Transmission fluid change?

The thing you should change now is your dealer.

 

I would say change it at 60K service.. Looking in the maintenance schedule I also see it only mentions it at 60 under severe(towing). Most peoples driving could be severe,example a lot of stop and go. This is the way my service manager sets up our maintenence packages,so it would work for everbody. I'm sure Kyle's dealer may have a different schedule out there. This is also what I go by on my own vehicles,since my wife only works about 2-3 miles away and her Tahoe never gets out of town much. Could you go farther till you change it? Probably. It just depends on your thinking of Preventative Maintenence.Another thing to remember is that the 1st generation Prius' use Type T dexron and the 2nd gen uses a new fluid called WS. It is about $50 for a 4 liter(1 gal?)can!

 

Hey Rick, I'm interested in your thoughts about these new transmissions flush services, vers. the old way of changing the fluid and filter. Some(like my old Dodge dealer said,"Never thouch the transmission unless something is wrong or the fluid shows specks of dirt on a paper towel" My current Chevy dealer says"it's better to use the flush service because you can never change whats left in the torque converter and the flush cleans the filter(screen) anyway." And now with my new Prius I'm not sure what to do LOL.

 

I have a Canadian market 2004 Prius and you're supposed to drain/refill the CVT fluid at 80,000km. This isn't like a conventional automatic trans.

There is a drain plug and a fill plug. It would be impossible to use a transmission flush gadget. I suppose you could leave the drain plug out and pour in a quart or so of that pricey Toyota WS fluid.

WRT maintenance: are you planning to keep your car a *long* time or just for the duration of the warranty/lease/finance?

If you're just going to keep the car 4-5 years, don't even bother opening the hood. Have the dealer change the oil every 8,000km or 6 months as recommended to keep warranty and whatever else is minimally required.

OTOH if you *do* want to keep the car forever, remember there is no such thing as "maintenance free" or "lubed for life." This is really "deferred" maintenance as you wait for it to fail.

Since most of the wear particles are from break-in, it may make sense to service the CVT earlier, say before 5,000 miles. Then every 50,000 miles.

 

jayman I didn't know that, but I was also curious what Rick has to say about the 2 methods for regular cars also.

 

Oh, sorry.

I would *never* depend on the flush gadget to "clean" the filter sock. That is just *asking* for trouble. And how do you check and clean the magnets in the pan??

How about a normal pan drop, inspect the pan magnets for chunks then clean them off, new filter sock, button everything up. Then you do the fluid exchange.

I would agree with sealed torque convertors there is no other way to get the fluid out. In many automatic transmissions over 1/2 the total fluid capacity is in the torque convertor.

Not sure what that Dodge dealer was smoking ... especially their early 90's Dodge Caravan auto transaxles had close to a 50% failure rate. Frequent service, especially an initial service before 5,000 miles then every 2 years or 20,000 miles is perfect.

If by "flush" you mean those chemical flush machines, avoid them like the Clap. They will knock loose a bunch of s*** inside the transmission, and usually you will have a failure a short time after. The only way to properly clean an abused automatic transmission is to take it apart.

OTOH the C6 automatic in my 1984 Ford F-150 is stout and *very* easy to service. Once you drop the pan, you hook up a bump switch to the starter solenoid on the fender. You then take off the shield and observe the torque convertor as you bump the starter over.

Once the drain plug comes into view and is at the bottom, you take it off. You can get at least 6-7 more quarts out that way, and you then know everything is squeaky clean when you refill.

I did the initial service on my C6 when the truck had 5,000km on it. Then every 40,000km. It has a little over 520,000km on it and still shifts like new. Man what a tough tranny. I didn't baby it either, for the past 10 years it has also been used to plow snow at the hobby farm.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(paprius4030\";p=\"70366)</div>

