Coolant/transmission

Discuss any maintenance you've done to your Vibe & Matrix and ask how to perform maintenance on your vehicle
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Jschaf024
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri May 06, 2016 9:42 am

Coolant/transmission

Post by Jschaf024 »

Okay so I bought a 2005 vibe base with 110,000, now has 112,000. No service records. I'm trying to work through basic maintenance as I assume nothing has been done by previous owner. Car has no problems as I can tell.

Coolant flush-
It's green. I know the Toyota pink is definitely preferred. If a thorough flush is performed is it safe to switch to Toyota red or equivalent? Or should I stick with generic green? I'm going to try and do this myself.

Transmission fluid drain-
Multiple drain and fills at 112,000 with no previous records? Or is it a good idea to drain, drop pan, pull the line and drain/top off 1 quart at a time until it runs clean?

Been scouring the forums and I'm just not sure on these two.
Also with the coolant flush, seems like people are saying to pull intake manifold and pull thermostat to get it all. might as well make a day of it and replace gasket, clean throttle body and IVAC + MAF.

I'm just piecing together all the maintenance advice and trying to put together a maintenance game plan and keep this thing on the road another 100k. At the same time there's nothing wrong with it and I don't want to jeopardize that.
2005 - base. FWD
Caretaker

Re: Coolant/transmission

Post by Caretaker »

If you are doing the coolant flush yourself, switch back to the Xerex Asian found in most auto stores. It is Toyota Super Long Life Coolant equivalent. Most importantly however is the fact that your fluid is green. Someone obviously did a fluid transfer at some point which is a good thing (as long as it wasn't done by a GM dealership where they stupidly put Dexcool in your car).
The transmission fluid for your first generation Vibe is Toyota Type IV as you know. If the fluid on your transmission dip stick is VERY grey, which it should be at 100,000+ miles without having been changed, then you can only do a simple fluid transfer. If it still looks cherry red, then someone has done a fluid exchange along the way. I'm at 101,000 and mine is cherry red simply because I did a flush at 60,000. Most transmission shops don't do a hard flush and use a BG (type) fluid transfer machine anyway. They pump enough fluid through until it looks clean and then fill to capacity. My local transmission shop wants only $140 for a fluid transfer using World Standard fluid (for second generation Vibes). I plan on doing mine again at 120,000 miles.
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vibrologist
Posts: 1598
Joined: Sat May 10, 2014 8:24 am
Location: Iowa

Re: Coolant/transmission

Post by vibrologist »

Throttle body cleaning:
If you make a day of it, go ahead and replace the intake manifold gasket, the throttle body gasket and the PCV valve. It's cheap and easy enough and you might as well be done with it.

Find a Toyota Matrix VIN number on autotrader.com that matches your Vibe closely. That way you can order parts at the Toyota dealer. If you get a mismatching part it would most likely be because of a change they made during the model year.
Vibrologist
'05 Vibe

"It is important to know the difference between 'accurate' and 'precise' even if you are neither!"

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Jschaf024
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri May 06, 2016 9:42 am

Re: Coolant/transmission

Post by Jschaf024 »

thank you very much for the replies. I'm going to do the coolant flush myself and go with xerex asian.
the transmission fluid is a reddish grey, to me it doesnt look bad but then again im not a mechanic. i'll try to post a pic. and when you say exchange of fluid, is this just dropping the pan, draining, topping up with 4 qts and pulling the line and running a quart through at a time until it looks new?
2005 - base. FWD
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