Transmission Fluid Change procedure

After reading the Taco thread on our shared transmission Transmission- 5 Speed automatic write up with pics for second gen 4 liter trucks | Tacoma World

I decided to do a full fluid exchange with a pan drop added in. The pan drop added a minor complication to the exchange but in most respects followed the 4th gen Transmission cooler line model.

Parts list can be found here (thanks to OP of referenced thread).
https://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/285126-beginner-fluid-maintenance.html#post3474584

Steps:
1) Drain pan and measure amount of fluid drained (marked milk jugs were my weapon of choice).
2) Remove pan, clean screen, (replace or reuse filter seal), keep track of any additional fluid removed.
3) Locate 2 transmission lines going into radiator on Passenger side of vehicle. One will have a PINK mark and one will have a BLUE mark at the junction between the hard line and soft tubing.
4) For ease of access, I unbolted the AC bracket that is in the working area around the radiator.
5) Disconnect the BLUE transmission line soft tube from the BLUE hard line on the radiator.
6) Hook your Refill funnel to the BLUE marked soft tubing. Hook your 3/8 Transmission drain tubing to the Hard BLUE marked radiator tube.
7) Reinstall all items removed when you dropped the pan.
8) Add back the volume of transmission fluid you removed when you dropped the pan. This will be added to the Refill funnel attached to the BLUE marked soft tubing. The BLUE line will gravity feed back into the pan you just reinstalled. The new fluid will be taken up by the transmission in the next step.
9) Recheck your transmission exchange lines to make sure you will not be spraying fluid all over your work area.
10) Gentlemen (and Ladies) start you car and count to 10. Stop your engine and you should have between 1 and 2 qts drained out of your transmission via the BLUE marked hard radiator line. (I had 1 qt just about exactly)
11) Add new fluid to the refill Funnel in the amount removed (I kept track by pouring the old fluid into the empty new fluid containers with the Gallon jugs being a temp holding tank :eyebrows. The pan acts as the reservoir for the uptake into the transmission during this process you can be a little over or under however the total amount removed must equal the amount added.
12) Repeat until 12 qts extracted and refilled. (At the end of my process I had filled up 12 qt containers with some extra in the milk jug, I poured this amount back into the refill funnel and thus balanced the amount I took out with what I had put in. :noidea
13) Re attach BLUE marked soft tube to Blue hard tube.
14) Re attach AC bracket (if removed)

By replacing exactly what you removed you do not HAVE to do the temperature influenced fluid level check. You can if you want. My vehicle is running quite well with out the check.

I decided to use Lubeguard for the fluid. COMPLETE Full Synthetic ATF - Lubegard I will update this post in 4 years (30 k miles) when I replace it again.

Ok, so just so I know that I understand this, if I want to do a drain and fill on the transmission, would this be the correct procedure in summary?:

1) Open fill, overflow, and drain plugs. Allow pan to drain completely.
2) Replace drain plug, and add fluid via fill hole until it comes out of the overflow hole, then replace overflow plug.
3) Add 1.8 more quarts of ATF via fill hole, then replace fill plug.
4) Start engine, enter transmission temp check mode.
5) When ATF temp reached appropriate level (40-45° C), turn off engine.
6) Immediately remove overflow plug, allow excess ATF to drain (or fill to plug level if no overflow), and then replace overflow plug.

Would about 4 quarts of ATF WS be appropriate to buy for this? That's how much the dealer charged me for when they did this the last time.

I wouldn’t do it that way. I did what catrains said and add back what you took out with the check plug in place.
When starting with a cold vehicle:
Loosen the fill plug located on the passenger side.
Loosen the check valve just to make sure you’ve got the correct tool and it will open. Get your container(s) ready.
You will need a 5 qt container.
Loosen the drain valve and drain.
If you don’t have a 5qt then you can do what I did.
I got two 2-1/2qt paint mixing buckets from Home Depot because they were out of 5 qt.
Open the check plug and you will get about 1.5 qts.
When that stops dripping, open the drain plug and get the rest, about 2 qts.
Replace the check plug and drain plug. Use the old gaskets. Flat side against the screw head.
Fill the transmission with the same amount you pulled out.
Now you’ve got a choice:
- Call it good
- Do the temp check and level adjustment
- Start truck, go through the gears as outlined in the trans fluid circulation procedure, and do the drain and fill procedure 1 or 2 more times.

Many recommend three to four drain and fills is pretty good.
I would definitely recommend setting the level correctly at the end.
Replace the gaskets with new ones on the last drain as well.

Recommended:
Get a Motive power fill.
...or make you own from a Home Depot garden sprayer.
I just made one of these and tested with water but not yet with oil. I’ll be using it for diffs.
Here’s a vid on how to make one.

How To : Make a Pressurized Fluid Dispenser - YouTube

This is a very thorough vid on changing the fluid.

How to Service a Sealed Toyota Transmission - YouTube

Transmission fluid drain and fill.
Torque specs:
Drain plug - 15 lb-ft (14mm)
Overflow plug - 15 lb-ft (5mm hex)
Fill plug - 27 lb-ft (24mm or 15/16")

Parts: (I pulled this info from someone else’s post. Sorry I can’t remember who’s.)
4 to 12 qts Toyota ATF WS fluid - Toyota part # 00289-ATFWS
Drain plug gasket - Toyota part # 35178-30010
Overflow plug gasket - Toyota part # 35178-30010
Fill plug gasket (rubber O-ring) - Toyota part # 90301-15004

Oh, the fluid in the pics has 111,000 miles on it. It’s dark but smells fine and is not gritty at all. Nothing much was left at the bottom when I dumped it.

