To Drain & Fill or Not to

[dipNrip]

I’m “that guy”. I paid for the transmission service at the dealership.
Lots of reasons as stated.
Another is when you go to sell the car at 200,000 miles and there are two or three transmission fluid exchange services on your Carfax, it gives the next buyer some peace of mind + resale value.

Curious to what you paid? Debating on doing myself vs stealership doing it. They quoted me 385 locally which seems really high. Use to be just below $300.

 

[dipNrip]

i did about 5 drain an fills.

drained it
filled it
ran if for a few mins

drained it
filled it
ran it for a few mins

etc

did this about 5 times until i started noticing the fluid coming out was coming cleaner and cleaner unit it looked almost like brand new fluid then let it get up to temp and did the level check procedure. i use about 12-15 qts doing it this way and im happy with the outcome

Makes sense. Even doing it via the cooling lines you’ll mix new and old and your way is way easier.
How long did you run the vehicle after filling? If you wait too long it’ll be too well mixed to get a lot of the old out. Not sure how long it should take to cycle the fluid out of the pan. This is where the cooling method is better as you pull out the old as goes through the line

 

[CutthroatSlam]

Seems to be an overwhelming fear of undoing a transmission cooling line going on here.

 

[dedonderosa]

Makes sense. Even doing it via the cooling lines you’ll mix new and old and your way is way easier.
How long did you run the vehicle after filling? If you wait too long it’ll be too well mixed to get a lot of the old out. Not sure how long it should take to cycle the fluid out of the pan. This is where the cooling method is better as you pull out the old as goes through the line

everytime i filled it back up with the amount that came out at each drain. i shifted through the gears a few times slowly. i would say overall i let it run for 2-3 minutes max. after doing it all those times id say it looked like brand new fluid coming out. then i overfilled it slightly and hooked up the scanner and let the trans get up to correct fluid check temp and did the fluid check procedure. done

 

[hero1234]

Y’all sure do trust your dealer alot ha. Nothing wrong with having someone else do it. To say it’s complicated baffles me. I have zero mechanical experience and have so for changed every fluid in my 4Runner. Now it was a pain in the rear pumping the fluid back in the transmission but hardly complicated. I did spend the extra money to get a reader so I could read the temperature that way.

 

[1000MPH]

Make a sprayer pump for under $20.

 

[Ezlife45]

Y’all sure do trust your dealer alot ha. Nothing wrong with having someone else do it. To say it’s complicated baffles me. I have zero mechanical experience and have so for changed every fluid in my 4Runner. Now it was a pain in the rear pumping the fluid back in the transmission but hardly complicated. I did spend the extra money to get a reader so I could read the temperature that way.

I bought a little hand pump from auto zone that cost about 11 bucks. A little smaller than a grease gun. Worked like a champ.