Please help to locate manual transmission fill and drain plug - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

dvdport · 01-31-2010, 02:49 AM

Hi,
I have a 1990 Toyota Corolla Deluxe Sedan 4 DR 1.6l L4 FI front wheel drive with manual transmission. Recently, it started to drag after changing into 3rd or 4th gear when the car is cold. I tried to change the transmission oil today but I can not correctly locate the fill plug. One plug is about 24mm which could be the fill plug. Another one is 12mm with a "D" on it which made me think it is the drain plug. But these two plugs are almost on the same height. I am scared to drain but not able to fill it up.
Tried to take off several higher position 10mm and 12mm but none of them is the fill plug. Wasted a whole afternoon...
Please help, if you can post a photo to tell me exactly..

Thanks!

***SCT*** · 01-31-2010, 06:26 AM

They're both the biggest size bolts on the trans.

The fill plug sits in front of the transmission a bit passed the clutch housing on the actual case. Should be the only big bolt facing the front of the car, halfway down the transmission from the top.

The drain plug is on the back-bottom of the transmission facing towards the driver side. It'll be the bigger of the bolts, the rest are just the case bolts which are smaller.

Use 75W-90 (API GL4 or GL5 SAE) Gear oil 2.9qts or until it starts to drip out the fill hole.

Blof-fan · 01-31-2010, 01:57 PM

To help visiualize things a bit

:

dvdport · 01-31-2010, 11:53 PM

If both plugs are of the same 24mm size, then I remembered there is another one up higher, but is facing the driver side wheel, not to the radiator in the front. The lower 24mm is facing the the radiator. The shape of both plugs is like Blof-fan's image marked as "Oil drain plug". Can not see exactly the shape for the "Oil fill plug" shown in the image.
Still confused with the 12mm plug with a "D" on it. But if anyone can confirm that the 24mm plug facing the driver side wheel is the fill plug, then I am not worried about the drain plug.
Need to buy the 24mm socket to try out.
Thank you for the replies.

***SCT*** · 02-01-2010, 01:50 AM

The left one is marked OIL FILLER PLUG. The trans on the left (or the left picture), you are actually looking at the top of the trans.

The filler plug sits facing only towards the front.

dvdport · 02-15-2010, 01:55 AM

Today I did the transmission fluid change.
Both the fill and drain plugs are 24mm. The one facing the radiator is the fill plug and the drain plug is facing the driver side wheel.
It is strange that after removing the fill plug transmission fluid started to flow even my car is jacked on level. Not sure how this is accomplished. I can not fill that much through the fill plug hole.
For the drain plug, there is no magnetic tip as I expected.
Both plugs are very tight. I used a 1/2 torque wrench to remove them.
The oil is pretty dirty and is black.
Use a hose attached to a funnel to fill the transmission. The fluid is pretty thick and flows very slow. You have to be very patient.
Used Teflon tape for both Plugs to prevent possible leakage. I just used the original gaskets because it is not easy to remove.
It took a whole day and here is what I did:
Suzuki Esteem:
Replace transmission fluid, Power steering fluid and brake fluid. The right rear mud guard is broken and I fixed it before moving on to Corolla.
Corolla:
Replace transmission fluid, engine oil. Wanted to replace the front brake hoses, but only did the passenger side and it is getting dark. It took me quite sometime because the hoses are from junk yard and they do not quite fit with Corrola. I will do it next weekend.