Transaxle Fluid DIY question

The 2G transaxle fluid capacity is 4 quarts - it doesn't matter if the car is tilted or not. The drain and fill plugs use aluminum gaskets; suggest you purchase them from your local Toyota dealer, or else reuse the original gaskets if you can't obtain suitable replacements.

 

If your car was level, you would be able to add 4 quarts of Toyota ATF WS without having any drip out of the fill hole. So if the car is tilted due to raising the front, it would still be appropriate to add 4 qt of ATF WS.

 

It's as Patrick says, I had my car up at least that height or even more and it drained just a tad over four quarts, but I added only four with no spillage out the fill hole. I had spare washers but the "crush" on the original allluming washer was so slight, I had no qualms about reusing them.

Have the 10mm hex head driver for a 1/2" ratchet wrench? I don't think many could break the drain loose with a standard "L" allen wrench without a helper bar.

 

Text from my repair manual is below. 4 US qt is the refill spec, don't worry about overfilling. If you remain concerned about overfilling, then raise both ends of the car so that it is level; you will see that there is no problem with the transaxle accepting 4 qt through the fill hole.

Glen is referring to the drain plug, which requires a 10 mm hex key socket that will fit on your ratchet wrench. This will fit into the hex indentation on the drain plug. The fill plug requires a 24 mm or 15/16" six-point socket:

2005 PRIUS REPAIR MANUAL (RM1130U)​

HYBRID TRANSAXLE SYSTEM​

ON-VEHICLE INSPECTION​

1. CHECK TRANSAXLE FLUID LEVEL
NOTICE:​

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Insufficient or excessive amounts of transaxle oil
may be the cause of some trouble.​

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Stop the vehicle on a flat road.​

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Use genuine ATF WS.​

(a) Remove the filler plug.
(b) Ensure that there is transaxle oil within 0 to 5 mm of the
filler plug hole.​

NOTICE:
Recheck the transaxle oil level after driving when exchanging
oil.​

HINT:
Transaxle fluid quantity: 3.8 L (4.0 USqts, 3.3 Imp. qts.)
(c) Check for leaks if the quantity of oil is low.
(d) Install the filler plug using a new gasket.​

Torque: 39 N-m (400 kgf-cm, 29 ft-lbf)

 

When I changed mine, I raised the rear of the car also and eyeballed it level. From the 4 quarts, I was able to take an 8 oz sample of new ATF to send to PdMA and filled the transaxle until fluid was dripping out of the fill hole. There was still a small amount left in the last bottle, so I would say the refill was somewhere between 3.75 and 4 qts, but definitely less than 4 qts with the car level.

 

Just completed the transaxle fluid change on my 05 with 168,000+ miles. Fluid should definately have been changed earlier. Nice Brown colour.

 

Good for you for changing it. Hopefully you'll get another 168,00 miles!

What fluid did you put in, Toyota WS, Redline D6, Dexron VI or something else entirely? When I changed my 2007 at 17,500 I put in WS and will most likely put in Redline D6 the next time (30,000 or so more miles).

Rumple

 

If you raise the front of the car about a foot, you'll be simulating about a 4.5% incline grade. That is a bit significant. Best if you can level the car when adding fluid.

By the way.. it is imperitive you use the correct fluid. Toyota's fluid has a very high electrical resistance and since the MGs are bathed in fluid for lubrication and heat absorption, a very high electrical resistance prevents an electrical breakdown.

 

I built a ramp out of old railway ties at my hobby farm. It's relatively easy to get my Prius about 3 ft into the air, and reasonably level, to work on it.

I'll repeat the warning about making sure you remove the fill plug BEFORE removing the drain plug. If for any reason the fill plug is seized, you sure don't want to find out after draining all the fluid

 

For the love of god please stop perpetuating the ridiculous myth about WS transmission fluid and electrical resistance. People come to this site for sane & correct info not your fantasy's. Toyota's WS fluid does not have any more electrical resistance than any other trans fluid.

 

you're right!

the only reason toyota has you use this particular fluid is because of copper wear...

 

I will use the oil Toyota tell me is the right oil to use in this very unique transmission that Toyota designed and developed and tested and no doubt had several early failures. If I had hundreds of thousands of dollars for testing I might do the tests to see if any oil is better than the WS oil Toyota recommend but as I would rather not have an early failure, which is why I change my trans fluid in the first place, I will stick with the oil recommended by the people who did spend lots on testing

 

No, each track is actually two railway ties lagbolted together. I screwed some treated 2x4's on each side to act as a guide, it would be pretty hard to drive off my ramp.

I wouldn't repeat the railway tie thing however. It was a *lot* of gruntwork. Next one I build, I fire up the welder and make a ramp similar to what you see at dealerships when they have a car on display, up on their ramp

 

I'm not so sure about that. The MG's appear to be fairly well sealed, if you happen to go through the Oak Ridge Labs teardown - or "reverse engineering" - of a Prius.

The antiwear additives in modern ATF's wouldn't work very well at all for electrical protection. A transformer oil is far more suitable for such use, and transformer oils have generally very poor frictional characteristics. I wouldn't run transformer oil in a conventional auto trans

The Toyota WS fluid has to meet frictional characteristics for all of Toyota's automatic transmissions. My FJ has a five speed auto, with the normal shift clutches, and WS is the only recommended fluid for it too

 

I used the walmart stuff for replacement of Toyota WS fluid. Somebody mentioned it earlier in the thread.

I have noticed a major increase in my mpgs. The last couple of weeks I have been averaging 44-46 mpgs. (90% highway 70-75mph, 280+ miles a day) After changing the ATF I am now getting 49-50 mpg.