Atf Surprise ... 6 Qts Drained From Transmission!

[K9crew]

I made a post months ago that the transmission drain plug on my '99 LS400 had been stripped (probably by Park Place Lexus in Plano, TX). At that time I "repaired" the threads on the plug with a 10mm x 1.5 die and ran a tap through the drain hole and managed to torque the plug to 15 lb-ft. This past Sunday I decided to change the oil and as per 99's suggestion, drain the transmission pan (I do that every oil change now). Well, the plug was damaged beyond repair when I removed it so it's my guess that the threads had been too badly damaged in TX and couldn't hold up to 15 lb-ft. Since I had no drainplug, I decided to push my car a few feet down the driveway to clear the garage door and let it sit there until I could get a new plug from Lexus. I was finally able to get a new plug on Tuesday which I installed without problem that evening. In the morning I added 2.5 QTS since the pan holds 2 QTS and there wasn't much ATF on my driveway. However, as it turns out, I had to add 6 QTS in the end to bring the ATF up to the correct level. I couldn't believe that an additional 4 QTS of ATF had dripped out of the transmission onto my driveway!! Anway, the point of all of this is that if you have the time and you want to drain more than just 2 QTS then park your car on a slight incline (engine higher than trunk), remove the drain plug and leave it for a while.

:)

[monarch]

Yep, draining with the front end of the car pointed slightly uphill and draining over a period of days is a trick that works for all rear wheel drive Toyota / Lexus cars. It's also why do-it-yourselfers should measure the amount drained to be sure they add back the correct amount of new fluid.