Should I have my transmission fluid changed/flushed?

J

JoshuaHufford

New member
Just bought an 07 SR5 V8 4x4 a few weeks ago, it has 147k miles on it. I plan on doing the transfer case and front and rear diffs myself when I get the chance. From what I've read this one has the "sealed" transmission? Never dealt with one like this before.

I don't think the previous owner did much hard use on this one, a lot of the miles are highway, his wife drove it from Kansas City to North Dakota to visit family quite a bit. He did use it off road in low range a few times a year he said to go duck hunting. He also said he used it to tow a boat once.

I plan to tow with it fairly often, we have a camper that will weight around 3500 lbs. loaded, and I also have a utility trailer I use to haul things from time to time.

I would also probably have the fluid done by a mechanic just because I've never done any work on a transmission like this before and I don't want to take any chance of messing something up. I've for the most part owned manual transmission vehicles, the one auto tranny vehicle I've kept for a long time is a Subaru and the transmission is very easy to service, it has a drain plug and spin off filter on the side.

The mechanic I usually take stuff to that I don't do myself doesn't have a way to "flush" a transmission, he can only do drain and replace. Should I take it to the dealer for this service?
 
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I would do it for sure. I would do a full fluid exchange and no special equipment is needed. I have done mine twice since owning it and can do it in about 30 minutes. Your mechanic doesn't seem to know how to do it so if your not comfortable doing it yourself take it to a Toyota mechanic and ask for a full fluid exchange.
 
I had mine flushed "exchanged" at the dealer about 1,000 miles ago. I have 160k miles on mine and this was the first transmission service it has had as far as I'm aware of.

There is nothing wrong with having a full fluid exchange as long as the transmission pumps the old/new fluid and the machine just exchanges it. Where people mess up is that they already have transmission issues and go get a flush to "fix it" and then you take a chance of the transmission failing. Once your transmission is slipping or having bigger problems, it's too late for new fluid to do anything. So as long as your transmission is shifting smoothly and has no vibrations, shudders or problems engaging gears, then you should be fine.
 
Your 2007 Scheduled Maintenance schedule suggests that the first transmission fluid replacement be done at 60,000 miles or 72 months, especially if the 4Runner has been used for towing.

http://4runnerclub.com/i/4r_files/f...7/toyompdf/07omsour/2007/07toysmt/71r1smt.pdf

See page 27.

I'm with [MENTION=70181]Gatafly[/MENTION] on doing a full fluid exchange. A simple drain and fill isn't necessarily bad if that is all you can do, but a full fluid exchange is better to ensure all of the old transmission fluid gets out.
 
Thanks, I'll probably call the local dealer tomorrow and just see what they charge to do it, then I'll decide what to do from there.
 
Make sure you inquire about how many quarts of atf a full fluid exchange entails before accepting it for its meaning.
 
So I called my local dealer today, asked to talk to someone in the service dept. I asked how much it would cost to flush all the fluid and change the filter on an 07 4Runner. He said that the 2007 year has the transmission without the dipstick (already knew that), that it does not have a filter, only a screen, and that they can't really flush them, they just do a drain and refill, which runs about 125-150.

I asked, "You don't have a machine that can flush the entire system?"

He said they do, and on "some" 4 runners they are able to hook it up to the ports at the transmission cooler and flush the entire system, but not all can be done this way, and the only way the would know if this could be done would be to see the vehicle. If this could be done it would run 250-300.

Does this sound accurate?

There is a shop here in town that specializes in transmissions. Do you think it would be worth talking to them?
 
JoshuaHufford said:
So I called my local dealer today, asked to talk to someone in the service dept. I asked how much it would cost to flush all the fluid and change the filter on an 07 4Runner. He said that the 2007 year has the transmission without the dipstick (already knew that), that it does not have a filter, only a screen, and that they can't really flush them, they just do a drain and refill, which runs about 125-150.

I asked, "You don't have a machine that can flush the entire system?"

He said they do, and on "some" 4 runners they are able to hook it up to the ports at the transmission cooler and flush the entire system, but not all can be done this way, and the only way the would know if this could be done would be to see the vehicle. If this could be done it would run 250-300.

Does this sound accurate?

There is a shop here in town that specializes in transmissions. Do you think it would be worth talking to them?
Click to expand...



