ATF draining, how much refill?

[lakuen]

Hi,

I have a 07 Corolla and went to do my first oil change and by mistake drained the ATF. I know pretty stupid. My only excuse is that my Civic oil pan was in the same place as the Corolla tranny pan.

Anyway, my 2nd mistake was that I did not measure how much ATF I had drained. I refilled my tranny with the Toyota T4 ATF. I put in 1.3 quarts but am worried if I put in too much. At Cold it does seem to be slightly higer then the middle mark. I've tried checking it at hot but I don't see any ATF on the dip stick.

So first question, about how much tranny fluid is drained by just taking off bolt on the tranny pan?

2nd question, why am I not seeing ATF on my dip stick when I try to measure with car running. Let car run for a few minutes then went through the gears a few times. Finally put the car in P (still running) and looked at the dip stick but don't really see anything.

By the way, the car has just about 5k so could the tranny fluid just be real hard to see on the dip stick when trying to check the HOT indicator?

Thanks a lot to anyone who can offer me some advice on this

[Nad1370]

If you drained it all.
You should fill 3.85 U.S.qrt's

[toyomoho]

You may not have installed enough fluid.

The fluid is checked with engine on. Move the shift lever through P to Low and back, then check fluid in P. Cold mark is used for the fluid is cold, hot mark when the fluid is hot.

Always do the final fluid check (fill) with the fluid hot.

You may not be seeing any trans fluid on the stick because the level is not high enough to register on the dipstick. Add fluid slowly, you don’t want to over fill. If the dipstick tube is long, remember after adding fluid it will take a little time for all of it flow into the transmission pan. Until it does, you might get erroneous readings. Eventually the fluid will register. Don’t get in hurry or you will overfill.

[lakuen]

Thanks for the replys. My owner's manual only says that the AT on my 07 corolla holds up to 3 quarts. I also know from past experience that the most you can drain is about 50% so I figure that I drained between 1 to 1.5 quarts. Not wanting to overfill, I put a quart in. When I check cold the ATF fluid is just a bit low but it is very hard to see any ATF on the dip stick for the hot check. It seems like there is a very fine line on the stick and maybe that is the best you get. I'm going to let the car sit tonight and do another cold check. But I've got to belive that that the amount that I needed to add is between 1-1.5 quarts and I was hoping someone had a more exact figure.

[falnfenix]

wow...you're changing the ATF already?

[lakuen]

Changing the ATF was a Mistake! This is my first Toyota car for quite some time. Prior to this, I had a Civic for a number of years. The tranny pan on the corolla is in the same location as the Civic oil pan so I instinictly went to the same location. In fact, the corolla is the first car I've had that has had the tranny pan so easily accessible. As soon as I loosed the bolt and saw the red fluid coming out, I knew I goofed. Not the first nor will it be the last mistake in my life. At that point I should have measure how much ATF drained but I wanted to get the oil change done so drained the oil into the same container with the ATF. So ok, two mistakes. I'll give the Toyota dealer a call tomorrow but was hoping that someone else on this forum has drained their ATF and could provide the number of quarts that you drain. Again, I'm quite confident that it is betwen 1 to 1.5 quarts and I'd like to be exact on the refill

[Nad1370]

If you drained it out where it trickled some before you plugged it, It will take 3.85 US quarts of T4 trans fluid. Don't ask me how I know.

But if you plugged it when you realized you goofed, then only you can figure out how much you drained. Measure what you have on your drain pan and go from there.

[Raddman]

There is a simple solution here to solve your problem

Just check your owners manual....

It says the ATF drain and fill is 3.1 quarts...

So just drain it all out and put back in 3.1 quarts and your safe to drive once again, case closed...

Your torque converter holds another quart which you won't be able to get out with a simple drain from the plug as you have done...

Good Luck..

~Radd

[lakuen]

Finished refilling my ATF. 3.4 quarts took me to the lower mark of the HOT range. Nad1370 indicated 3.85 quarts. I think 3.6 or there abouts would have taken me to the high mark of high so his numbers were right on. Was going to ask Nad1370 vbmenu_register("postmenu_1643460", true); how he knew this but he said in one of this posting not to ask as he/she didn't know. By the way the Owner's manual says that a refill is up to 3 quarts so it too is not that accurate. So if anyone else does this you'll save a lot of time by measureing how you you drain but if you have a Corolla most likely you will drain between 3 to 3.8 quarts.