ive decided to drain and fill to try and get most of the old oil out. so would i do this about 3 times lets say. my local sams club has dexron III fluid for 19bux for 12qrts. could i run this stuff to most of the old stuff out and then possibly put good oil maybe on the last fill. or should i use the good stuff the entire process? any recommendations? the stuff at sams club is a store brand atf but its for dexron III/mercon. would this be ok. i think our 4runner calls for dexron II so im pretty sure this is ok for it. i know some use amsoil the entire process. is this overkill if you plan on draining it out anyways. ???
drain/fill recommendation??
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brian2sun
Elite Member
Any Dexron II or higher is fine. You end up dilluting the old fluid with new fluid if you do several drain and fills, which is fine, but the question is, what do you want to dillute the old fluid with? In other words, if you do the drain/fill twice with cheap new fluid and then a 3rd and final time with good new fluid like Amsoil, you'll end up with something like this:
30% new Amsoil, 50% new cheap ATF and like 20% old dirty ATF. There isn't anything wrong with this necessarily, meaning I'm sure your transmission will still operate fine, but I try not to mix different brands of oil, I've always just heard it's not a good thing since different companies have different viscostities at different temps, etc..
I personally would use all of one brand, and if you drain/fill it 3 times, you'll end up with probably about 80-85% new fluid and 15-20% old fluid (or something pretty close to that) and that's perfectly fine. Some even say to purposely leave some of the dirty fluid in there and the tranny will be better off, but that's another thread..
30% new Amsoil, 50% new cheap ATF and like 20% old dirty ATF. There isn't anything wrong with this necessarily, meaning I'm sure your transmission will still operate fine, but I try not to mix different brands of oil, I've always just heard it's not a good thing since different companies have different viscostities at different temps, etc..
I personally would use all of one brand, and if you drain/fill it 3 times, you'll end up with probably about 80-85% new fluid and 15-20% old fluid (or something pretty close to that) and that's perfectly fine. Some even say to purposely leave some of the dirty fluid in there and the tranny will be better off, but that's another thread..
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theizzardking
New member
since no one else has responded and others will tell you not to waste teh time with drain and fill (i do it all the time on my tiny 1600cc dp motor in my bus)
on that i use the good stuff the whole time just cause it's such a small motor, on the runner i would just used the cheap stuff and drain it good before you put the new stuff in.
if you want to get all crazy with it you can jack the front of the truck up while doing the drain and fill then lower it to level on the final fill.
theizzardking
New member
lol haha yeah your pretty good at beating me to the punch lol
well i really would like to have a better oil in there for a majority. i just read about some just use cheap stuff to get the old out. so would it be best to get good oil (like amsoil) to drain and refill 3 times? i know some talked about a way to get a better deal on the amsoil with some kind of preferred member discount. if not amsoil, which fluid is good? any ideas
brian2sun
Elite Member
I think if you were going to flush the whole system, using a good high-quality synth oil like Amsoil would be the best choice (that's what I did). But if you're going to just drain and fill a few times, I would probably just use the Valvoline (or similar) and stick to one brand for every drain/fill. Might as well not spend the extra $$ on synth IMO, if you're going to be mixing it with traditional anyways.
Well, the Max life stuff isnt syn, it just has additional additives for seals, etc for vehicles over 75k. Its about a $1 more per qt. Snake oil?
Oh, and how much if I am doing a drain and fill and adding a tranny cooler? I was thinking 4 qts.
brian2sun
Elite Member
Yeah about 4-5 quarts is what you'll drain. I've used the Valvoline Maxlife in the past, no complaints, but I also wouldn't hesitate to use some cheap 'ol Pennzoil Dex III or something either. I tend to stay away from generic oil though (like Sam's Club), only because I've heard most of it is bought from oil companies' surplus so it may be different oil from one quart to the next.
theizzardking
New member
this is my exact line of reasoning on this subject, wrong or not it's how i think has well. so yeah x2
(only reason it'll be wrong is some say that drain and fill is useless in the first place, i on the other hand i don't really care and like the peace of mind it offers)
my local walmart carries the valvoline maxlife for roughly 3.50 a quart so im gonna get about 10quarts and will allow to do 2 drain/fills. i think that would be ok for me. gonna take back the cheap samsclub atf. don't think i need to do the syn and im not doing a flush. i think i will be alright with this route....and ordered my B&M external cooler which is coming in about 3 days, then gonna do that. wish me luck 
hockeyrunner
New member
I believe the torque measurement is 19 ft/lbs. Its not much that's for sure
theizzardking
New member
isn;t that good, it just means you got all of it out and some of the dirty crap in the bottom of the pan as well.
