Changing Transaxle oil

Thanks! I neglected to mention that one thing that made me question it was that I was expecting them to look more like the crush washer for the oil drain plug.

 

The drain and fill ports have an aluminum washer under the drain plug. It is good practice to replace the washer because it deforms slightly (to help seal any irregularity in the surfaces) when you tighten the plug. Toyota shows this as a non-reuseable part in the manual.

In reality, you may be able to reuse the washer a few times without any issues. I replaced both washers when I did the fluid change, but I did not replace the washer to take a sample from the fill port. The washers cost $.80 each from my dealer.

 

I was careful and reused my gaskets 5 times with no evidence of seepage. I did have the correct new gaskets on hand

 

Good question. As I have no idea how the Honda CVT operates, I cannot answer the question. THat is, how the fluid is formulated.

As you have the correct WS on hand, I would rather you use the correct fluid

 

I just did my first fluid change this afternoon at ~49k mi. Raising the front of the car on a pair of jackstands made access extremely easy. The old fluid came out sort of a red/gray color and there were plenty of fines on the drain plug magnet. No large pieces, though. I only ran into two problems. The first was that I loosened, but neglected to completely remove, the fill plug before draining the fluid. That made things a little messy because it "glugged" and splashed more than I would have liked. The other minor issue was that I fabricated a funnel with a long tube that was a bit too narrow (1/4"), and it took at least a half hour for the 4 quarts of ATF to trickle through. Not a big deal IMO but a slightly wider tube would make the job go faster.

Having seen all that filth in the fluid, I'll be doing this on the wife's car ASAP.

 

Hi Jimbo,

My parents house driveway was like that. I once launched a jack stand 50 yards into the neighbor's bushes putting a car up on it , and it squirted out from under a tire. Another 3 feet and it would have been through their living room picture window! Use some hefty nails driven into the surface to keep the jack stand in place.

BTW, this neighbor was famous. He had received the Presidential Medal of Technology (complete with a White House Rose Garden Ceremony) for inventing the process used to make the precursor chemicals for the Polyester process. The invention reduced the cost of polyester (this happened in the 70's) to 1/3 to 1/4 of what it was. There was a "Beyond 2000" TV Show Episode that explained this. In the show there was a scene where they took a picture of our street, complete with the bushes the Jack Stand landed in.

 

Don't forget the 24 mm (or 15/16") socket to remove the fill plug.

You've got the correct washers. I usually replace them every other time when doing the fluid change on my car. When doing the job for other owners I replace the washers every time since that is prescribed in the Toyota repair manual.

Yes, this is why I change the WS fluid at 30K mile intervals. A little dome of fine ferrous powder on the drain plug magnet is normal.

Those who own a Classic will be appalled to see how much muck builds up on the rectangular drain pan magnet (looks like a garden slug) and on the drain pan interior.

 

Thanks, yes, that's on hand. I didn't mention it earlier because that's the one item I didn't have to shop for.

 

[PW]: "Those who own a Classic will be appalled to see how much muck builds up on the rectangular drain pan magnet (looks like a garden slug) and on the drain pan interior."

There is quite a range seen in the metal shedding - from hardly any (like my 2001 @60k) to aluminum 'turnings' as from a lathe. Patrick's observation may be the most common, but I think we're not sure.

 

Hi All,

Did mine, before the THI goes crazy here later today and tomorrow. 41K miles, a little early, but of the rest of the summer is like this, it will be good. Still pinkish on the finger tips, but in the pan it looked black. Lots of very very fine dust on magnet.

Dropping the right side engine cover requires cutting off a clip (middle position in the wheel well). I used a sharp chissel, and just slit the head off. Local Toyota did not have it, its on order. No problem at all getting to the two ports with the aero tray and the right lower engine cover down. Even without jack stands.

Mine took 3.5+ quarts, probably because it was out in the sun all afternoon before I drained it, and the fluid was very warm.

 

Is it OK to use Mobil-1 Synthetic ATF as a replacement oil instead of Redline of Toyota WS? Using garage "ramps" for access to the plugs (oil&fill) what replacement oil capacity have owners experienced (? factory capacity for 2008 Gen II)

 

The only ATF that is "approved" is Toyota ATF WS. If you choose to use Redline or Mobil1, that choice is at your risk.

If you use ramps, this implies that the front of the vehicle is elevated more than the rear. Therefore you could add more fluid compared to a scenario where the vehicle is level.

However, since the rated transaxle fluid capacity is 4 US quarts, I suggest that you stop after you've added four quarts of new fluid.

 

Use the Mobil 1 ATF at your own risk. When you price out per quart, the cost of M1 ATF and genuine WS are about the same

 

OK, mine's done at 58,484 miles. Very easy, thanks to the great advice here. Many thanks to all for your contributions!

I couldn't find a purpose-built funnel/extension combo so I fashioned one out of a relatively small funnel and a piece of plastic tubing, 1/2" diameter IIRC, purchased from Lowe's -- the kind they sell by the foot in the plumbing section. Turns out it was nearly a perfect fit for the fill hole. Stored on a spool there, it was curled up and a little difficult to feed from top to bottom through the engine compartment. My fiancee has some thin (1/4" or so) sticks she uses for her tomato plants (not in use at the moment of course); I routed one of those through the compartment and slid the tube over it.

The used fluid came out a dark purple, about the color of a Merlot wine. I have a sample for testing. What's the current consensus on the best lab to use for testing? The two mentioned most often on PC are Blackstone and PdMA (now R&G Laboratories, apparently).

Here are pics of the drain plug before and after cleaning (sorry, a little blurry on the latter). Pretty much the same as others, as best I can tell -- unless one of the better-trained eyes out there notices something amiss in the "before" pic.

 

If you use PdMA / R&G labs, you can compare to the other samples submitted by Bob Wilson and others. There is a database at the Yahoo Group toyota-prius-sat2. You have to join (free) to access.

Yahoo! Groups

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/toyota-prius-sat2/files/transaxle%20oil%20tests/

 

The "before" picture looks quite typical. As you were cleaning off the ferrous debris, did you notice any metal slivers on the magnet? Usually I will find a few.

 

None that I noticed.

 

The first time I changed the fluid in my 2004 Prius, at around 12,000 km, there were quite a few tiny slivers on the magnet. Subsequent fluid changes, the magnet stayed clean

That alone told me an early initial fluid change would be most beneficial.

 

I just did mine at 59,000 miles. I had a hard time finding a long enough hose or tube that would fit on my funnel. My solution was a hose to a fish tank debris vacuum I found in the pet section at Wal-Mart. The color of my fluid was quite dark with only a hint of red left in it. I was able to get 3.75 quarts out of it, but somehow was able to get all but about 4 ounces of the my 4th quart in. I think I may have overfilled it just a bit, and I will let it drip out once I am for certain I am perfectly level.

Also while buying the Toyota WS fluid at the dealership the price for me was $7.78 per quart. I asked why it was so high and I was told by the parts clerk that Toyota just raised the prices in July and that they charge the standard MSRP on all their parts. All in all it cost me $37 w/tax for the 4 quarts plus the 2 washers ($2 each).

I also wanted to give Patrick an extra special thanks for sharing his knowledge with us. I have benefitted greatly from reading all of his posts on this as well as other topics.

 

Yes, I also noticed the price had gone up to $7.78 when I bought some ATF WS a few months ago (compared to a previous price of $5.20.)

You're welcome; I enjoy helping owners to become self-sufficient with regard to Prius maintenance and simple repairs.