Transaxle Fluid - Is Dealer THAT clueless?

1. The process is, in fact, a simple drain and fill. Unfortunately your service writers are thinking about regular automatic transmissions where the process is more complex.

2. I do not know whether Toyota dealers will ship Toyota ATF WS. It is packaged in a case of 12 quarts. Try Champion Toyota in Houston, Texas: toyotaworld.com

If shipping cost from the mainland US is prohibitive, try contacting Servco Pacific in Honolulu.

3. Ask your local parts clerk if he would fill a one-gallon plastic container with ATF WS if you pay him $50.

 

Sounds like they are telling you some BS there GuamKelly. I wonder if they just gave you that story about not having the WS ATF to try and force you to pay their inflated service price?

Anyway the drain and refill is dead easy. It's really much the same as draining and refilling a diff, if you've ever done that job. All you need is a funnel with about a 3' flexible hose extension and the correct size socket / hex key for the fill / drain plugs. Once you've got those things in place then it's probably about a 20 minute job.

 

There's a couple of dealer parts counters that sell ATF WS on ebay. You might wind up paying $60-$70 to get 4 quarts to you, but that might be your only option. I guess it's not hard to believe that the dealer would not carry the quart bottles, given the transportation logistics, low demand in light of the "lifetime fill" promise, and their service monopoly. Seems like hot island living would demand frequent tranny fluid changes though.

 

When I did mine, I paid approximately $30 for 4 quarts at my dealer. I used a hose that was for an aquarium fish tank on the end of my funner. I crawled under the car and held it in place as my wife poured the quarts in. The color of the old fluid looked extremely dark glad we changed it and it took less then 30 minutes. It's as easy as doing an oil change.

 

Absolute BS from that dealer. Just bought my "newsed" 2008 (31,000 miles) last spring from a dealer near Columbus, Ohio. Being a bit OCD , I , I had my Transaxle Fluid drained and refilled for approx. $90.00. The Technician said that the original fluid was only slightly darkened, and no significant "crud" was found on the drain plug.

I had to shop around for price a bit though. At the three Columbus dealerships, the price ranged from $90.00, $130.00, or $180.00.

 

you put a hose on the end of your funner to change your oil?

 

OP:

How big's the drum, did he say? You need roughly 4 liters/quarts.

UART: is it hex, or 3/8" square socket? Honda's are the latter, just curious.

 

You can get a 4 liter can from Toyota which is just the right amount.
Get the dealer to order it. The part number is 08886-02305 (Toyota ATF W/S)

Cheers.

 

The 2G transaxle fluid drain plug needs a 10 mm hex key socket. The 2G transaxle fluid fill plug needs a 24 mm or 15/16" six-point socket.

I believe that 3G uses 10 mm hex key for both the drain and fill plugs.

 

I had mine changed last month at 50 Mm. I had to talk them into it because they said it never needed changing. They charged me $91 Canadian, and our prices are usually ligher than yours. There was no way I was going to do this myself since I have no garage and it's been very wintery lately.

 

I wonder when the dealers know Toyota doesn't say to change it, how many dealers are taking your money and just driving your car in the back for a while, and then bringing it back to you. I would think almost half of places would do this.

 

There toting the line with lifetime replacement, even US dealers are confused. And confusing the Prius with the Tundra auto trans which uses the WS also and is a complete pain to change.

Plus you live in GUAM. Everything's got to be 3 times US rate.
Shipping a quart of anything has to be expensive.