Rock_Rat
Senior Member
What the hell are you talking about? He didn't say he had a strawberry milkshake, he wants information on PREVENTING one.
Had the "pink milkshake", need transmission advice.. replace? re-build?
- Thread starter 4Runnahlovah
- Start date
What the hell are you talking about? He didn't say he had a strawberry milkshake, he wants information on PREVENTING one.
thegipper
New member
I think before you jump to conclusions you need to do some checking first.
Is your fluid at the correct level once it is warmed up (should be at the Hot mark once fully warmed up, while in park, running, after shifting through all gears for a couple seconds). If the fluid is where it should be, check the condition of the fluid next. If not, add fluid until it is where it should be. These tranny's are picky on the correct fluid.
Do a simple drain and fill. Use a clean drain pan to collect the 4.5ish quarts of tranny fluid. Once it is all drained out, visually look at the fluid. Are there any signs that coolant may still be in the fluid? The reason why I'm asking is because you can flush your tranny after a PMS a bunch of times but still not get all of the coolant out. Ask how I know....
The next thing you need to look for is black clutch particles in the bottom of drain pan that has the old fluid in it. Slowly pour out the old fluid in a different container leaving a skim amount of fluid. Take a clean white towel and wipe the bottom of the pan, are there black chunks or excessive amounts of black particle/pieces? If so, your tranny is probably toast. If the fluid is still nice and clear, not dark in color and lacking excessive amounts of clutch particles, it *may be a different issue.
The morale of the story is before you assume this one is dead, make sure it is actually dead. I would check the condition of the fluid, fluid level, and look for clutch particles before you do anything. If it all checks out but you still have problems, throw a bottle of lucas tranny fix in it. What do you have to loose? It may help it for a few months while you can save some money for a replacement. If it doesn't work, you are out 10 bucks, big deal..
If you do need a new tranny, get a good used one. Money is obviously tight but even if it wasn't, I would still recommend a good used tranny over a rebuilt/reman. There are too many stories of rebuilt/remans shitting the bed in a short amount of time.
Keep us posted.
Is your fluid at the correct level once it is warmed up (should be at the Hot mark once fully warmed up, while in park, running, after shifting through all gears for a couple seconds). If the fluid is where it should be, check the condition of the fluid next. If not, add fluid until it is where it should be. These tranny's are picky on the correct fluid.
Do a simple drain and fill. Use a clean drain pan to collect the 4.5ish quarts of tranny fluid. Once it is all drained out, visually look at the fluid. Are there any signs that coolant may still be in the fluid? The reason why I'm asking is because you can flush your tranny after a PMS a bunch of times but still not get all of the coolant out. Ask how I know....
The next thing you need to look for is black clutch particles in the bottom of drain pan that has the old fluid in it. Slowly pour out the old fluid in a different container leaving a skim amount of fluid. Take a clean white towel and wipe the bottom of the pan, are there black chunks or excessive amounts of black particle/pieces? If so, your tranny is probably toast. If the fluid is still nice and clear, not dark in color and lacking excessive amounts of clutch particles, it *may be a different issue.
The morale of the story is before you assume this one is dead, make sure it is actually dead. I would check the condition of the fluid, fluid level, and look for clutch particles before you do anything. If it all checks out but you still have problems, throw a bottle of lucas tranny fix in it. What do you have to loose? It may help it for a few months while you can save some money for a replacement. If it doesn't work, you are out 10 bucks, big deal..
If you do need a new tranny, get a good used one. Money is obviously tight but even if it wasn't, I would still recommend a good used tranny over a rebuilt/reman. There are too many stories of rebuilt/remans shitting the bed in a short amount of time.
Keep us posted.
thegipper
New member
He said he had a pink milk shake....Read his post.
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
Rock_Rat
Senior Member
The only current post I see is from [MENTION=69882]nvestor88[/MENTION] at 0351am as of today. All of the other posts are from 2012. Perhaps I need another cup of coffee.
jgue467
Senior Member
super old thread OP - start new ones.
