spinning and not able to bite any threads to come out. tried prying with a flat head screwdriver for some downward force while un-screwing, it didnt work....
It didn't end here, I wanted to loosen up the check plug so using a 5mm allen socket tried to loosen it... guess what happened, I just stripped the head of the check plug
Gist of the entire episode, Looks like I overtightened the plugs during my 1st drain & fill a year ago. I didn't have a low range torque wrench back then and just snugged them with hand until the crush washers were properly seated. Guys be very very super careful when removing and installing these plugs they are very sensitive to cross threading and over torquing.
I ended up ordering a new transmission oil pan, oil pan gasket and since I'm getting the pan out will change the transmission filter as well while I'm in there... huge bummer....
Can someone help me with the torque specs for the transmission oil pan bolts and the transmission filter bolts?
Looks like 7 ft-lb on filter and 8 ft-lb on case bolts
There is a built in temp monitor if you don't have Techstream, OBD Link/Fusion, Scangauge etc...
Your D indicator will tell you temp.. I like to know exact temp with TS and OBD Link but if you don't have any of these tools the built in should work for you. FSM says up until 2021 this still works... not sure on 2022.. perhaps someone with a TIS subscription can confirm.
D indicator will go off meaning below 115 degrees.. it will turn on at 115-126..the set temp... and then start blinking above 126 so overtemp for fill check
Remember OBD port is upside down from pic connecting pin 4 & 13
07-31-21, 10:22 AM
I wanted to un-screw but to my dismay, its just freely spinning and not able to bite any threads to come out. tried prying with a flat head screwdriver for some downward force while un-screwing, it didnt work.... 
