2nd owner, 155K, and I will be flushing next week. mostly for peace of mind maintenance and that I do not think that "lifetime" meant as long as this car will move.

My tranny got replaced by a toyota dealer several years ago. Wife took it in for an oil change while I was out of town. The tech pulled the trans drain plug instead of the oil pan plug.... then put 5 quarts of oil in (didn't check the dip stick) and sent her on her way. The next day we pulled our jetskis 250 miles down to Oklahoma with no issues. After the weekend was over we headed home and about 50 miles into the trip all dash lights went on. It ran and pulled fine so I kept on going home, not much more I could do. The point of this story is to show how robust this trucks really are... 500 mile trip with 3-4 quarts low tranny pulling ~1k worth behind it. Had plenty of engine oil though........

Holy Shit!!! I hope they fired that guy! That's like the most basic stuff that he should know without thinking! Wow...

Sent from the drivers seat of my 05 4runner.

I remember when "lifetime" trans fluid first started showing up on GM cars. For GM at least, "lifetime" literally meant the life of the transmission, which they estimated at something like 200,000 miles. So run it for 200,000 and then replace the whole trans. Of course, not many GM cars would make it that far anyway. I think the trucks still had change intervals.

I plan to keep my truck for a long time, and changing fluid is cheaper than treating my whole transmission as a disposable unit.

I'm at 151k on the original fluid. The truck still goes forwards and backwards with not issues.

My engine still starts, guess i don't need to change the oil.

Guess you out smarted me on this one!LOL

What were the "issues" you were having ? I'm at 225K and on the original fluid to me knowledge. I'm experiencing some hesitation or stumbling when taking on a long distance incline. 2004 V8 4x4 BTW


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I remember the first time i changed the filter and oil on my 08 4Runner v6, i had to really look to make sure just where that plug was at.

I can see where some can make a mistake, if they don't check closely.
I have seen myself how some other brand also even the Toyota stealer ships, service work is done by just who ever they can hire, to get under there and pull the plugs.
So i just pickup a new filter and some Mobil1 and get it done myself.

Some food for thought. You know how people often say, "If you want the truth, follow the money"? I don't have time to search for it, but during my research I read an article about how automakers who import their cars into the US have to pay a fee per vehicle for the fluids that will presumably be changed and need disposal. Calling a fluid "lifetime" supposedly gets them out of paying the fee.

Then there's this quote from "They Convince You They Use A Lifetime Fluid!", which is the very first item on this list titled Eight Ways Automakers Make Cars Obsolete: When automakers use the term "lifetime" to describe their engine coolant and transmission fluids, they strictly mean the lifetime of their warranty.

Finally, we must always consider the potential consequences, which in this case is transmission malfunction or failure. I'll take the most conservative approach to preventing that and just change the fluid.

One more question...

If you drop the pan, is there a replaceable filter in these things?

original owner of a 2007 Sport V8 4WD. I drained and refilled 3.3 quarts at 100K. Was really black, so did it again 3 days later. Still had pink. Drained and refilled 3.3 quarts again at 150K, still had pink. I'm at 167K now. Will do it again at 200K. As long as there is some "fresh" fluid in there, I'm good with that.

Hesitation. It surged while accelerating normal, didn't if you floored it. Took a long time to shift into second. Took a ping time to downshift if I manually did so, especially towing. Then started not shifting past 3rd gear, falling out of overdrive down into 3rd, and the worst is it would slam into gear occasionally. Like if you neutral dropped at 3k rpm's. I had codes for high voltage on 3 shifter solenoids too at the end. Replaced fluid and I'm having none of those issues anymore. I have about 800 miles on since the full flush. Towed my trailer for 50 miles too with ~4500 - 5000 lbs in it.

Sent from the drivers seat of my 05 4runner.

It's interesting how much psychology is tied into transmission fluid changes.

Black fluid is a no no, but diluting the black with a few quarts of fresh fluid and giving it a hint of pink, I'm good with that.

I'm not picking on anyone, just an observation about these tranny fluid posts.


Here are my thoughts:

- Lifetime fluid almost certainly means lifetime of warranty.

- Many 4Runner owners are apprehensive to do the full flush due to the increased complexity over the drain and fill. I think people are afraid of making a mistake on a high dollar mechanical part that is the transmission. It sounds like those that have actually done the flush, report that it wasn't overly complicated.

- Drain and fill is most likely better than never replacing it at all.

- In the automotive world, there seems to be anecdotal evidence of correlations between tranny fluid replacement on very high mile transmissions and tranny malfunction/failure. This could partly be that people over/under fill the transmission and partly could be that the transmission already has a lot of miles (a high mileage transmission is more likely to fail than a newer lower mileage transmission, and transmission replacements typically occur on transmissions that have higher miles).

I'm still on the fence, but eager to continue to listen to opinions.

Some basic math (from what I understand, the transmission holds about 12 quarts of fluid and the drain and fill requires about 3 quarts).

1 drain + fill will get you 25% new fluid (3 new quarts)
3 drain + fill will get you just over 50% new fluid (9 new quarts)
5 drain + fill will get you just over 75% new fluid (15 new quarts)
8 drain + fill will get you just under 90% new fluid (24 new quarts)

New to me truck.
167k miles
Not sure how long, but was driven for 6 months without the dipstick in the check port (2003 v8, so I have the dipstick).

Here's the color of the fluid. Plenty pink, just going to do a drain fill at the next oil change, and maybe make it an annual thing going forward.