lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

The strainer isn't discontinued. North American and Japanese cars use 35330-50030. They are readily available here in North America from Lexus dealers and from the aftermarket.

Lexus claims:

Quote:

A felt type oil strainer (in a plastic case) is used because it weighs less, offers excellent debris capturing
ability, and is more reliable. This oil strainer is maintenance-free.

You are misunderstanding the chart for the volumes, see below. Those numbers are related to specific maintenance activities and not "each one of these will use this much ATF." If you are dropping the pan and replacing the filter, you'll get a little less than 6 quarts out of the unit, so you would want to buy 6 liters in your market to ensure you have enough fluid. Mine took about 5.5 US quarts which is actually more than what the claimed replacement volume is for a valve body replacement. A complete fluid swap isn't really necessary. You'd be better off doing a simple drain and fill every 20k miles after you replace your filter and refill. Total system volume is 10.5 (11.1, 9.2) in liters (US quarts, Imperial quarts) for a completely dry fill. I have a used oil analysis showing the viscosity of WS fluid at well over 200k km is still good. The red dye will be oxidized for sure, but the dye has nothing to do with the oil's ability to perform.

c111jp

Got it, will then go for 2x 4L cans and just keep remaining ~2L for next drain and fill / level adjustment. I'm, currently having problems finding parts for the exchange so will need to wait. Ordered strainer from Amazon.jp but it's "out of stock" so not sure when they will ship it. Other parts are scattered all over the place, can't get it all from same place which is annoying and costs extra in shipping.

bobjane

I'm considering buying a 2013 ISF with 92,000 miles. It has a full Lexus dealer service history but does not appear to have had the transmission serviced/fluids replaced.

It seems only a very few enthusiast owned cars have had transmission servicing.

I am keeping this car long term. Should I avoid cars with unserviced transmissions?

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

No. I went 156k miles on my OEM fill. The only downside is as the clutches wear, the fluid level drops and flare is more likely when cold. If I were you, I'd ignore the service/no service question and plan to drain the pan and refill once you get your car. You'll be fine.

bobjane

Thank you for the feedback.

I also had a chat with a Lexus dealer today and they said it also depends a lot on how the car was driven over its lifetime.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Mine had 6 track weekends on it. Not that big a deal.

SoulFreak

iTrader: (1)

Im having a clearance issue getting the car lifted with my low profile jack. I got the nose up on ramps. In order to reach the front lifting point. Now I can’t reach the rear diff. Is it okay to do a drain & fill just by lifting the nose up? Have you had any issues? I understand the car needs to be leveled. Come to think to about it, whatever fluid comes out. Needs to be replaced right?

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

The factory procedure only works with the car level. If you drain, measure, and refill with the amount you removed, you'll be in the ballpark, but I would add 4 ounces to that just to be sure.

I put my jack under the diff from the side (usually the passenger's side), not from the back. It's impossible from the back with the nose up.

SoulFreak

iTrader: (1)

copy that, thank you.

SoulFreak

iTrader: (1)

Just wanted to update this thread, Thank you Lobuxracer for the advice. The low profile 3 ton Daytona jack would not clear through the front. I used my Rhino Ramps to lift the front end. Then proceeded with Daytona jack to front lift point. As I lifted the front off the rhino ramps, I decided to use them as safety nets. I turned them in a way if something failed, the front tires would land on the ramps. While still allowing me to install all 4 jack stands. It was a pain, as I had to do a lot of back & forth adjustments to ensure safety. As for the transmission drain & fill, it’s been over a week. I want to say it was a success. I purchased an OBD2 device, called Scanguage 2, which allows you to read the transmission fluid temps. It worked as advertised & highly recommend it.

c111jp

Would having too much oil cause shift hangs as when the oil is too low?

So basically, some time ago I started noticing holding of gears in D but it's a bit weird how it would do it. It started just around the time when I've installed 3.7 diff so I attributed it to diff and TCU being confused with what's happening.
It would sometimes hold gear when coming out of sharp turns or after downhills but then, it would also sometimes do it on the dead straights. For example, when I'm cruising on low rpm, very smoothly trying to accelerate with gentle throttle, it would just annoyingly continue holding the gear even for some time after I've released the throttle. But no matter which scenario, it's all very random and occasional. I think it's also always the same gear that it's holding (6th or something like that). I have aftermarket steering wheel so it's a hassle to connect OEM wheel switches to change to gear indicator and I also forget to flip it to M every time it happens lol.

