My recent Prius C transmission experience

I recently did a fluid change by myself. It was a little tricky pumping the fluid in but at the end it was very rewarding.
My change was at around 60k km. Fluid was dark Red.
If i were to DIY again I will use a electric pump, I did a manual crank pump.... took 15min to fill up.

 

I have two Prius: Gen3 Prius and Prius C. Both are year 2012 models. After reading many recommendations on Priuschat forum, I changed my 2012 Prius ATF by myself at 60,000 miles. The ATF looked fresh red, plug was clean too. So I postponed my 2012 Prius C ATF change until 100,000 miles. Again the fluid still looked quite clean, and no much deposits/dirt on the plug. This experience makes me to doubt the necessity of early ATF change. FWIW, I live in the Bay Area. Not sure if it has anything to do with it.

Some people have done extension fluid analysis, and found out that there are metallic materials even at much early ATF change. So it becomes a personal opinion on when one should change their ATF. Of course, it doesn't hurt to change it early as a preventative measure.

 

That's in fact a Toyota dealership. Maybe post the name of the place, for local Toyota owners who don't like dealing with an adversarial service manager.

Hopefully they used Toyota ATF WS? If you can DIY, four quarts of this at dealership part counter is around $40, and the drain and fill is on par with an oil change, maybe even simpler. I wouldn't bother with a second change; the drain-and-fill removed roughly 90% of the original fluid.

Using a funnel and hose from above is very easy.

 

I passed on trying from above. Feeding that down, and then getting it to stay in the hole. So I used an outboard motor fuel hose & bulb like the one found here: GZYF 3/8" Marine Outboard Boat Motor Fuel Gas Hose Line Assembly W/ Primer Bulb - Walmart.com - Walmart.com

I found the fluid in my transmission to be very dark however. Unlike the individual above. Have any of you also noticed that vibration we all seem to get right around the sweet spot when your car could either switch to full electric or stay running gas was reduced after the transmission fluid change? While it's still there, it's very much reduced.

Oh, I did utilize Toyota fluid.

 

My Prius C 2012 has just reach 100.000 miles, never changed ATF, Its ok to change it now? Also Do I have to change Inverter coolant? Thanks

 

I would change ATF at least with Toyota WS. Inverter coolant is supposedly 150K (on my 2015 at least), but no harm in changing it now if you want. You should do the radiator coolant now though.

 

I plan to do ours around 50k miles, which will likely be late spring. And then I'm maybe going to check up on this thread in 7 years to see if a second change is worth it.

The point is I think one change is worthwhile; not sold on the value of a second or beyond when considered with our expected usage.

 

Have done 3 changes (on a 3rd gen), first around 15k kms, 2nd and 3rd progressively spread out: first was by far the darkest, second so-so and third pure overkill. In hindsight: that first one only, at those kms (aka 10k miles), seems prudent. If you do a second, maybe around 50k miles, or more. This all hinges on fluid “appearance”.