I have a scan tool that tells me the temp of the trans. I always drain it, put 4 quarts in, shift through all the gears, leave it running on the lift until it's up to temp, then pull the check plug and it always seems to get down to a trickle after about 1/2 a quart comes out. Put the check plug back in and done. I've been doing it this way on my past 2 tacomas and on this 4Runner. Never had an issue. I do it every 25-30k just for good measure. I'm at 70k on mine now and I bought it with 35 and did it at about 40 so I'm due again on my preventative schedule. The last tacoma I had I bought with 112k and did it 3 times in a row. What came out didn't look bad at all but I change everything in all my vehicles when I get them. Ran that truck to almost 200k doing it 3 more times and I never had an issue.

85GT-79FJ40 said:

I have a scan tool that tells me the temp of the trans. I always drain it, put 4 quarts in, shift through all the gears, leave it running on the lift until it's up to temp, then pull the check plug and it always seems to get down to a trickle after about 1/2 a quart comes out. Put the check plug back in and done. I've been doing it this way on my past 2 tacomas and on this 4Runner. Never had an issue. I do it every 25-30k just for good measure. I'm at 70k on mine now and I bought it with 35 and did it at about 40 so I'm due again on my preventative schedule. The last tacoma I had I bought with 112k and did it 3 times in a row. What came out didn't look bad at all but I change everything in all my vehicles when I get them. Ran that truck to almost 200k doing it 3 more times and I never had an issue.

Click to expand...

I think this is a good way to do it and will probably go this way from now on.

Mystery bolt in transmission

Hi all! Long time lurker, first post!
I am changing the transmission fluid and filter in our 2015 4Runner. I accidentally loosened the 10mm bolt right next to one of the filter bolts and am hoping someone knows the torque it needs to be re-tightened to. It’s the one in the attached pic with the red arrow. Thanks!

Did you check the FSM?
TOYOTA 2016-2019 4Runner Repair Manual RM27F0U

d4vid said:

I accidentally loosened the 10mm bolt right next to one of the filter bolts and am hoping someone knows the torque it needs to be re-tightened to. Thanks!

Click to expand...

That bolt assembles the detent spring and detent spring cover. The torque is 7 ft-lbs (84 in-lbs) per the following image.

Thanks so much!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the part numbers 1000MPH, I’m getting ready to do this and the only thing I was having a hard time getting was that rubber O-ring part number.

d4vid said:

Hi all! Long time lurker, first post!
I am changing the transmission fluid and filter in our 2015 4Runner. I accidentally loosened the 10mm bolt right next to one of the filter bolts and am hoping someone knows the torque it needs to be re-tightened to. It’s the one in the attached pic with the red arrow. Thanks!

Click to expand...

How did your filter look?

delloro said:

How did your filter look?

Click to expand...

This was the first transmission fluid change and it has 66000 miles. The filter looked good, with a normal amount of fine particles on the magnets and filter body. I could still see through the mesh, but not as well as the new filter. In addition, I ended up doing a full flush using the cooling line. I’ll try to dig the old filter out of the trash later today and get a picture.

Scan tool

85GT-79FJ40 said:

I have a scan tool that tells me the temp of the trans. I always drain it, put 4 quarts in, shift through all the gears, leave it running on the lift until it's up to temp, then pull the check plug and it always seems to get down to a trickle after about 1/2 a quart comes out. Put the check plug back in and done. I've been doing it this way on my past 2 tacomas and on this 4Runner. Never had an issue. I do it every 25-30k just for good measure. I'm at 70k on mine now and I bought it with 35 and did it at about 40 so I'm due again on my preventative schedule. The last tacoma I had I bought with 112k and did it 3 times in a row. What came out didn't look bad at all but I change everything in all my vehicles when I get them. Ran that truck to almost 200k doing it 3 more times and I never had an issue.

Click to expand...

What scan tool are you using?

Mike Beyers said:

What scan tool are you using?

Click to expand...

Pretty sure it's an actron. I'm a classic car mechanic. It doesn't get used much and it's in my toolbox at work. It does OBDII as well as transmission codes and ABS/Traction control. I recall it being like $160 on Amazon a few years back.

I’m digging my ScanGauge, especially now that they can read TPMS. Bit of a pain to program and mount but a helluva lot easier to use than the TechStream.

Anyone try a thermal gun measuring the transmission pan temperature from the outside? That young girl used it in that video and it was only a few degrees off; seems to be a little easier than a scan tool.

Hammer0313 said:

Anyone try a thermal gun measuring the transmission pan temperature from the outside? That young girl used it in that video and it was only a few degrees off; seems to be a little easier than a scan tool.

Click to expand...

Yes, I used a thermal gun to measure pan temperature because I knew I would became immensely bored and lose focus while sitting in the vehicle waiting for a dash light to indicate proper temperature to check fluid level. I had seen Faye Hadley's video, so I used a thermal gun to wait until the pan temperature was 4-5 degrees below the minimum temperature range, and then began watching the dash light. When the min temperature was indicated, I measured the pan temperature again and was satisfied with her finding. Next time, I'll just use the thermal gun. I'll check the level when the gun reads 2-3 degrees less than the min temperature for checking fluid level when the ambient temperature range is 68-80 F. I would not solely rely on a thermal gun if the vehicle has cold soaked in sub-freezing temperatures or hot-soaked above the upper temperature limit.

Shut off the engine? You didn’t do the level check with the engine running?

1000MPH said:

Shut off the engine? You didn’t do the level check with the engine running?

Click to expand...

I checked level with engine running. I didn't get enough sleep last night to be posting replies this late in the day ... I edited my last post to remove the error. It's my mistake attempting to recall the process when I changed ATF about 6 months ago.

delloro said:

How did your filter look?

Click to expand...

Updated my post with filter photos.