What would also happen sometimes is, if I'm going downhill and get on the brakes moderately, it would downshift and drop at least 2 gears down rather violently (but smoothly with nice revmatch). On the other hand, in this scenario normally I would tap downshift padle (in D) 7 out of 10 times if it doesn't do it on it's own, so who knows, maybe it just learned my habits lol. I can kinda feel it when it's about to do it. Just to clarify, when holding gear, there is no slipping or flair whatsoever, it's almost as firm as when the TC is locked and it engine brakes very strong when throttle released. It's all in normal mode, I rarely use Sport in day to day driving.

As I've mentioned earlier, few months ago while replacing radiator, I've replaced 4L of oil through oil cooler lines. I drained a bit less than 4L and then pumped in the whole 4L can.
Noticed these gear holds quite after.
Last week when drifting, I had one decent spin and after that, on my way home I noticed it now gets to holding gears way easier, even after just releasing throttle for a bit or gentle braking so I figured I should really service the trans asap.

Yesterday I finally serviced the trans. There was a very small oil residue around area where the harness passes through grommet into the trans on the fill plug side. It looked fresh so I wonder if that happened during spin. Rest is all dry and clean.
​Drained whole pan with nose up, cranked it couple of times without starting the engine and managed to get 5.5 L out. Cleaned everything nicely, replaced streiner, pan gasket etc.
Old pan gasket was holding onto the pan pretty good and I thought it's going to break when removing due to how much force I needed to use. It left adhesive like residue around area of each screw hole. The residue is much harder than any conventional RTV, so I think it's just gasket that melted itself. I had hard time removing it without damaging powdercoat and I haven't managed to remove it entirely.

Does Toyota / Lexus use any kind of sealant on the gasket from the factory?
There is no trans service history on this car but I wonder...

I've got Aisin AFW+ oil. It's made by the manufacturer of trans, it's bit cheaper than Toyota WS, it says it's WS compatible (although it's compatible with very wide range which I'm not a fan of), I could get it quicker than Toyota WS and it's fully synthetic so I figured I should try it. From the specs I could find around, it's a bit thicker than WS but a lot of people reported very nice results in other Toyota WS trans applications.

I've leveled the car as accurate as possible (but small error possible due to uneven floor), poured in 6.2L, went through D N R back and forth couple of times for oil to flow and drained excess at 35-36°c until the drain slowed down to nearly trickle. Didn't wait for it to stop completely because I figured it's just going to continue to drain some more as the temp goes up and oil expands. Then I added about 200ml more since I figured it really shouldn't hurt it.

Immediately I noticed shifts improved significantly and car now tries to upshift as soon as possible and as soft as possible most of the time. Prior, I've been putting it into snow mode while cruising to achieve the same effect. When doing fast, mid rpm (3500-4500rpm), high torque upshifts in M (normal mode), every upshift now "bites" quite stronger and gives a car a decent push while before it was more flat / slip like.

But, today while commuting, I've noticed it's still doing the D gear hold in some situations.
​​​​​​Did anyone with 3.7 diff experience similar?
it's probably better to open dedicated thread related to that but asking here just in case.

gripau1

@c111jp Agree that the Aisin AFW+ (full synthetic) is a superior fluid than the Toyota WS (semi-synthetic). What did you use to check the fluid temperature? If you use a laser temperature probe, aim it at the fluid coming out. If you monitor the bottom of the transmission pan its not that accurate and I would be looking for 30DegC temperature rather the 40DegC max temperature. At 30DegC, the transmission fluid should start to trickle out.

Normally I will do 3 drain and fill on a transmission service and at the 50k km or lower KM if I intend to keep the vehicle for along time and drive it hard.
How many km is on the transmission and when was it last service?

Is there a way to reset the TCM in remembering your driving style, ie disconnecting the battery for 30mins etc?

c111jp

I used obd2 to read the temperature.

