Oil change on Tacoma Truck.. HELP....

[jetspeed]

this is a little off topic but my neighbor changed his oil in his 01 toyota tacoma 2wd automatic ,for the first time and this morning it wouldnt get into gear, he thinks he may have drained the tranny fuild instead of the oil... does anyone have any pics or the owners manual so i can verify it with him b/c i feel bad for the little fella...

he said the fluid was about 4qts he drained and it was black so he though it was oil and he used a 14mm socket with a washer... the only thing that gets me is the washer , never seen one with an oil plug...

also if he did flush it by accident is it ok to just buy some auto tranny fluid and fill the reservoir or does he need to do anything else... thanks guys...

[Ostornadoe]

Tell him to check the fluid levels on both the tranny fluid and oil. If he put in a few quarts of oil and it is not over the high mark, then it is fine. If he has a shitload of oil and none in the tranny, then he'll know where the problem is. Shouldn't be that hard to figure out.

[jetspeed]

Originally Posted by Ostornadoe

Tell him to check the fluid levels on both the tranny fluid and oil. If he put in a few quarts of oil and it is not over the high mark, then it is fine. If he has a shitload of oil and none in the tranny, then he'll know where the problem is. Shouldn't be that hard to figure out.

he said when he checked it yesterday the dip stick came back with just a little bit of oil above full so that sounded fine to me...

but he said when he tried to drive it now he had to press the gas all the way down to the bottom of the floor to get it moving.. making me think no tranny fluid..

he said the bolt was 14mm and had a washer... also he said the oil pan is located right in the middle of the car just past the front wheels and there are no skid plates or anything on the bottom of the car and its real easy to see the oil pan and the bolt....

i just hope he didnt do the wrong thing poor kids dad is in iraq and his mom bought him this car to get around and he tried to save some money doing simple oil change and came up short... ill have to get home tonight to check the tranny fluid and oil to verify.. he doesnt know where the tranny fluid level is...

[GregoryM]

The drain plug on most oil pans do have a washer. Some drain plugs on rear axles for example, are tapered pipe thread so, they do not recquire a gasket to seal. Just a thought, sometimes 2 separate and unrelated problems arise at the same time and some people assume, erroniously, that they are related. It could be that the transmission just happened to die at that moment and would have done so regardless of the oil change. I hope it is something minor, I have family in Iraq too so, I'd lke to see him catch a break.

[jetspeed]

well guys i just found out he did drain the tranny fluid... unfortunately, the washer kinda gave it away for me but there is no fluid in there what so ever and probably too much oil.... hard lesson learned but i guess its a good thing b/c the tranny fluid was so black it was due time anyway to have it changed.... now he has given it to a mechanic and they are going to fix it for him... thanks for your help guys...