Trans. Question

[todd332]

heya all ,

I have read all your previous posts on Trans. flushing .. I want to have my transmission flushed next week and still not sure if it is a safe procedure ..I have 203,000 miles on my 92 .. I have changed the fluid every 10,000 miles with a new screen for the last 100,000 miles. I only use Toyota Brand fluid and if I have the flush done thats what will be used ..My Transmission Still shifts smooth , but sometimes the shifts feel a little hard. I have read that some recomend a external filter ..Do I have this installed before or after the flush? and are they avalible at your local retailer like Advance or auto zone?

My Trans. Fluid has never been discolored or black since I have owned the car.

Also Everyone talks about Diff. fluid and my mechanic has No Idea how to drain that..He said the old fluid in the diff. will come out if you lower that Pan .Is that true?Or Have I been missing Fluid all this time that needed to be Removed?

I am just Concerned , That if I have the flush done my Trans. will die. But I really would like for it too have 100% New fluid in the system.

[ArmyofOne]

heya all ,

I have read all your previous posts on Trans. flushing .. I want to have my transmission flushed next week and still not sure if it is a safe procedure ..I have 203,000 miles on my 92 .. I have changed the fluid every 10,000 miles with a new screen for the last 100,000 miles. I only use Toyota Brand fluid and if I have the flush done thats what will be used ..My Transmission Still shifts smooth , but sometimes the shifts feel a little hard. I have read that some recomend a external filter ..Do I have this installed before or after the flush? and are they avalible at your local retailer like Advance or auto zone?

My Trans. Fluid has never been discolored or black since I have owned the car.

Also Everyone talks about Diff. fluid and my mechanic has No Idea how to drain that..He said the old fluid in the diff. will come out if you lower that Pan .Is that true?Or Have I been missing Fluid all this time that needed to be Removed?

I am just Concerned , That if I have the flush done my Trans. will die. But I really would like for it too have 100% New fluid in the system.

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Provided fluid has been changed regularly, it should be fine, but why mess with it. keep doing drain and fills...should achieve the same result. just watch the fluid and dont let it burn. Jason (JPImportz) has alwyas said dont ever powerflush a lexus/toyota tranny with high mileage becuase it isnt good for them. had i not listened to him, my 15 year old trans would have bit the dust. instead, its working, nearly as good as new, somewhere here in the metroplex...take it with a grain of salt, but i say with 203K, you must be doing something right.

[Toysrme]

You should always flush a transmission at a reasonable interval. Draining the pan and only changing some 20 odd % of the transmission fluid every other year just doesn't cut it over time.

Flushing an old transmission is also not detrimental it to. Just another old mechanics tale that one day, if we're all really lucky, might die!¡!

Tho I agree, don't power flush transmissions. Eewwww!:snoooorrrtttt: <_< Who wants to risk it? My view is the transmissin has it's own pump capable of extremely high pressure without any help; it can do it's own flushing without some of the negatives of jsut shoving fluid through the transmission.

Just remember, if you're not paying for around 10 quarts of transmission fluid, it's not really getting flushed!

[xxxavier2k]

I agree with Toysrme about the flushing using the tranny's pump. I disagree with your mechanic about the Diff.'s fluid being drained as you lower the tranny's bottom pan. The Diff should have its own drain plug; a hex or four sided head bolt that should be at the base of the Diff.

I'm told that the check for the Diff. being filled is to stuck your finger in the check/fill bolt hole on the (driver side) of the Diff.

[Toysrme]

Exactly X. Works just like an old lawn mower engine. If the fluid is roughly even with the hole, it's full!

[Lexusfreak]

If you haven't changed the tranny pan gasket in a while, as a preventitive measure, it might be a wise idea. B)

[monarch]

I want to have my transmission flushed next week and still not sure if it is a safe procedure ..I have 203,000 miles on my 92 .. I have changed the fluid every 10,000 miles with a new screen for the last 100,000 miles. I only use Toyota Brand fluid

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Well now you've seen and experienced the reward - 203,000 troublefree miles - of following Toyota's recommendation to just drain and refill the pan at regular intervals using factory fluid.

One reason flushing is wrong at this point is that it's a total waste. Why? Because the insides of your transmission are squeeky clean right now due to your regular 10,000 mile fluid changes. Literally as clean as the pots and pans that come out of your dishwasher. So any total fluid replacement procedure is not going to improve the shifting.

A Toyota cooling system can stay squeeky clean too for many decades by just draining and refilling the radiator every year or two with the factory original coolant mixture. No need to ever flush because no cooling system deposits or corrosion will ever occur.

I don't have a V6 so can't answer your question about the differential. It's possible the jerkiness or whatever new you are now feeling is due to something like a weaken transmission mount rather the transmission itself. Make sure the fluid level is correct as overfilling can sometimes

contribute to a feeling of rough shifting.

[Toysrme]

Because the insides of your transmission are squeeky clean right now due to your regular 10,000 mile fluid changes...A Toyota cooling system can stay squeeky clean too for many decades by just draining and refilling the radiator every year or two with the factory original coolant mixture.

Anyone else replaced a radiator after servicing it & flush rusty sludge out of the block, or flushed a transmission that has been religiously serviced, only to find that most of the fluid is dark & littered with crap floating in it, then drop the pan to see it everywhere?