There is no history of trans service so as far as I know, it's the first time being done (altough I find it hard to believe since Japanese are generally overdoing this kind of stuff on such cars). Car has 130 000km exactly now. Nearly year ago, while replacing radiator, I've replaced 4L of oil through oil cooler lines (about 115 000km). Oil coming out now was way cleaner than last time when it was nearly black so those 4L must've done something. (Altough oxidized dye doesn't tell much about actual condition of the oil as lobuxracer stated above).

Apparently, disconnecting battery doesn't reset the TCU on these cars. I've tried reseting it with TS before but after few sec it throws an error that this car doesn't support it. Before it throws an error it seems like it's doing something though, and shift's do feel a bit different after (worse, which is what I would expect) but can't say for sure.

Anyway, after driving for few days now , car is definitely holding shifts and when it does, it's almost worse than before. Will sometimes hold it even when accelerating very very gently on the straight and it's always 6th gear as far as I could see. Other than that, shifts great when it doesn't hang, no flare, and manual shifts bite quite nice and responsive.

I highly doubt it's currently low on oil since I've poured in some extra. These days I will level the car precisely and re-do the level adjust procedure and I'm not going to add any extra.

For now, I think it's either acting up due to 3.7 diff or is somehow bothered by a bit of extra oil. The more I think about it, the more I remember hangs starting almost right away after diff change.

dev2458

Transmission fluid level check procedure question


I have a 2008 IS-F with 112k miles. Transmission level has never been checked or mentioned in the service history.
After reading the following forum post: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...ml#post9159501, I decided to do a drain and fill in order to ensure the level was accurate.

My procedure I used, from the service manual:

1. Get car level on 4 jack stands
2. Ensure I can read A/T Oil Temperature 1 with techstream
3. Remove fill plug
4. Loosen overflow plug and retighten a bit
5. Take out drain plug, let fluid in pan drain. Just over 3 quarts came out.
6. Reinstall drain plug with new crush washer, torque 15 ft/lbs
7. Put 4 quarts Toyota AFT WS in through fill plug
8. Reinstall fill plug with new o ring, torque 29 ft/lbs
9. Start car and shift through the gears several times to circulate fluid
10. Monitor tech stream for Transmission oil temp
11. Wait until temperature is 95 degrees fahrenheit (takes ~20 min of idling)
12. While vehicle idling, and shift selector in P, Pull overflow plug and let fluid drain
13. Once fluid is trickling, reinstall overflow with new crush washer, torque 15 ft/lbs

Now here is my question after rereading the service manual:


I did not do steps 2-6 where I go to / Engine / Active Test / Connect the TC and TE1 in techstream, or shift from N to D quickly to activate fluid temperature detection mode.
To me it seemed unnecessary becuase I have the live temperature reading. Now I am thinking that this is required even with tech stream.

Furthermore, the manual for a 2009 ES350 states:
Is entering fluid temperature detection mode absolutely required to get the level precise? Was I wrong to rely on only the A/T Oil Temperature 1 reading?
Does fluid temperature detection mode do other special things like the ES350 manual states?

I'm guessing the IS-F has a similar function even if its not stated in the manual. I will probably redo the drain and fill for peace of mind, but I would like to hear
thoughts of people with more experience, thanks!

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

I have always done it literally by the book, and I have a professional TIS subscription which includes Techstream. Yes, I always have TC and TE1 shorted when I am engaging the display, and disconnect as soon as the display is set properly. The service manual does not give an explanation for this, but it does clearly state you must disconnect the terminals, or close the Active Test display on Techstream. The idle stability point from the ES350 may apply, but those gearboxes only have the name transmission in common with the AA80E.
This is word for word what the service manual says to do after engaging the temperature detection mode.I would not "redo" the whole thing. I'd add a half quart of fluid and do the adjustment with the terminals disconnected. That said, I also add about 4 ounces of fluid once the level is set to extend the time until I need to address the gearbox fluid again. I haven't found any long term problems with this approach, and it prevents flare when going downhill while cold pretty nicely. I live on a hill and don't appreciate when the second gear shift flares just because I'm on a hill.