Transmission dipstick

[ColonelPanic]

Has anyone ever read the little white label on the transmission dipstick? I was checking the fluid tonight and read the label for the first time... Said something to the effect of "Under normal driving condition ATF replacement is not necessary." Uhh, ok... That probably isn't the exact wording. They did however, say "normal driving condition instead of conditions, I DO remember that. Hey Toyota, what the hell is a "normal driving condition?" Yet another fluid mystery with our cars... I didn't think T-IV was a long life fluid like Dexron III/etc. But if it does not need to be replaced under "normal driving condition" then why does our service schedule call for it to be changed? I'm not buying what the lying dipstick says. The fluid in my car probably should have been changed a looong time ago - it looks pretty dirty now, and over the last few months the shifts have become increasingly harsh, particularly the 1-2 shift. And this is a bit shy of 60,000 miles, I don't see how Toyota expects to get longer life than that out of this crap, IMHO. Interesting.

[ToolGuy]

Hey CP I replied to your DIY Trans post on this too! I read that this weekend while I was draining the DIRTY fluid out of mine!!! At 27,000 that stuff was really dirty!Does not make sense to me and my car is Normally Driven, does not follow the harsh or what ever it is called maintenance schedule.I will be changing mine out at every 25,000 miles and is cheap to do when you DIY.

[tnpartsguy]

The Toyota special ATF is a very VERY dark red, almost black when it's fresh, just so you know, it's not a real red to begin with.

[ColonelPanic]

Any idea why Toyota made dipstick say not to bother changing it? I wonder what the change intervals for "their" vehicles are...My fluid actually isn't really black but it still looks and smells nasty enough to make me wish I had changed it a long time ago.

[ToolGuy]

Quote, originally posted by tnpartsguy »The Toyota special ATF is a very VERY dark red, almost black when it's fresh, just so you know, it's not a real red to begin with.Yeah this looked black... The replacement fluid I used was made by Valvoline supporting Toyota T-IV fluid transmissions. It was more red like a typical GM Dexron fluid.

[northvibe]

how hard was it to change the fluid?

[ToolGuy]

Quote, originally posted by northvibe »how hard was it to change the fluid?It was real easy! The trans pan has a drain plug, loosen it and drain. The fluid capacity is almost four quarts of new. It is not an official flush but when you do it on your own, you can only get out what you can. Even the Toyota dlr said the techs drain and refill. Like I said I wanted to drop the pan and clean the screen but just did not. I know though from my other cars once the filter is replaced or in this case the screen is clean, unless there is another issue the screen really does not need to be cleaned again. The magnets too, once clean if a lot more metal is found stuck to them at a later date, the trans most likely is going...

[kcorona]

I'm taking the trans dipstick info with a grain of salt after reading about the debunking of the power steering fluid cap, which says to put ATF in the power steering fluid reservoir!