Hi All,

I just bought an 05. The car is very nice in all respects, but it has 80K highway miles on it.
I wanted to do a transmission tune-up (change filter and fluid) and the guy who sold it to me said to NEVER do this. He said that 05 trannies are sealed and are not meant to ever be opened up. In fact, the car doesn't even have a transmission dip stick.
He also told me that if you touch the existing fluid, it will upset something inside and will cause problems.
This seems to be a common thing that most mechanics tell me - A customer comes in to perform routine trans. flush and leave with problems - bad shifts, no shifts, etc...

My question is, what does Toyota recommend to do as far as tranny maintenance and how often?

Also, I want to tow a bike for about 2K miles this spring. I used to have a hitch on my 97 LS and it handled it w/o any problems. However, in order to be on the safe side, I'm thinking of adding a transmission cooler. Just in case.

Has anyone done it before? What's involved?

Many thanks!

 

Don't know about installing a trans. cooler, but as for the sealed transmission, it's true. There is no need for maintenance, but if the car lasts over 300K miles, I'd be very suspicious of fluid being in there that long. There is a way to "power flush" the fluid, rather than flush/drain and refill the traditional way.

Honestly, couldn't really tell you definitively whether to replace it say every 100K is better or not than not doing anything, but conventional wisdom would say that it's better to change once in a while, than never at all.

 

would think Lexus knows something about their equipment and when to maintain,, if they say do nto change then why mess with it,,???

 

Does toyota recommend not to touch it?

 

I have owned two cars with the same recommendations; a Volvo and a Mercedes. I changed both every 100,000 miles. I put over 200,000 on both with no transmission problems. I will be changing the fluid in my car at 100,000 and will check with Lexus about replacing the fluid with Mobil Synthetic. If you aren't planning to keep your car long enough to put those kind of miles on it maybe you might want to skip it.

 

You don't use Mobil 1 for 04+ LS, they require WS(World standard) fluid.

 

Thanks for that reply. Please tell me more. I am under the impression Mobil 1transmission fluid exceeds Lexus requirements.

 

Here's a PDF of the Lexus TSIB about WS fluids.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/att...ansmission.pdf

 

That's exactly what i was looking for. Thanks a lot!

 

Not a problem.

Happy New Years!!!

 

Has anyone gone beyond 200K on their LS yet and NOT changed the ATF ? So if we go by faith and NEVER change the fluid and these things start blowing up at 200K, then what sort of recourse do we have to get the trannys fixed? Lexus can just come back and say "oh well, that's the life of the transmission then. 200K ain't too bad."

 

I think they'll say to you at 200K that your trans and car are out of warranty

 

I will do more research before switching to Mobil 1 transmission fluid but either way I will be servicing my car's transmission. I have already been down this road with Mercedes. I keep a car too long to treat it as a disposable item.
The Mercedes and Volvo that I did service the "sealed" transmissions never had a single issue with over 200,000+ miles. I was told by a Volvo zone service rep. one reason the companies list the coolant systems and transmissions as not needing service is to appear more eco friendly. Which he pointed out is find for the loan life owner. For those of us who keep a car for a long time service done by a factor professional is not overkill.

 

My 2004 is the same gen as the 2005 and my owners manual clearly states the transmission fluid/filter replacement at 60K.

I had it done at 60K and just hit 70K without any issues.
It was changed by the dealer.

 

Lets get more input on this matter. I'd like to get some concrete answers as to what kind of oil to use and when to change it.