I decided to change my transmission fluid for two reasons:
1) My truck has 113,000 miles on it. Bought it with 112K
2) I noticed my truck was slow to downshift when I came to a stop. I noticed this same behavior in my 2nd gen 4Runner when the tranny fluid was low.
I thought I'd pass along what I learned. I didn't get any pictures, but I'll crawl under the truck tomorrow to get some so everyone has a reference.
On a scale of 1-5, 1 being checking your oil and 5 being swapping your engine. I'd say this is a 1.5-2. If you can turn a wrench, it's a piece of cake. The difficulty comes into play when crawling under the truck. I'm small enough where I didn't need to raise my truck at all. But I can see where 'larger' guys might have an issue.
I decided to drop the pan because I wanted to get as much oil out as possible, not just the stuff that comes out of the drain hole. For the record, the owners manual states you'll need 3 qts when doing a fluid change. BTW, my truck is a 2004 4WD V8 which means I have the 5 speed. This makes a difference as the 4 speed is supposed to use Type 4 fluid, according to the manual. The 5 speed uses Toyota WS. Again, according to the manual.
First here's everything you'll need
-14 mm socket, 3/8" ratchet
-24 mm socket, 1/2" ratchet
-10 mm socket, 3/8" ratchet, 3" extension
-Some sort of fluid pump. (I bought one from a marine store)
-Gasket for transmission pan. Again, I have the 5 speed. Not sure if the 4 speed requires a gasket or just RTV.
- Catch pan for the old fluid.
- 5 qts or Toyota WS. Type-4 for 4 speeds.
-LOTS of towels, rags, whatever you use to contain a mess
Onto the steps:
1) Drive your truck around a little to get the fluid warm and circulating.
2) Park truck and lock off your wheels or whatever you do to keep the truck from rolling
3) Lift truck with jack
4) Locate the transmission pan. It will be just behind the front wheels and is rectangular and black.
5)
IMPORTANT, before loosening the drain bolt. Loosen the fill bolt. You don't want to drain the fluid only to discover you can't get fluid back in. The fill bolt requires the 24mm socket. It's located on the passenger side of the transmission, up by the exhaust heat shield. About half the distance along the length of the pan. BE CAREFUL, as your exhaust will be pretty hot if you just got done running the engine. I'll get a picture of the fill bolt tomorrow.
6) Once the fill bolt is loose, remove the drain bolt with the 14 mm socket.
7) Once the fluid has all drained out, put the 14mm drain bolt back in and use the 10mm socket and extension to remove the bolts holding the pan to the transmission. There will be 15-ish (don't remember exactly) bolts. so be patient.
8) You'll find that once you drop the pan:
a) the cross over pipe for the exhaust prevents the pan from dropping very far.
b) the actual transmission components keep the pan from translating (moving sideways) in any direction by more than an inch.
Now you could remove the crossover pipe. But I didn't feel like struggling with the exhaust bolts and I was on a schedule. All is not lost, however
9) What you can do is tip the pan at an angle and remove the drain bolt again and the rest of the fluid out. As a final step, I stuffed a bunch of rags in the pan to soak up the remaining fluid.
10) Remove the old gasket from the pan. It'll be a little tricky to get it around the transmission components. But it can be done if you move the pan around.
11) Put the new gasket on. Be sure to mind the orientation, as there is a specific way gasket (and pan) are shaped. Again, you'll have to move the pan around to get the gasket into position.
12) Bolt the pan back to the transmission.
a) pay attention that your actually threading the bolts through the new gasket
b) Initially, install all the bolts finger tight. Then go back and tighten them with the socket. This helps to ensure you don't pinch the gasket in any areas.
c) Tighten the bolts to about 15 ft-lbs. Not much at all.
13) Use the fluid pump to pump the new fluid into the transmission.
14) Put fill plug back in.
15) Clean up and go for a test drive!
Some observations about my truck.
-The parts guy initially told me WS is a lifetime fluid and does not need to be changed. I told him I had 100K+ miles and he changed his tune.
-My fluid was brown and crappy looking. It definitely needed to be changed
-The manual calls for 3 qts at a change. I assume that's just from the drain plug. I only had about 1 qt come out when I pulled my drain plug
. In fact, I had about 2.5 qts total in my catch pan when I was done draining.
-The lack of the correct amt of fluid would explain the slowness and clunkiness in the transmission. All told, I added about 4.5 qts back into the transmission.
Results:
My truck definitely shifts smoother and is no longer slow to downshift when I come to a stop. I would say it was well worth my time. BTW, I would allocate about an hour to do this DIY.
I don't want to cause anyone to panic if they're close to or over 100K miles. But they might want to consider taking a look at their fluid.
Like I said before, I didn't get any pics when I did this. But I'll try to get some tomorrow.
mike
Your comments about the visual condition of your old fluid are very telling. Lifetime fluids just can't work!
The fact it drives better means, IMHO, that if your goal is 200k+ with no super expensive repairs you have to change it! I do tow a little bit. Toyota recomends doing it at 60k when towing. Between my additional trans cooler and my paranoia that's balances to 50k interval changes for me
Linear Mode