I’ve talked to my Toyota dealer as well as a transmission shop here. They have both told me different things. The dealer said a flush is NEEDED and the transmission shop said not to mess with it. When I asked the dealer how they did that he said they did the entire flush, hooked it up to a machine and power flushed out the old fluid with the new.

However, based on that information and the endless research I’ve done, everyone who has a 4Runner and has personally messed with the transmission advised NOT to do the flush because it could cause problems. Everyone I’ve seen has recommended doing 4, 3quart drain and fills until the fluid is new. Apparently the power flush can cause issues by forcing the new fluid through and shocking the transmission instead of gradually easing in the new fluid.

Just for what it’s worth, my dealer quoted me $330 for the entire flush. I decided not to do it and will do the drain and fills myself.
 
It's true there's no filter, instead a screen which is replaceable, but should be able to clean it as well, but the labor to clean it after removing it would probably be around the same as the cost of a new one, so if I pulled the pan I would just replace the screen if I were paying someone to do it.

The labor to do the machine flush sounds about right from what those who have had the dealer do their's, also considering a quart of the WS fluid cost $12 to $15 from a dealer and it takes 12 quarts to completely replace the fluid.

It maybe worth a call to the transmission shop to see what they would charge.
 
I know I can juts get under it to answer this question, however the wife has the T4R today and won't get home until late tonight.

Is there a drain plug or do you need to remove the pan to drain the fluid?

How hard is the screen to get to in order to clean it?

If all that will be done is a drain and refill I'm just thinking of maybe doing that the next 3 oil changes and that should refresh the fluid well?
 
There are 3 plugs you will have to deal with, 2 on the bottom of the pan, the drain plug in the one flush with the bottom of the pan, the level check plug is the one on the bottom of the pan up in a dimple, the last plug is the fill plug and it's on the right/passenger side of the transmission, IMHO it's very important that you have a torque wrench to proeprly torque the plugs and the pan bolts if you do remove the pan, all of these bolts and especially the pan plugs are very easily over tightened and often stripping the threads if you're not careful, the fill plug is much larger and not as easy to strip but I would still use the torque wrench.

If you have the V6 removing the pan is simple, remove the bolts and drop the pan, if you have the V8 you will first have to remove the exhaust crossover pipe to be able to drop the pan then remove bolts, etc., you will also nee to have on hand a new pan gasket which usually comes with a new strainer/screen, a new screen form the dealer will cost aorund $40+/-, but you can get one from an autopart store for between $15 to $25, since you will need to buy a new gasket if it were me I would just goahead and get the new screen.

If you just do a drain and fill you will need approximately 3 quarts of fluid, if you drop the pan then appproxinately 4 quarts, I would also recommend getting the hand pump that screws on the oil bottles to do the refill.

That all being said here a video where he doing this on a FJ Cruiser, it is exactly the same as what you would be doing if you have the V6, it's the same tranmission as what is in the 4th Gen T4Rs, this video also shows the hand pump mentioned above, if you don't get the exact one shown that comes with tubing you may also need to get some tubing as well.

https://youtu.be/4FflypYGgh8
 
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With the trans being sealed I didn't think any service was possible. I feel like mine could use a flush & fill. Is this a dealer only service, or would a normal mechanic or transmission shop be able to do this service?
 
JoshuaHufford said:
I do have the V8.

Since the pan must be dropped and exhaust has to be taken apart I'll probably let the dealer do that.
Click to expand...

Changing the screen out isn't worth the time/expense. It captures larger particles that don't get suspended in the fluid. I would be surprised if it was actually dirty.

squirl-runner said:
With the trans being sealed I didn't think any service was possible. I feel like mine could use a flush & fill. Is this a dealer only service, or would a normal mechanic or transmission shop be able to do this service?
Click to expand...

There is a fill plug on pass side (24mm or 15/16" will do), a normal drain plug, and an overfill plug with an allen screw. The overfill plug will start to drain at the instance you have pumped too much fluid in. Its simple as an oil change but you just have to do it from under the car. The hardest part is pumping the fluid into the trans. I bought a $5 pump sprayer at walmart and a few feet of 3/8" clear hose from HD/lowes.

b2pc2Mt.jpg


Incredibly easy.
 
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