Rock-Rat - why use distilled water if going with pre-mix?
Also could the higher red (what i use) failure rate be such because folks don't mix it at the correct dilution with distilled water?
just wondering what i'm missing.... :cowboy:
Rock_Rat
Senior Member
Only distilled if he chooses another route or Toyota Red instead of the 50/50 pre-mix. I'll clarify in the post. Thanks for pointing that out.
Chris Jeddy, one of the senior techs at Broadway Toyota along with another tech and I had a pretty good discussion on the whole tranny flush v. drain and fill and why they don't do flushes at the dealer anymore for our rigs. We also talked about the 50/50 pre-mix v. the red.
Chris was saying they see more failures, not necessarily T4R's, but with vehicles in general (a lot of Prius's that have been using the red v. the 50/50. Most are originally factory serviced. I think, also you can attribute some of the failures, as you mentioned, to improper servicing.
The ingredients are different and the 50/50 pre-mix is the Super Long Life and the Toyota Red is the Long Life. I've been using the pre-mix for 16 years and so far (knock on wood) everything is OK. I have to check, but I believe our manuals recommend the Super Long Life. I'll run out to my rig and report back. UPDATE: Page 260 of the manual: Use "TOYOTA Long Life Coolant or equivalent." So red properly mixed should be good.
Gallon jug of the Toyota Red Long Life ingredients
Ethylene Glycol(107-21-1), Diethylene Glycol(111-46-6) Water(7732-18-5) Orangic Acid Salt(532-32-1) Hydrated Inorganic Salt(1310-58-3).
Gallon jug of the Toyota Super Long Life Antifreeze/coolant ( Pink )
Water (7732-18-5), Ethylene Glycol (107-21-1), Diethylene Glycol (111-46-6), Sebacic Acid (111-20-6), Potassium Hydroxide (1310-58-3)
I think this is one of those questions that will remain a mystery the same as the jiggle valve placement. You and I know that proper regular servicing with whatever brand folks choose is still the best preventive mtx.
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reelamin
New member
tvpierce
New member
I was responding to the OP. Didn't catch the how old it was.
4Runnahlovah
New member
Old thread resurfacing
Hey y'all. I ended up trading in the 3rd gen and got a '08 Highlander Ltd back in December 2012. It was a sad day, and I still wish that I'd had the funds to get a new trans put in the '02 4R at the time. It was such a lovely body style. I pretty much vow to get another 3rd gen one day just to have. Anyway, drove the Highlander for 5 years and now I'm back with a '14 4R Ltd. I'm resurfacing an old thread, but since you guys were talking about this last year I figured it couldn't hurt since I was the OP anyway :juggle:
I'm wondering if the 5th gen 4Rs have the same worry about the transmission cooler being attached to the radiator.. I'll plan on getting a new radiator at 100K to prevent such a disaster, but I'm hoping the newer generation trucks don't have that stupid seal between the two components that can easily go bad. I'm not a mechanic, so bare with me while I know nothing lol. :drama:
-Alicia
Hey y'all. I ended up trading in the 3rd gen and got a '08 Highlander Ltd back in December 2012. It was a sad day, and I still wish that I'd had the funds to get a new trans put in the '02 4R at the time. It was such a lovely body style. I pretty much vow to get another 3rd gen one day just to have. Anyway, drove the Highlander for 5 years and now I'm back with a '14 4R Ltd. I'm resurfacing an old thread, but since you guys were talking about this last year I figured it couldn't hurt since I was the OP anyway :juggle:
I'm wondering if the 5th gen 4Rs have the same worry about the transmission cooler being attached to the radiator.. I'll plan on getting a new radiator at 100K to prevent such a disaster, but I'm hoping the newer generation trucks don't have that stupid seal between the two components that can easily go bad. I'm not a mechanic, so bare with me while I know nothing lol. :drama:
-Alicia
