terminater

Good evening!
I recently purchased my '03 LS430 with 217k miles on it. I have been reading through the forums about what all I should do to the car to "get it up to speed."
I am planning on changing the transmission fluid by draining 2-3 quarts at a time via the drain plug and refilling what drained out. My concern is, my fluid is pretty dark. It almost looks like used engine oil dark.

My transmission shifts fine now, but I just wanted to possibly improve its performance. On occasion it will upshift too quickly to what I believe is 3rd gear and then back down to 2nd. I'm not sure if maybe this car is still trying to learn my driving still after 4 weeks or if this means transmission trouble is on its way. An older lady owned it for years prior to me and perhaps her less aggressive driving style conditioned the transmission to upshift quickly.

So to my main concern, although the fluid is dark, but does NOT smell burnt. Should I be okay to go ahead and change it, or should I not risk it?

Thank you in advance for all your help!

Gronemus

I would change just like you planned. 2-3 quarts at a time. If the transmission starts to give you problems not long after this, and I highly doubt that it will, it would have likely done it anyway even if you had left it alone. Just make sure you get it filled to the proper level and I think you will be fine...

Johnhav430

The dirt in itself is not a problem, and after I read through all the posts/opinions, it would seem that no burnt smell means ok to drain and fill, and never flush. YMMV.

My car had around 86k, and I was told 100% safe to drain fill, potentially 3X. I was shown my fluid at drain/fill #2--it was black. This represented about 45% new fluid, and 55% old fluid, so it must have been even darker at drain/fill #1.

Conventional wisdom seems to say 3X....where the original fluid goes from 55%, to 30%, to 17%. After 3 times, 17% old is left.....good luck!

bradland

Change it gradually as planned.
Use Toyota flluid and ONLY Toyota fluid !
(I can't remember if your '03 uses Type IV or WS)
Dont underestimate the importance of proper fluid level.
(be happy you have a dipstick for this)
ENJOY YOUR CAR !!!

Johnhav430

Yes, congrats on the dipstick! This means you can get the level perfectly right! Everyone says, and have posted to back it up, that the fluid really expands when hot. So you don't really just add back what came out, because they're not at the same temps. But with a dipstick, how easy would it be to add a little less, check, add more, check, add a little more, and get totally operating hot, and see that's it's max hot? sweet

LS430Lexus

Use Toyota T-IV. It can be purchased on Amazon or any Toyota dealer.

Bocatrip

If you are determined to change the fluid, I would be exceptionally cautious. You are not the original owner of this car and really don't know how it was maintained. Unfortunately, with the state of oil as you described....it may only be the varnish and contaminants that have accumulated on the clutches that are actually keeping them from slipping. Once you remove some of them by changing the fluid, the slippage first begins. I learned this the hard way years ago when changing slightly dirty fluid on an older american car. Once changed, I't slipped like crazy. I've heard this before. If it's not broken, don't fix it. It it were clean, than yes I would say as preventive maintenance it might be a good idea. Yes, no flush EVER! A few quarts should not hurt one way or the other. On the other hand....little changes usually have little results. Good luck and let us know how you make out.

911LE

I would change as much of the fluid as I could if I were you. Old fluid is doing your transmission no favors as all the additives have been depleted. I posted a how- to on how to replace all of your trans fluid without using a pressurized flush. My trans had a few minor shift issues before but the new fluid has solved them all. And remember that trans fluid is red because it is dyed. The dye breaks down over time and turns brown.
Here is the how- to:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-3rd-gen-2001-2006/856928-new-01-03-transmission-fluid-exchange-w-pics.html

terminater

I appreciate the advice guys. I will proceed with caution and do at least three drains/refills. I'll update this thread after a while with the results!

Jabberwock

Definitely do 3 drain and fills maybe a week or so apart. You should be absolutely fine especially since it is an easy to measure and fill dipstick AT, and your transmission will love the fresh clean fluid.

terminater

Thanks. I was curious about how long to wait between drains. I only drive about 200 miles per week.

Jabberwock

I have no scientific or objective basis for the time interval of 1 week. I did mine when I was still working so I did it on successive weekends.

I think it would be fine to do multiple drain and fills on a daily basis as long as the car has been driven for at least a few minutes and through all the gears between each day's D&F.

My car being a 2006 has no dipstick and I measured exactly what drained so I could refill the same volume so I needed the AT fluid in the car to be close as possible to temperature of replacement fluid. So I did my D&F first thing in the AM when the car was "cold" after sitting in the garage all night (along with the quarts of replacement AT fluid) ..that way the old AT fluid temp would be pretty close to the new AT fluid temp during D&F.

Johnhav430

My indie did drain and fills #2 and #3 on the same visit. He dropped the car, drove it like 3 miles, came back, and did it again....he only charged me for 2 add'l qts. of Toyota WS. Said now that I've done effectively 3 of then, no need to come back for about a year.....I guess I'll do it again in a year and it'll get the original down to 9%. I bet the car will be up to maybe 105k by then....kinda sad how the miles keep climbing...

terminater

While i'm certainly glad my car has a dipstick, I guess I just don't know how to use it properly. I've searched to find the proper way, but I have not had much luck.
Prior to completing D/F # 1 yesterday, I drove the car around a few miles to warm up the transmission. When I got back home, I checked the oil level with the engine off and the level showed very high on the dip stick. I am not sure what the proper way to check the oil level is. I went ahead and drained the oil and got about 3 quarts out. I was afraid I might have had to much oil to start with so I only added 2.5 quarts back. I checked the level again with the engine off about 10 minutes after I returned from a short test drive and it appears it was within the "hot" acceptable range. On the drive into work this morning the transmission shifted smoothly as usual, however, and I might just be paranoid, but while on a medium sized incline I swear I felt the transmission shuddering. I hope it was only my imagination!

In short, can anyone advise the proper way to check my transmission oil?

I started to look around again in the forums and I believe I found the proper way to check the transmission fluid as per the attached picture. I appreciate everyone's help and will eagerly check the level once more as soon as I get home today.




Thank again!
​​​​​​​Frankie

Gronemus

Frankie,

I hope you made note of the first four words in section (b). The car has to be running to get an accurate measurement. I wouldn't be surprised if you had to now add oil back into the transmission...