DO NOT USE after market transmission filters on your 96-98 Toyota 4runners, they are defective (and yes the filters I checked
were for my EXACT transmission.)
Now I did some searching and didn't find any warnings about these filters so forgive me if this has already been brought up.
Hey everyone, I just serviced my transmission using this:
Dropping Pan And Flushing Transmission write up, and came upon something worth sharing. Once it came to
cleaning or changing my transmission filter, I decided to just buy a new one and change it out with the old one. I decided
going with an aftermarket filter costing $20 instead of the Toyota filter which would have cost me much more, $70. I gave it
a pretty good look over before installing it, and everything seemed great. I put it on correctly, torqued it to specifications,
and was about to put the trans pan back on. Mind you, everything fit on very nicely and properly, but if I was not anal retentive
the way I am, then I would have never triple checked it... but I did, and here is what I came up:
As you can see in the pictures the recess on the factory filter,is ever so slightly deeper than that of after market filter. This
difference causes the AM filterto not seal against the valve body fluid inlet, essentially rending your filter useless.
In the attached pictures you can see that contact on the seal is not being made. It was hard to get a picture but I did the best
I could, and had to throw in a pic of my pup as well ha.
Now the first brand of AM filter I tried was "Power Torque", I figured it might just be this brand, so I ordered a "WIX" filter
figuring this to be a reputable brand. It had the exact same issue.
I hope this helps anyone who will be working on flushing their transmission or anyone who has put a non fitting aftermarket filter
in their transmission.
Summary: If you want to change out your transmission filter with a new one instead of cleaning your old one, then just suck it up
and pay for an a factory filter in the long run it will be well worth it.