When you drain the pan of the transmissions, you're only getting a tiny bit more than 20% of the old fluid out. That's not very much. :'(

All I'll say about that stuff.

Lexusfreak great call on the A/T pan gasket! I had to rebuild mine a few weeks ago out of the blue & forgot about it. Now I need to go check it LoL!

[Lexusfreak]

Lexusfreak great call on the A/T pan gasket! I had to rebuild mine a few weeks ago out of the blue & forgot about it. Now I need to go check it LoL!

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That's what I'm here for Toys! ;) It's very often overlooked. B)

[todd332]

The Gasket has been changed Every 10,000 miles when the pan was dropped..As for mounts There all New...I am just not sure about this Diff. thing . Will the fluid in that be cleaned if I have the flush done?

[monarch]

I think your first task may be to locate the differential drain plug and drain it. If the drained fluid is pink / reddish like the rest of your fluid then you can breathe a sign of relief that the regular transmission fluid and differential fluid have been mixing all along and your regular drains have helped keep the differential fluid fresh.

If on the other hand the fluid drained from the differential is brown then you know it hasn't been mixing and is 207,000 miles old. Brown fluid isn't a good sign, but not a fatal one either. It means the fluid is old and has gradually become partially oxidized, but not severely burned. Vintage Toyotas I've purchased with brown fluid survived alot of years and miles after being filled with fresh new fluid. Black fluid is more serious and suggestive of possible transmission failure in the not too distant future.

[Lexusfreak]

The Gasket has been changed Every 10,000 miles when the pan was dropped..As for mounts There all New...I am just not sure about this Diff. thing . Will the fluid in that be cleaned if I have the flush done?

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Changing the gasket every 10,000 miles is huge overkill, every 2 years of 30,000 miles is more than enough.

B)

[mburnickas]

I think your first task may be to locate the differential drain plug and drain it.  If the drained fluid is pink / reddish like the rest of your fluid then you can breathe a sign of relief that the regular transmission fluid and differential fluid have been mixing all along and your regular drains have helped keep the differential fluid fresh.

If on the other hand the fluid drained from the differential is brown then you know it hasn't been mixing and is 207,000 miles old.  Brown fluid isn't a good sign, but not a fatal one either. It means the fluid is old and has gradually become partially oxidized, but not severely burned.  Vintage Toyotas I've purchased with brown fluid survived alot of years and miles after being filled with fresh new fluid.  Black fluid is more serious and suggestive of possible transmission failure in the not too distant future.

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All the above ways are good to know if you do not want to spend the money and test (spectro analysis ) the fluid. But on the flip side you could have fluid that is brown and still be 100% expectable (within limits) and clear fluid that is not.

A better “guess” would be to smell the fluid (a crude but effective indicator of oxidation in ATF) and then do a simple “card and fluid or blotter” test. Smelling is to see if fluid had heat (thermal) failure; which leads to high OXD & Nitration. The card test is a simple (non scientific) test to see if how bad the fluid is. Look at the rings the fluid leaves.

Again it is a guess without testing, but much better then just looking at it. I would also be more concerned with smell then color. Also all these simple tests do not tell you the TAN number, the viscosity or any high wear numbers like Copper, Iron, lead etc.

[todd332]

Update :

Had the Trans. flushed yesterday..My Mechanic who I trust bought a new trans. flush machine and did it..The Machine he used , has tubes that go down into the trans. filler ( where u add fluid) and slowly takes out fluid and replaces it with new in a cycle while the car is in nuetral.The fluid that came out looked pretty new ..I can notice a very small improvment in shifting. But Atleast I know all the fluide was replaced 100% .

[82DMC12]

Provided fluid has been changed regularly, it should be fine, but why mess with it. keep doing drain and fills...should achieve the same result. just watch the fluid and dont let it burn. Jason (JPImportz) has alwyas said dont ever powerflush a lexus/toyota tranny with high mileage becuase it isnt good for them. had i not listened to him, my 15 year old trans would have bit the dust. instead, its working, nearly as good as new, somewhere here in the metroplex...take it with a grain of salt, but i say with 203K, you must be doing something right.

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Well there are different kinds of 'transmission flushes'. do a google search and learn about them. If you are concerned about dislodging crap, make sure you ask if they mechanic is using a T-Tech brand machine. Those are exchangers and don't use any of their own power. There are other brands/machines that use air power and such to clean the transmission with. I work in the industry and have performed hundreds of T-Techs with no proven problems do to the exchange of the transmission fluid. Then again, I won't flush a tranny that has black or massively burned fluid in it either.

Andy

[Lexusfreak]

Update :

Had the Trans. flushed yesterday..My Mechanic who I trust bought a new trans. flush machine and did it..The Machine he used , has tubes that go down into the trans. filler ( where u add fluid) and slowly takes out fluid and replaces it with new in a cycle while the car is in nuetral.The fluid that came out looked pretty new ..I can notice a very small improvment in shifting. But Atleast I know all the fluide was replaced 100% .

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Did your mechanic change the fluid in the diff todd & is it a seperate drain plug?

Do you notice that your occasional 'harsh' shifting is more noticable when the car is cold when the tranny is shifting from 1st to 2nd gear? Then smooths out when the car reaches operating temperature? If so, that is totally normal. B)