I have the car on jacks and pulled the drain plug with the allen socket. A lot of quite dirty oil came out but noticed that the oil was red. Opened the hood and the dipstick says the oil is still in the engine. I assume that I drained the transmission oil so I need to know how to refill the transmission and finally, which plug do I pull for the oil? There is a 24 mm plug that I loosened but the fluid that started to come out was so clean that I assumed that it was the trans oil. I need some help!
John has published a marvelous, step-by-step set of oil change instructions (with pictures). I'd recommend checking this out. (Sorry I can't be of help, but I haven't ever changed my Prius' oil.)
Changed my oil this weekend. The oil pan is near the front passenger side wheel, within easy arm reach. I didn't need to put the car up on stands to do the oil change. The filter was a little difficult because I had to do it by feel, but even that was pretty easy. Glenn
Looked at John's picture site and quickly found the oil drain plug. Still need help identifing what I drained when I pulled the allan plug and how do I get what came out (thick red oil) back in.
Any chance you can post a photo of where the plug is that you removed? That may help in identifying if it's the transmission fluid or the inverter...
Found out that I had drained the transmission. There is a magnet in the drain plug and mine was VERY full of steel particles. The tranny takes a special "WS" oil which I got at the Toyota dealer. My old oil was very dirty so perhaps this bone headed move on my part may turn out as a small blessing.. Thanks to those who responded. This was my first visit to the site.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(timebum\";p=\"90357)</div> Could you please tell us how many miles you have on your Prius? I'm asking as it may be prudent to do an early initial change of the CVT fluid and then every 30,000 - 50,000 miles. As far as I know, the CVT fluid is considered "lifetime" for Prius cars in the United States. Here in Canada, you're supposed to change it every 96,000 km. BTW: was it hard to fill the CVT? I have an assortment of little hand pumps that fit on top of 1 quart bottles, so I'm glad I saved them.
Apparently steel particles stuck to the magnet are really no big deal. It will happen for the lifetime of the car so every time you open that plug there will be fine particles on it...
My 2004 has 7600 miles. I refilled it rather easily by attaching a 24" section of clear plastic tubing to a funnel and threading it down to the refill hole. This hole is about 4" directly above the drain plug and has a 24mm head. I realize that I really did a stupid stunt by not taking more time to locate the proper oil drain plug but the experience is now over and I feel a bit better knowing that the drain plug was catching a lot of steel particles. These were not shavings but very small flakes and bits. The next time I drain the oil I will epoxy a small magnet into the drain plug and see what it catches. Thanks again to all.
Just to let ya know- the oil pan has a built in magnet... and like I mentioned earlier the particles are normal.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(timebum\";p=\"90996)</div> I also feel better knowing that a shorter initial period now appears prudent. Any mechanical device will usually generate more shavings/particles during the run-in than after. With my former 2000 GMC Sierra, both the owner maintenance supplement and the shop manual suggested an initial rear axle gear oil change at 5,000km, then every 30,000km. Trailer towing exceptions: GM did not recommend trailer towing or heavy hauling for the first 1,000km. Then within 600km of towing/hauling, another gear oil change. Since I had a 7,000lb trailer, I drove it empty for 1,000km then changed the gear oil. The axle had a drain plug - a rare find these days - but the magnet was on the sheet metal cover. So after the gear oil drained, I still had to take off the rear sheet metal cover to check/clean the magnet. The magnet was hairy with metal fuzz. Cleaned it off, new gasket on the rear cover, rear cover back on, and refilled. Took the trailer for a weekend trip of around 700km, then back at the hobby farm to service it. The magnet had even more metal fuzz on it, plus residue at the bottom of the axle housing. Cleaned everything up, new rear cover gasket, rear cover back on, refilled. At 5,000km, decided to change the gear oil again. This time the magnet had barely detectible fuzz. At 35,000km, there was no fuzz on the magnet at all. So I'm willing to bet the next time you change your CVT fluid, the magnet will be clean or nearly so. BTW: how much did you pay for the Type WS fluid?
