lexus114

the toyota tech agreed with me that it was a good interval to change it. it was starting to get dirty. and it did shift better and was not in my head. heck if you buy into that lifetime oil stuff that is on you. but i do not have to be an engineer to know that there is no such oil as a lifetime oil. it simply does not exist.

skyshadow

That's because you and the tech don't understand the science behind it.
Also, that Toyota tech probably knows less about the car than you do. They are just parts replacers, truly I'm not being sarcastic. They use a system called Alldata to hold their hand on what part to replace and why. Short of the shop foreman, those guys probably would have trouble telling you how a internal combustion engine works.

But I digress, do as you wish.. change every 2k man, why not?

lexus114

so your telling me, that you truly believe this ws trans fluid in there is lifetime fluid? when its not even a synthetic fluid? C`mon now?! you cannot possibly believe it is not all but shot by 80,000 miles or less.

skyshadow

2 things..
1) You are changing at 30k, not 80k. I stated changing at higher mileage doesn't seem outlandish
2) What you think is happening to the trans fluid? Stop, don't google it... What do YOU think is happening to the fluid? This will help me help you with the science of the fluids.

I will agree, the zinc, monomer and other additives will break down over time. The time it takes is much longer than your father's ford.

lexus114

ok, lets agree to disagree. 30k might be overkill. depending on driving conditions. but i will definitely not go past 50k especially on the first change/exchange.

nigel821

iTrader: (2)

30k miles seems a bit early to me. Our w211 I believe requires it at 60k miles and that even seems excessive to me but it's in the book so that's what I do. I definitely don't agree with "lifetime" changes... that to me doesn't make sense. Over time the fluid will change just like anything. Fluid is cheap compared to a new transmission. I haven't even looked yet on the wife's NX but I am guessing there is no trans dipstick... So it's harder to tell the color of the fluid without draining it. The w211 is the same way in terms of when you have to refill the system you do it through the drain plug at the bottom which makes it a bit of a pain compared to most normal vehicles that have a standard drain plug and then dip stick tube. My wife's Solara I changed the tranny fluid once at 100k and it was still rather pinkish but more of a red color. Then just did a drain and fill of the pan which netted me about 4.5qts. I figure at almost 200k miles that's more than fine and I'm sure more than what most people do. I'll just keep doing that because it's easy the fluid is still pink at 50k+ miles. My truck I normally just disconnect the return line and pump out 4qts, then fill 4qts and repeat the process until the return line is draining new pink trans fluid.

-Nigel