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I stated every 3rd engine oil change or every 3 years.... You do you, I'll do me.
I do my diffs every 2 years.
Lubrication and oils are cheap, transmissions and diffs and engines are not.
How many miles in 1yr?
My trans has 251kmi. Took pan off once at around 80kmi, installed new filter, filled it back. Never an issue, ever.
I'll do the same procedure in a couple of months, but I will do some additional oil swapping new for old.
About 7,500 on average... I know the maintenance I perform across the board is overkill compared to the manual and I'm ok with it, having the piece of mind is more important to me than pushing the limits against a manual that is meant to limit an owner's maintenance requirements (while getting the vehicle thru it's powertrain warranty without a claim) so Toyota/ Lexus can be competitive in the total cost of ownership category. There is no such thing as a lifetime fluid which operates nominally, forever. Bigfoot tears and Unicorn poop in a bottle doesn't exist either.
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
The Valvoline tech folks told me the MaxLife trans fluid is same or better than Toyota trans fluid, and mixing the two is ok.
Valvoline MaxLife is a multi-vehicle fluid which is claimed to be suitable for Mercedes, Honda, Toyota and whatnot transmissions. While it is most likely an excellent fluid, it is physically impossible to formulate the chemicals of the fluid to be equivalent to all the fluids these transmissions were designed to use. My advice is that if you value your vehicle and planning to keep it for a longer period of time use the factory fluid. If your vehicle is nearing its expected lifetime and you don't really care anymore then use whatever cheapest fluid you can find. While your transmission won't blow up if you put MaxLife into it, it is simply not worth the risk to save a few dollars on a $60+grand vehicle.
Toyota ATF costs about $10 / quart but ZF LifeGuard 8 for BMWs costs almost twice as much. I do have MaxLife in my extensive collection of fluids in my cabinet and I regularly use it, just not in the GX.
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Cold temperature ATF change method, the manual does not recommend right. I know we put equal amount, but hot oil will flow through nicely than the cold oil. Just a thought.
IMO: I would recommend fluid change using hot method to ensure current level is accurate. Even if you don't have a Techstream or 3rd party OBD reader there is the built in method in post #514 above. Overfill 1/2 quart of what you drained to ensure you get accurate level in the event fluid was actually low.
I have a '13 GX with about 90k that I bought from dealer as CPO with about 60k on odometer. I have asked a few times about doing a tranny drain and fill and each time the service advisor tells me no need. Seems odd if it is true that dealerships are always about trying to get you spend more that they don't want me to do the service.
IMO: It might be a liability thing with some dealers if for some reason unrelated failure occurred soon after. There are a few dealers reportedly out there that won't balk at doing the service.
Hmm, I still have 2 years of Lexus warranty on it (I got the 3 year extension to the CPO - yeah, yeah, throwing money away and all that), so if there was a problem it would be covered under that, but maybe a general policy. However they have cars in all the time for lots of stuff, so not sure if they are more exposed by transmission refill, esp since it is a 60k service for high load use cases. I
I am not going to tell anyone they won't get 300k or miles on stock AT fluid but I do think you increase your odds for long term reliability servicing the AT at service levels shown in warranty guides since 2010.
I think most think just towing but warranty guide also says...
....using a car-top carrier or heavy vehicle loading
A lot of owners have carriers on top of rig and then again "How much is Heavy Vehicle Loading?" Just a full load of passengers?
'22 warranty guided added the following at 60k miles---> "Extensive idling and/or low speed driving for a long distance such as police, taxi or door-to-door delivery use:"
Yep - I am more that happy to do it - hell, I still bring my '07 IS250 to the dealer, mostly so I have one place to hold accountable, to get serviced so I am ripe for getting upsold on maintenance services - but it just gives me pause when the dealer, whom I would think would want me to do any superfluous service, totally balks. Not sure if I want to bring it to independent shop to get done - might be asking for more hassles. Don't know how it was used before us (no towing since it didn't have tow package), but we don't use it for heavy loads or roof rack.
My opinion (which no one cares about) is that if there is sediment or particles in the oils when a flush is done then a higher mileage trany oil change can cause problems with accumulators, valves, seals, etc as the debris is stirred up and distributed around the transmission. Changing the oil before sediment accumulates, maybe at the 50k to 75k mark would reduce the chances of trany problems caused by a oil replacement service. Again maybe cheap maintenance in the long run.
12-26-21, 04:21 PM
