I'm thinking of changing out of my Prius's transmission and differential fluids and have been watching some videos about this and got a bit confused. Does the Prius transmission and front differential use the same fluid reservoir? Also, is there a rear differential that I should be looking at to change the fluid of?
There’s just one “transaxle”, here’s some info on fluid change (attached). You basically raise AND level the car, drain, then fill till it starts coming back out.
Perfect!! Thank you so much. Where do you get the PDF for these things? Also do you know what part number I would need for the drain plug gasket? off topic, but would it be the same gasket for the inverter and engine coolant drain plugs (if this car even uses drain plugs)?
There is no rear differential in a front wheel drive car. As @Mendel Leisk pointed out, it's a simple drain and fill once you have the car up on jack stands and level. That's because the Prius "transmission" is not even remotely similar to a traditional automatic transmission except that it varies the ratio between engine speed and wheel speed. How it accomplished that function is pure genius. Here's a video that shows how it works. Here's one on changing the transaxle fluid on a Gen 3. Gen 4 is essentially the same.
If you pick up the Toyota ATF WS and washers at dealership parts department, they can figure that out.
Yep, no rear differential unless you have an AWD model. Probably the hardest thing about the job is removing and replacing the under body covers....good grief!! (Come on, Toyota...use 10 mm bolts on EVERYTHING and stop with the 10-different types of plastic fasteners!!!) I have different colored electrical tape and will mark them when removing..makes reassembly a lot easier.
I had a 1984 Bronco II (German engine, Canadian body, Mazda transmission, Borg-Warner transfer case). Pretty much all the fasteners were metric. Just not the ones joining the tranny to the transfer case.
The PDF appears to have been created from an older version of the Repair Manual (more info) that was available by subscription to techinfo.toyota.com. (Today, of course, you’d get access to the latest version.) See my previous posting. There are drain cocks. The packing can be replaced (see catalog Figure 16-03, Radiator & Water Outlet, part name code 16400F, part number 16492-21050), but this isn’t required every time, as it might be for a plug. For step-by-step instructions, the Repair Manual is far more reliable than most of the videos I’ve seen, mainly for the reasons @ChapmanF discussed in this posting.
The PDF says that I should drain and refill the transmission twice. Is that necessary? Mainly looking at this: (k) Repeat steps [#1] to [#10]. (l) Repeat steps [#1] to [#3]
Old style automatic transmissions with a torque converter, would require this - if you want to get to a 90% fluid change. Doesn't really apply to this CVT. Some old-timer engineer must've wrote those specs. LoL.
3rd gen Repair Manual instruction says nothing about double drain-and-fill. Maybe the new rational is that since the fluid is "lifetime", a fluid replacement would only be needed if there was contamination, say someone accidentally added motor oil. Then a double, or even triple, drain-and-fill would be more warranted. Doubly so with a conventional automatic, where you only drain about half. The Prius transaxle you get upwards of 90% if I'm not mistaken.
The double drain & fill would be appropriate if someone put in the wrong fluid and you wanted to get out as much as you could. In fact, I might do it three times in that case. Otherwise, once is fine.
