Transmission fluid change?

[jsorger]

My car was in for an unrelated ECU flash.

The dealer did a 'complimentary' 27 point inspection, after which they said that they recommend changing the transmission fluid.

The red flag went up when they recommended that I change my cabin air filter (which I had done 3 weeks prior). When I picked it up, I had one bug in it.

I can't see ANY reference to changing the transmission fluid in the maintenance book (unless you are towing). Anyone change theirs?

I'm at 32k miles.

[richard schumacher]

The thing you should change now is your dealer.

[rick57]

I would say change it at 60K service.. Looking in the maintenance schedule I also see it only mentions it at 60 under severe(towing). Most peoples driving could be severe,example a lot of stop and go. This is the way my service manager sets up our maintenence packages,so it would work for everbody. I'm sure Kyle's dealer may have a different schedule out there. This is also what I go by on my own vehicles,since my wife only works about 2-3 miles away and her Tahoe never gets out of town much. Could you go farther till you change it? Probably. It just depends on your thinking of Preventative Maintenence.Another thing to remember is that the 1st generation Prius' use Type T dexron and the 2nd gen uses a new fluid called WS. It is about $50 for a 4 liter(1 gal?)can!

[paprius4030]

Hey Rick, I'm interested in your thoughts about these new transmissions flush services, vers. the old way of changing the fluid and filter. Some(like my old Dodge dealer said,"Never thouch the transmission unless something is wrong or the fluid shows specks of dirt on a paper towel" My current Chevy dealer says"it's better to use the flush service because you can never change whats left in the torque converter and the flush cleans the filter(screen) anyway." And now with my new Prius I'm not sure what to do LOL.

[jayman]

I have a Canadian market 2004 Prius and you're supposed to drain/refill the CVT fluid at 80,000km. This isn't like a conventional automatic trans.

There is a drain plug and a fill plug. It would be impossible to use a transmission flush gadget. I suppose you could leave the drain plug out and pour in a quart or so of that pricey Toyota WS fluid.

WRT maintenance: are you planning to keep your car a *long* time or just for the duration of the warranty/lease/finance?

If you're just going to keep the car 4-5 years, don't even bother opening the hood. Have the dealer change the oil every 8,000km or 6 months as recommended to keep warranty and whatever else is minimally required.

OTOH if you *do* want to keep the car forever, remember there is no such thing as "maintenance free" or "lubed for life." This is really "deferred" maintenance as you wait for it to fail.

Since most of the wear particles are from break-in, it may make sense to service the CVT earlier, say before 5,000 miles. Then every 50,000 miles.

[paprius4030]

jayman I didn't know that, but I was also curious what Rick has to say about the 2 methods for regular cars also.

[jayman]

Oh, sorry.

I would *never* depend on the flush gadget to "clean" the filter sock. That is just *asking* for trouble. And how do you check and clean the magnets in the pan??

How about a normal pan drop, inspect the pan magnets for chunks then clean them off, new filter sock, button everything up. Then you do the fluid exchange.

I would agree with sealed torque convertors there is no other way to get the fluid out. In many automatic transmissions over 1/2 the total fluid capacity is in the torque convertor.

Not sure what that Dodge dealer was smoking ... especially their early 90's Dodge Caravan auto transaxles had close to a 50% failure rate. Frequent service, especially an initial service before 5,000 miles then every 2 years or 20,000 miles is perfect.

If by "flush" you mean those chemical flush machines, avoid them like the Clap. They will knock loose a bunch of s*** inside the transmission, and usually you will have a failure a short time after. The only way to properly clean an abused automatic transmission is to take it apart.

OTOH the C6 automatic in my 1984 Ford F-150 is stout and *very* easy to service. Once you drop the pan, you hook up a bump switch to the starter solenoid on the fender. You then take off the shield and observe the torque convertor as you bump the starter over.

Once the drain plug comes into view and is at the bottom, you take it off. You can get at least 6-7 more quarts out that way, and you then know everything is squeaky clean when you refill.

I did the initial service on my C6 when the truck had 5,000km on it. Then every 40,000km. It has a little over 520,000km on it and still shifts like new. Man what a tough tranny. I didn't baby it either, for the past 10 years it has also been used to plow snow at the hobby farm.

[rick57]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(paprius4030\";p=\"70366)</div>

jayman I didn't know that, but I was also curious what Rick has to say about the 2 methods for regular cars also.
[/b]

I used to drop the pan and changefluid/filter when I worked at a GM dealer back in the 80's. Going to Toyota in 89,I found out that their automatics didn't have a filter but a metal screen. Seldom did I ever find one that was dirty,the screen in my opinion was not fine enough. So we usually just drained and refilled,never dropping the pan unlesss the gasket needed changed.
As for the 2 types of service,yes if you just change the fluid in a Toyota,your only draining about 2 quarts out in todays FWD cars. That is leaving about 6-8 quarts left in the trans/convertor. The trans flush machines hook up to the lines at the cooler. We have them at work. To do it,we dump a bottle of cleaner into the trans and a bottle of additive in the new fluid in the machine. After bringing the fluid to normal operating temp,we activate the machine which will transfer the new fluid in as the old is returned into a holding tank. Do you dislodge pieces and ruin your trans? I don't believe so and the company that supplies us with the chemicals/flush machines also gives a warranty against trans failure if it is done before X miles(I think about 60-70K). So is there a risk? With a guaranty and the fact all the fluid is replaced,I would think not. But as with anything that is changed,whether on your car/TV/whatever, I guess it is possible.
Back to the Prius. It is similar to changing a manual trans. Just remove drain plug and refill. And as you know,there is no dipstick to check the level. When to change? Just go by my earlier post and you should be ok.If you want to change it sooner,thats up to you. But remember that the 2 gen has WS fluid which is a lot more expensive.

[rick57]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jayman\";p=\"70374)</div>

Oh, sorry.

I would *never* depend on the flush gadget to \"clean\" the filter sock. That is just *asking* for trouble. And how do you check and clean the magnets in the pan??

How about a normal pan drop, inspect the pan magnets for chunks then clean them off, new filter sock, button everything up. Then you do the fluid exchange.

I would agree with sealed torque convertors there is no other way to get the fluid out. In many automatic transmissions over 1/2 the total fluid capacity is in the torque convertor.

Not sure what that Dodge dealer was smoking ... especially their early 90's Dodge Caravan auto transaxles had close to a 50% failure rate. Frequent service, especially an initial service before 5,000 miles then every 2 years or 20,000 miles is perfect.

If by \"flush\" you mean those chemical flush machines, avoid them like the Clap. They will knock loose a bunch of s*** inside the transmission, and usually you will have a failure a short time after. The only way to properly clean an abused automatic transmission is to take it apart.

OTOH the C6 automatic in my 1984 Ford F-150 is stout and *very* easy to service. Once you drop the pan, you hook up a bump switch to the starter solenoid on the fender. You then take off the shield and observe the torque convertor as you bump the starter over.

Once the drain plug comes into view and is at the bottom, you take it off. You can get at least 6-7 more quarts out that way, and you then know everything is squeaky clean when you refill.

I did the initial service on my C6 when the truck had 5,000km on it. Then every 40,000km. It has a little over 520,000km on it and still shifts like new. Man what a tough tranny. I didn't baby it either, for the past 10 years it has also been used to plow snow at the hobby farm.[/b]

Yes I forgot,that would be a better way,if you didn't mind paying the dealer extra to drop the pan,clean the magnets,change the filter before flushing. But you might not find many dealers to do that without extra$$$$

[paprius4030]

Thanks Rick and jayman. So the Prius has no filter to change? Is that correct?