I used to drop the pan and changefluid/filter when I worked at a GM dealer back in the 80's. Going to Toyota in 89,I found out that their automatics didn't have a filter but a metal screen. Seldom did I ever find one that was dirty,the screen in my opinion was not fine enough. So we usually just drained and refilled,never dropping the pan unlesss the gasket needed changed.
As for the 2 types of service,yes if you just change the fluid in a Toyota,your only draining about 2 quarts out in todays FWD cars. That is leaving about 6-8 quarts left in the trans/convertor. The trans flush machines hook up to the lines at the cooler. We have them at work. To do it,we dump a bottle of cleaner into the trans and a bottle of additive in the new fluid in the machine. After bringing the fluid to normal operating temp,we activate the machine which will transfer the new fluid in as the old is returned into a holding tank. Do you dislodge pieces and ruin your trans? I don't believe so and the company that supplies us with the chemicals/flush machines also gives a warranty against trans failure if it is done before X miles(I think about 60-70K). So is there a risk? With a guaranty and the fact all the fluid is replaced,I would think not. But as with anything that is changed,whether on your car/TV/whatever, I guess it is possible.
Back to the Prius. It is similar to changing a manual trans. Just remove drain plug and refill. And as you know,there is no dipstick to check the level. When to change? Just go by my earlier post and you should be ok.If you want to change it sooner,thats up to you. But remember that the 2 gen has WS fluid which is a lot more expensive.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jayman\";p=\"70374)</div>

Yes I forgot,that would be a better way,if you didn't mind paying the dealer extra to drop the pan,clean the magnets,change the filter before flushing. But you might not find many dealers to do that without extra$$$$

 

Thanks Rick and jayman. So the Prius has no filter to change? Is that correct?

 

I would have to check but I'm about 99% sure it doesn't.

 

8) rick57,

We should not be towing with our Priuses per the manual. What does your TIS manual state on the hybrid transxle for servicing the 04 and 05 Priuses?

Ben

 

You mean no Airstreams behind your Prius? :lol: If you mean service interval,when to change fluid,I would go with 60k on all years. At work we do change the 1st gen at the 30k maintenance package,but it uses Type-T fluid which is less expensive then the WS in the 2nd gen. I have not seen one yet that has dirty fluid when draining. Just go on what you feel comfortable with, but don't neglect anything. Remember the commercial,"Pay me now or pay me later!" :wink:

 

when I approach 40,000Km I'm going to do an oil analysis on the PSD fluid then base my decision on the results. More to satisfy my curiosity than anything. We get them done all the time at work and have the kit's in stock to do it. $13 to have it done.

 

We do drain & fill at every 15,000 so that they won't need to be flushed at 60,000 or 100,000.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Kyle Pehrson\";p=\"70496)</div>

We also do at 15k but not the Prius. It has no bands/clutches to wear and so far the ones I have changed still look clean.We change those at 30/(1st gen) and 60k all.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(paprius4030\";p=\"70416)</div>

I was correct it has no filter.

 

Thanks Rick

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rick57\";p=\"70413)</div>

Hi Rick:

The dealer machines are of much higher quality than the questionable flush machines used by street-corner independents. Those were the machines that caused the horror stories, and of course no guarantee either.

I think if you do an early initial service - say at 5,000 miles - then every 20,000-50,000 miles, there should never be any accumulation in the automatic transmission. Just do a pan drain, or maybe every 50,000 do a fluid exchange.

A filter sock in an automatic transmission can be good or bad, depending on how often the thing gets serviced. Once the filter sock plugs, things go downhill quickly. I'm wondering if the main pump has such tight clearance they needed a filter sock?

Most Allison HD transmissions use a spin-on filter in the main control circuit, so it's easy to remove this filter and put on a new one. I think the Allison used in GM brand 3/4 and 1 ton trucks uses the spin on filter too, but not 100% sure.

The C6 auto in my old 1984 Ford F-150 is very easy to service, once I drilled a hole in the pan and put in a drain plug kit. There were some fuzzies and a few larger chunks on the magnets at my initial 5,000km service. From that time on, the magnets have never had more than a very light residue on them.

The type of fluid is important too. Toyota WS is a high quality synthetic, and this is reflected in the price.

I think the important point here *is* to service the transmission. Like you said, "pay me now or pay me later."

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(htmlspinnr\";p=\"70564)</div>

There is no concern with the WS fluid. As I stated, it's a high quality synthetic fluid.

However, nothing is truly "sealed" or "lubed for life." If you don't intend to keep the car past the lease/finance period or warranty period anyway, don't even bother.

If however you *do* intend to keep the car forever, an initial early service - say at 5,000km, then every 80,000-120,000km wouldn't hurt at all and would be relatively cheap insurance.