3rd & 4th Generation (1992–1996 & 1997–2001)Toyota Camry Discussion for years: 1992-1996 & 1997-2001
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A couple weeks ago I replaced my transmission pan gasket and strainer cartridge and now I am in the process of draining and filling my transmission fluid every Saturday to make it all clean in there.
Someone posted on here that on a V6 the differential fluid flows into the the transmission so I didn't have to worry about changing the differential fluid separately.
I'm thinking he was referring to the 1MZ-FE engine. Is that also true for the 3VZ-FE?
just a quick note you can change all tranny fluid at once simply by disconnecting the outlet hose at the tranny cooler & put it in a bucket then start the car & pour new fluid in at the same time its a 2 person job as you don't want the tranny going dry
just a quick note you can change all tranny fluid at once simply by disconnecting the outlet hose at the tranny cooler & put it in a bucket then start the car & pour new fluid in at the same time its a 2 person job as you don't want the tranny going dry
Not necessarily a two person job. You can pump out old fluid until you see bubbles, stop car and add fresh fluid. Your trans will be coated with a residual film of ATF fluid and absolutely no damage will occur in the couple seconds it takes to turn off ignition. If you are too cautious to do this (which I was, lol) pump out two qts at a time. You will be done before you know it. No need to simultaneously pour in new fluid as you pump out old fluid.
I personally would not take the risk of the tranny running dry, but your right its not necessarily a 2 man job, simply get 2 buckets, pour the new fluid in one & leave the other empty, then put the output hose in the empty bucket & the intake hose in the fluid filled bucket, run the car until the new fluid is gone, reattach the 2 hoses & drive off!
Any Dexron II/III suitable fluid will do, but I wouldn't use the thin Dexron VI in these transmissions.
Just pick some up from Walmart (all are D-II/III suitable):
SuperTech Dex/Merc type ATF (dino) is the cheapest
SuperTech Mercon-V, this is more shear stable than dino
Castrol Transmax Import Multivehicle ATF, similar to Mercon-V
Mobil-1 fully synthetic ATF (some say this is too thin too)
The A540 series had a separate differential fill plug in the early productions. I don't know when the switch over was. So double check to see if you have a fill plug on the firewall side of the differential.
Quote:
Originally Posted by azcat90
Awesome PDF thanks. You'd think using the term "Oil" would be misleading. I suppose DEX 2-3 is oil but...
The A540, does have a separate drain and fill plug. They do not directly share oil. After my last trans. fluid change, my transmission fluid was clean and purple, Royal Purple to be exact. The following drain and replacement of the diff. fluid, was a dark soup. 94' and on the fluid is shared, up to 93', not. It may be open at the top, and shared fluid in a splashed manner, IDA know, but separate draining and filling of the differential will definitely show cleanzing results.
It's absurdly expensive, but after two other Full Synthetic brand fluid changes, the car has only shown a clearly noticable improvement in shift quality and timing with Royal Purple ATF.
-edit, I should note that my starting point was about 20k mls., after a factory new, transmission was put into the car by a dealership. (With OE, Toyota) fluid I did not start out with a high milage, history, unknow baseline. I first tried Redline ATF, then Mobil-1 Full Synthetic, Then finally Royal Purple.
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Domesticon Prime
93' LE V-6, 303K Km., fully optioned including Leather Interior. ES300 rear discs, twin piston front calipers, Depo Chromes with HID projectors, 17" OZ' summer's, 96 corner lights, MAF, timing, exhaust and intake mods, 2001 Toyota/JBL sound, + more and always more coming.
Last edited by Silent Runner; 04-27-2012 at 11:48 PM.
Yeah, the differential is one of the neglected fluids.
The chambers are open at the top where the drive pinion meets the ring gear. Maybe Toyota originally designed the differential for axle oil (75W-90 types), but contamination issue made them switch over to ATF in the differential like it should be. Dunno.
so i'm confused, by pumping the old fluid out & sucking the new fluid in threw the cooler lines will "not" replace differential fluid? is it the same type fluid in both & why would they be open to each other even just at the top, what does that do besides contaminate each other. it just seems like a design that they would avoid putting into production. thanks!
also would going up or down a steep hill or sideways or a abrupt stop or the like cause one to leak over to the other
Last edited by 500HP93CAMRYV6XLE; 04-28-2012 at 03:35 PM.
That's right. Even if the newer V6 differential shares the same "fill tube", the ATF goes to a different chamber that needs to be drained separately. If you don't old ATF stays in the differential (even if it gets some new ATF during the fill).
In the case of Toyota/Aisin A-series transmissions used up to Gen 4, both the transmission chamber and differential chamber use the same ATF (GM Dexron II/III types), so there is no contamination. I was talking about why Toyota had to design separate chambers in the first place. It's kinda stupid design really that others don't use.
I don't know if the first Toyota automatics used "gear oil" (like on rear wheel drive cars) in the differential and used ATF in the transmission. But the newer Gen5+ U-series use just one fill and drain like it should be, but these are clunkers in their own right (shifting problems, flares, needing replacement early, etc).
In a FWD car, the transmission side has to mesh with the differential side in the same housing, because that's how power gets transmitted to the wheels. here is a cutaway view of a transaxle:
You can see two straight lines of gears. The longer one on top is the transmission side, and the shorter one (actually two empty bores where the drive axles go) is the differential assembly.
The transmission drives the differential so the front wheels can turn. That's where they mesh. If you have different fluids then that's where they'll contaminate each other. However, since both are ATF in the A-series, there is no concern for contamination. I was just saying the separate chambers design seemed like Toyota had different fluids in mind. It was completely unnecessary.
Just think of the differential as a somewhat separate, but still joined part of the transmission, with a little lower pool of fluid that it sits in. You can flush alot of nice clean fluid over the top of this separate pool, but never really get all of the gunky stuff out of the bottom of it. Does that help?
__________________
Domesticon Prime
93' LE V-6, 303K Km., fully optioned including Leather Interior. ES300 rear discs, twin piston front calipers, Depo Chromes with HID projectors, 17" OZ' summer's, 96 corner lights, MAF, timing, exhaust and intake mods, 2001 Toyota/JBL sound, + more and always more coming.
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93 Camry 3VZ-FE differential fluid refill
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The following drain and replacement of the diff. fluid, was a dark soup. 94' and on the fluid is shared, up to 93', not. It may be open at the top, and shared fluid in a splashed manner, IDA know, but separate draining and filling of the differential will definitely show cleanzing results.
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