Prius C Tranmission/Transaxle/HSD Oil Change

The drain and fill plugs are identical... have you looked under the car? The tranny is so close to being the same that you couldn't determine the differences with the eye as the case is the same, but only the innards are different.

 

Well this is pretty funny.

I bet that pretty much NOBODY ELSE ON THE PLANET shares your "the sky is falling" gloom and doom prediction about changing the fluid.

And just for the record, I'm a "middle of the road'er" here.
I believe in the "if it ain't broke, don't mess with it" theory of following the manufacturer's recommendations BUT......... I start getting nervous somewhere around 60-70K miles though and usually have the plugs and long term fluids done then.

AND most things the shop recommends "flushing" don't need to be and just increases their profit margin......a LOT.

 

There is nothing funny about it. Everyone has different opinions. Bunch of people here got so pissed off because others don't agree with them. That is just uncool. Clearly in this topic there is NO right or wrong. If you change fluid every 30K miles, you get clean fluid in your system. On the other hand, IF the car never need to be change, then it is unnessarry. If you listen to opposite side and learn from it, then that is the best thing to do. But got pissed off and insult others is not benefit and nothing funny about it.

 

I must have missed the people being pissed off part...

 

No you're right, it is not funny.
It is pathetic.......when you try to justify an opinion that is so far out that it is in another galaxy.

Not all opinions are REASONABLE.
In my opinion, the one you expressed here is not reasonable.
Most of the things you said are demonstrably NOT true.
Opinions based on erroneous facts are not valid ones.

You are right though, it is not funny.
A few others might be so gullible that they buy into your theories.

 

Perhaps, NewYorkan, you misunderstand trans fluid changing for the C. It is a simple drain and fill. Nothing at all like an automatic transmission that would have fluid checked on a dipstick. And no gaskets or filters on the C trans. Have you ever had the pleasure of changing fluid in a manual trans? Loads better than an auto trans.

I know the auto trans on my truck and Z28 require 30k mile fluid/filter changes. The manual trans on my '89 CRX required 30k mile changes (but that was with a 10w-30 motor oil.) 30k mile auto trans changes are the norm for our herd.

I did change the trans fluid in the wife's 2009 Prius at 30k miles. It looked horrible...all purple, with loads of stuff in it. Nothing at all like the clear and clean cherry red of new fluid. With not having to worry about an over filled trans as you would with an auto trans, why would there be any issues with changing early if you didn't mind the perceived extra cost?

Just wondering...

 

Hey. I have a 2012 c, changed the trans fluid at 100,000 miles, and Friday, my transaxle failed at 140,000 miles. I don't drive like a maniac, I just drive it a lot, I'm a courier, I get regular maintenance on the car, I'm faithful about it, and it died. It's taking them days to tell me why. They've sent the test data to Japan to figure out why, because they just had the car for scheduled maintainence a few months ago, it was fine, and a few months before that, I brought it in for strange engine noise and could find nothing.

 

Well maybe this is why we should not wait that long to do a transmission oil change, let us know what Toyota says?

 

What irks me is that I asked them to do it before the warranty was up, and they told me i didn't have to do it. When it went in at 100,000, my father took it in, and he insisted they do it, so they did it. Everything else on the car is in perfect order- it even still has it's original brake pads, they are only 1/3 worn down. The technicians are baffled.

 

They shouldn't be. That's decently common. Front pads lady around 100+k on a prius. So a light braker about 1/3 to half gone at 100k isn't that far off at all.

SGH-T889 ?

 

They're baffled about the transaxle. Them being the ones who say the fluid is "lifetime"

 

The definition for "lifetime" anything is up to interpretation. It's a marketing strategy, plain and simple. The Corporation draws their graph with sales vs. returns, money out vs money in, and then decides on the best words to present the idea of low/no maintenance to bolster their position. Woe be unto them that believe the hype.

 

Transaxle failures are not that common...140k is way too soon for that to happen.
Prius c / Aqua / Yaris hybrid all got 1.5l ICE from 2 Gen Prius, but has some changes, while the transaxle is totally new (although a downsized 3 Gen one), we may still not have enough driven miles of information on reliability.

 

It's good to know that the fluid got dirty at 30K and it is easy to change. In that case, I will change it at 30K too, but the next one definitely will be at ~130K. It is not the extra cost that I worry about. It is the unnessary risks that put into the car, and doesn't make the car any better.

 

Changing the fluid at 100000 miles is like closing the barn door after the cows have lit out, unfortunately. Shifting that single change back to say 20000~30000 miles (or sooner!), and then doing subsequent changes every 60000 miles, might have made the difference.

 

You make me out to be some nitwit who bought into some hype to save a few bucks and got burned. Nope, not the case. I drive 10,000 miles PER MONTH, as such, I've performed 14 YEARS worth of maintenance on this car, within 2 years, and have no problem putting money in my car. Toyota just called me and said that they could find no driver error in the way the car has been maintained. Their part just failed. It wasn't an issue of dirty fluid at all. The transaxle locked. I have no choice now but to wait until the rest of you catch up with me in mileage, to see if it will be recalled, and maybe I'll get my $5,000 back. Good luck to you all.

 

$5k for a tranny rebuild? Or did you go with new? Either way, ouch...

 

They can't rebuild it. Hopefully I won't have to wait for it to be fabricated and Japan, like I did for body parts when I got rear ended in 2012. Took them 2 months to have parts made for my car.

 

Personally, I don't see any risks involved in draining and replacing a few quarts of liquid. It's old hat to me, though. As for not making the car better, I guess that's a personal view I don't necessarily share.

 

Good luck on the factory reading of your failure data. They were quick to come back to my dealer when I bent the brake pedal support bracket (3-4 days), but I don't thing that was as complicated as the trans. The windshield had a rock chip in it when I got it so the dealer sent me to their approved repair shop to get it replaced. I told them this was a new model and the windshield was different thatn the normal Prius, but they still ordered the wrong one twice before they got the idea.

My '99 Super Duty crunched a tranny at about 87K miles. That was probably my fault, shocking the innards on some tough pulls on some too-big stuck vehicles. It hurt to the tune of about $3.7k.