I have never had any work done at any Jiffy Lube but my local one knows me pretty well from all the fluids i bring in. They are usually more than happy to take it all.

I have 2009 T4R V6 4WD with about 55000 miles. When I contacted my local dealer to get an idea of how much it would cost, they quoted me $75 for drain and fill but recommends a flush to replace all fluid. The cost for flush is $152.
I am curious what's the source for "Toyota specifically states to do a Drain & Refill, not a flush" on our vehicle? As they recommended flush for me?

I had my Toyota dealer do a complete fluid exchange on my 2007 V8 Limited @90K. I had them use my AMSOIL fluid. All fluid was exchanged and there have been no issues. I would recommend having it done at the dealer.

Resurrecting an old thread, as I wasn't quite sure if the answer was directed to me. But I have an 2006 V-6 with now 85k miles. There is no previous owner paperwork/trail showing that they did anything with transmission fluid and such. I called the dealership even after mentioning the possibility of "shocking" the system, and doing a drain and fill instead, they said they would do a flush for $240+tax. If I am reading correctly would you guys all advise against that, and just do a drain and fill on my own? I want to do this soon as it worries me not knowing what the previous owner did or did not do and I have a trip in Colorado coming up in the next couple of months that I would like to be worry free.

Thanks in advance!

-nick

Thanks for resurfacing this thread. It's comming up to four years on the 'Runner (only 25,000 km) but it's getting close for a tranny service. Has anyone acutally done an old-school drain and refill on a non-dipstick 4Runner? Meaning, draining what's in the sump and re-filling through the hole (like changing the oil on a diff?). All the Alfred Nobels out there, stop now; yeah, we know it dosen't get all the fluid out of the transmission (converter, etc.) but I hate going to the the dealer and godferbid a corner garage. A few old-school changes over a few years is still the best and least invasive option IMO, using WS or equivalent fluid of course.

Lots of corner garages like to give you the BG chemical flush machine treatment. Moneymaker for them and some risk for you if the trans is old enough and if they do not manage the refill properly (it can be tricky).

Good thread. I just picked up a 2004 V8 with 105,000 on the clock. Toyota owners' website shows that at 97,000 or so, the previous owner had a full service done on this vehicle. The technician put into the system that the transmission fluid was part of the service...however, in the parts and materials list that's on the website it does not show any transmission fluid being used. There's a big list of fluids and filters, etc. but no trans. fluid shows up. So now I have no idea whether the trans. was serviced in this one or not.

I don't know what to do. If I do drain and refill...I'd have to do it multiple times to get all the old stuff out which is a PITA. If I pay for a flush I'm risking having problems. If I do nothing at all I'm risking having problems. Argh!!!!!

If you're intent on getting all the old stuff out, you have no choice.

My perspective, based on regular reading of this forum for 8 years, is that the two drain and fills I did at 100k plus the one or two I will do every 50,000 from here on out will let this transmission live forever.

I assume you have the sealed trans (no dipstick) with the synthetic lifetime fluid.

Make sure that you get an accurate definition of what they mean by "flush" a lot of guys (myself included) will use drain & fill and flush interchangeably for the process of emptying the fluid pan and refilling the trans multiple times.

Toyota has come out as well as a few of the manufacturers of the transmission flushing machines and said they DO NOT want you to machine their sealed (WS Fluid Using) transmissions and transaxles as it could cause damage. The proper method is to drain and fill (the service literature says one to two times, but I recommend until the majority of the fluid is close in color and consistency of the new fluid, usually 3-4 flushes)

If you have a Sealed Transmission ('04+ for V8's and '05-ish+ V6's) you will need to do a drain and fill. If you have a dipstick (non-sealed) it takes T-IV ATF and can be flushed by a machine.

OK I'll just drain it and put fluid back in. So the pan holds about 3 quarts? And what about the drain plug? Does it require a new crush washer?

I decided to fully flush my transmission at 52k miles. Glad I did because the fluid did not look so great. I am the 2nd owner and when I bought the 4runner, it had a brake controlled installed in the car so wanted to change the fluid out ASAP. Wanted to do a full flush rather than a serial dilution.

I highly recommend people to fully flush their transmissions as these can go 200k+ miles easily when maintained well. I used 14-15 quarts of Toyota WS fluid.

I even dropped the pan. Pan is very easy to remove so I cleaned up all the magnets on the bottom inside the pan. You can see the little magnets in the pics. They collect tiny metal debris. Magnets had a very very small coating of film on them. This means transmission is healthy.

To flush the transmission I removed the return line that goes to the radiator. Started engine, let it run for 15 seconds or so to get out 2.5-3 quarts. Stopped engine, put in the same amount of fresh WS fluid into the transmission that came out. Repeated this 3-4 times until clean fluid was seen.

Then I entered the transmission temperature check mode to properly check the fluid. This is the trickiest part for me since the instructions off the Tacoma forum did not work with my 2009 model year 4runner. So I paid the $10 bucks to get it from the Toyota TIS site. After that worked great.

Transmission performs flawlessly . Smooth shifts. Will be repeating this once more in 2 years or so.

That's what's widely reported.

I got close to 4 and then slightly over 4 on two drains. The front of the truck was raised. Maybe that played a role. Anyway, expect 3 but be prepared for more. I didn't use a new washer. No problems.

An aspect I didn't mention is that the combination of external transmission cooler and V8 presumably makes the vehicle extra easy on fluid in a transmission that has shown itself to be extremely robust.

You didn't have to put new gaskets on the pan, and what did you do exactly to "clean" the pan. My main concern is obviously not wanting to screw up anything in regards to my transmission?

Where did u put the fluid back in?

The fluid should be changed around 90~100k regardless what Toyota (or any other manufactuer with these "lifetime" fluids) say. There is no such thing as a "Lifetime" fluid, ATF is the signle most hard working fluid in most modern vehicles. It has to perform multiple functions that are split up in a vehicle's engine; it acts as a lubricant, coolant, hydraulic fluid, friction modifier, and maintain all this longer than engine oil or coolant usually. If you check your owner's manual you will see that "severe use" requires you to replace the ATF at 60k followed by 30k inspection/change intervals. In short, don't believe the snakeoil BS about "lifetime ATF."

To fill the transmission up you actually pump fluid through the inspection port into the transmission.