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Transmission ATF flush

1609 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Eye8Pussies
Since I've had my gen 4.5 V6 since 62,000 miles and now 68,000 miles. I,ve changed my ATF (Castrol) and engine oil (Valvoline Durablend 5-30) every 2,000 miles.

The ATF was dark at first and now is clean red. The ATF last for a long time, I know, however by frequent changing will eventually be the same as a tranny flush.

Does anyone disagree?

The Toyota service dept. will flush the system for $100+ dollars and not remove the pan to remove metal deposits on the magnets.

Do you think there significant difference and need to do a tranny flush the correct way or the method I,ve been doing. If course I"ll extend the time intervals once I see that the ATF is consistently clean red.
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So you have changed your atf and oil 4 times since you got the car. Just tran fluid alone, does 4 X whatever you paid = a professional tran flush? Got to get the gunk out. 6000 miles for 4 tran flushes isn't very far, unless you drive to and from work in heavy traffic and it's uphill both ways. I think cleaning the screen sometime will help, are you doing the differential too?

I had a flush done about 2000 miles ago and am thinking about doing another. Car shifted great for about 100 miles then it started hard shifting again. It does not matter if its hot or cold. I think more crap shifted loose and is fouling up my gearbox. I can't say for sure whats going on in there. f'ing automatics.
I disagree, unless you change your tranny fluid at least 10 times, there'll still be old fluid left inside the diff and the torque converter.

A flush will almost garantee to take out 99% of the old fluids. You will notice the difference right away after flushing it.

Flush on the tranny only costed me approx $40 USD plus cost of ATF fluids.

Find a transmission shop (not the dealer) that'll do the flush for you.
amerikim said:
So you have changed your atf and oil 4 times since you got the car. Just tran fluid alone, does 4 X whatever you paid = a professional tran flush? Got to get the gunk out. 6000 miles for 4 tran flushes isn't very far, unless you drive to and from work in heavy traffic and it's uphill both ways. I think cleaning the screen sometime will help, are you doing the differential too?

I had a flush done about 2000 miles ago and am thinking about doing another. Car shifted great for about 100 miles then it started hard shifting again. It does not matter if its hot or cold. I think more crap shifted loose and is fouling up my gearbox. I can't say for sure whats going on in there. f'ing automatics.
Your tranny problem hopefully is as simple as:

Check your fluid level when car is running after a 30 min. drive so that the fluid is hot.

How did they flush your tranny?

If they just ran fluid thru the tranny then the gunk will also be there like flushing and filling 4 times.
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The toyota service rep. said that screens are made of steel and that they do not remove the screen. They run about 12 quarts of fluid to flush the old transmission fluid out while replacing with new fluid.
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I"ve been wanting to change my differential fluid, just have not got around to it. I would like to put a good type fluid in there except synthetic.
Changing atf and oil every 2k is overkill. For me I do 3000 miles for dino oil, then i switched to 4000-5000 miles for synthetic oil and every 30k I do auto tranny fluid.

I did a tranny FLUSH in my driveway (a cheapo drain and fill wont get nearly all of the fluid out). Your transmission has a pump in it already so why not save the rediculous amount of money they charge you and do it yourself?

Put your car up on jackstands. After you drop the pan and let gravity do its job, disconnect the atf return hose from the radiator, put a catch container under it, and start the engine for a few seconds. This will pump out all the dirty, black fluid hiding in the torque converter and elsewhere. This part is optional but I replaced the pan (new gasket too) and filled with regular atf then did the flush again to get it real clean. Finally I filled her up with synthetic atf.

- Paul
^That's still a method of drain and refill, unfortunately it's nowhere near a proper tranny fluid flush that's done thru a flushing machine.

And I question if this will damage the tranny running with less pressure since you have to disconnect the return hose.



I really don't understand, why can't people spend money to get it done properly? You shouldn't hesitate to spend money on your tranny, imagine how much a new auto tranny will cost you at the end. I feel much safer knowing the fact that my tranny for sure has 99% clean fluid after I flushed it.
^ very true......

when i got mine done, it costed $100cnd for a full flush w/ the machine and that was w/ labor and all fluids

makes a world of difference :thumbup:
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