I will go down in Prius Trani History

interesting experiment, please keep us posted. we may all learn something here

 

Keep in mind that the transmission doesn’t normally expose the fluid to voltage.

Now, if something manages to break down the insulation on those electrical parts, all bets are off. I think that was the point of WS. Slippery enough to splash-lubricate the power split device, dense enough to provide thermal transfer, and didn’t eat the insulation on the windings.

 

To paraphrase what Yogi Berra might have said about this experiment, "It'll work until it doesn't."

 

Leave the 'new transmission' out of the equation, and keep on with the present experiment

 

I run Redline.

What's thicker Redline?

 

D4 is thicker than D6. I have run D6 in my bought new G2 for 11 years. Works great. D6 is the closest to viscosity to WS.
D4 is the older TV-4 fluid thats a thicker viscosity than WS.

 

Find this interesting, as this ATF oxidation level hasn't been reported before. Being 3k+ miles from the last change, and over 50k on the last three (3) ATF changes, have you thought about changing it again or at least stick a finger in the hole for a visual inspection?

 

Agreed that the transmission is spun, but was curious if another ATF dump would still come out looking as black after 3k miles.

Before you recycle that Tx, please dribble a bit of ATF out for the fallen homies and post a pic if possible.

 

Sounds mechanical if it were electrical the dash would be lit up with warnings of high voltage ground fault. That and the glittering metal in the oil.

And your right there is no electrical conductivity in the trans you could run 3in1 oil in that trans it wouldn't care. It may not run great bearing wise but it would not care electrically.

Did you ever run the vin?

Go to toyota.com/owners and join the owners forum. It will ask you for the car's vin so have your insurance card handy. Once joined you will see all the times the car saw a authorized Toyota dealer service center and what was determined. Lots of times the car is condemned for whatever usually a bad hybrid battery and traded in for new on the spot once the owner was looking down the barrel at a hug $$$ repair. They may have seen that trans heard the whine condemned it for news trans and it was traded in on the spot and off to auction it goes.

Its a handy place to log the maintenance you do to the car also. Everything ever done to my car is logged. Only drawback for me is once you input info the dealer see's that and will robo call you for an oil change etc lol. I bought my G2 new. Still own it.

 

Hmmm. A little worried about my trans on a 2012 with 175,000 miles. Modulating whine loudest at 60 to 65 mph, pretty much quiet at 55 and 70. Louder after been driving a while, I suppose as the fluid warms up to operating temp the viscosity goes down. At first I thought it was a left front wheel bearing, but those I have heard going out are not so speed specific, and usually going around a curve one way shuts it up and curving the other way makes it louder. Changed ATF when I got the car about 15,000 miles ago, almost but not quite black. went to valvoline. Did a flush. filled it once, ran it for the day (about 50 miles) then drained and re-filled again. Draining the first Valvoline was still kinda dingy, but not black, wrote that off as the original fluid I did not get the first time.
The whine has not really changed in maximum volume over the last 15,000 miles or so, still averaging 47 mpg with 80% highway driving at 65-70 mph.
Did your whine start getting louder or start feeling it through the floorboard before you started playing with alternate fluids?

 

The issue is in the differential section I would surmise it’s not in the generation part of the trans or the car would show some dtcs.

Run that trans Till it fails.

Btw going around curves or turning steering making the noise different is classic wheel bearing noise not trans.

Which side is bad? If you turn right and the noise increases it’s the drivers side bearing and vice versa.

Determine which side is bad by measuring the heat on both sides. Use laser infra thermometer and measure rotor heat as close to hub as possible after long drive. Sometimes bad side is much hotter.