Toyota dealer: "there is no automatic transmission oil change"

I changed the tranny juice in my Gen 2 at 30K, and it was burned smelling and somewhat dark. In went RedLine D4 synth, which looked pristine at the 60K change. I change the coolant for the engine and the inverter at 2 year intervals, too - I'm just old school on these things. I use the Toyota coolant - I have less faith in generics.

 

WS has a peculiar smell and color after 30K. SInce there are no clutches then if you are really smelling burnt fluid then there will be particles of some kind floating around.

 

Erik, I didn't filter for particles at the time, and at the subsequent changes at 60K and 90K the fluid coming out was pristine. The car is at 118K right now, so another opportunity to observe is coming up. Thanks for your feedback!

 

For instance Toyota says that WS is for the life of the vehicle. This is why most of our WS vehicles you need special tools for. This Prius year its just like filling a normal differential since there are no clutches to "burn" up. But on occasion there can be burning windings of the motor or hell even a bearing but would more than likely be screaming if it was. So I wouldnt look too hard at your issue. Remember if you have codes for Solenoid performance or anything wacky when driving then ok freak out. But from what I am reading, you want to do maintenance on it and its simple to do so go for it man. At best sometimes we sell a drain and fill for an hour here plus 4 quarts and that is pushing it at 150K or so. Remember its not like engine oil. If its the trans gets hot, trans need replacing or rebuilding, or contaminants are found I do trans service. If not I leave it be.
Remember and I cant without looking it up but the drain plug should have a magnetic plug center for catching stuff. If its dark gray and fine particles its good. Anything else larger than a piece of hair or fingernails is trouble.

 

Gen 1 and Gen 2 had magnets, I do not think Gen 3 does.

 

Good comments - thanks for taking the time to share them! I have been a long-time BMW owner and maintainer, and was horrified when they started claiming "Lifetime Fill" for a number of fluids (tranny, diff, p/s) in the early 90's. The reason was simple and economic: BMW and Mercedes were taking a lot of flak for being expensive to maintain, so they included mandatory fluid changes under warranty. I never figured which of them did that first, but they both did. So engine oil change intervals went way up, with no changes in engineering or lubricants, and many of the other fluids became "Lifetime". What they knew was that even with what I consider to be abusively long intervals, the drivetrains will easily hit 100K, at which point they can claim virtually anything and not be held accountable. They even eliminated the drain plug on many diffs! So I go with "old school" intervals, and have taken many of my daily drivers well over 200K. Sad to see Toyota cop to the same plea.

 

That's the case, no magnet on third gen. Do earlier gens with with the magnet pick up a fair bit of stuff? Seems to me it's always a good idea.

 

Im not sure either on Gen 3. I would go check Weber Auto on Youtube for his Deep Dive on the P610 transaxle. If not there has to be something somewhere to catch that stuff from going to the windings and resolvers (decoders)

 

Ill check that out. This is the main reason I come to the forums. Great questions. Sometimes outrageously over kill questions but great questions that not just one person has. Thank you.

 

My Gen 2 did not have magnet drain plugs, and at 20K so far, I don't know about my Prime tranny. I'll let you know in 10K! I just did the oil/filter change, and no magnet there. I used to run magnetic plugs on my older BMW's, and would get a little fuzz on both the tranny and engine. And, when I turn in my mixed oils for recycling, there would be bright metal dust in the bottom of the 5 gal bucket, presumably babbitt and sync rings.

 

Magentic for trans not oil sump.

 

I changed my second gen’s at approx 200k Km
The oil that came out looked like sewage water - has a lot of residue in it and smelt of burnt oil.
I would change it every 50k KMs

 

Change your dealer; the transmission fluid is changeable, and should be. Lots of opinions on a recommended interval - I like 30K miles.

 

Interestingly, when I changed that fluid in June 2012, the recommendation from RedLine was for their D4 synth. Since then the recommendation has been updated to D6 Red Line Synthetic Oil which is what I have used more recently.

 

"Lifetime" fluid is for the life of the warranty. Some fluids last longer than others, but they all have a limit of theri time or miles they will last. The actual replacement interval is entirely subjective.

Any interval I would recommend here would be pulling it out of the air. How about every 10 years or 100k at the most for any fluid in the car that doesn't have a prescribed replacement interval?

 

The T-IV fluid is dex4 and was used in the G1.

D4 will probably work ok it’s just thicker than the D6.

I have used Redline D6 in my G2 since new and have 140000 miles so far. Great stuff.

You should try the Redline motor oil it’s spectacular in a G2. The G2 really likes it as it has a ZDDP package
And really quiets down the solid lifter motor. I run 5-30 which is touted as a 40 weight at temp and it has completely stopped its minor oil loss.

I use it in all my cars it’s the only car product I have used where you can feel the difference.

Here's shots of the top of my motor after a lifetime of Redline oil. 140000 miles zero wear.

I'm sure my trans looks just as clean.

 

The Gen3 likes redline too.

Nice and smooth.

 

Its not lasting longer than others really its just its ability to mitigate the TAN. WS has a big calcium pack in it that mitigates acid which is why they tout it long life. But calcium is a wear agent also.

 

I have been running full synthetic Maxlife for the past 25k with no problems. If I thought WS offered something more I would buy that but they use that stuff in normal run of the mill torque converter type Toyota transmissions so I am not seeing the advantage. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.