Changing transmission oil

I think both fluids are in the same general area but I hope they didn't mix the fluids up! What a bunch of morons!

 

Yes of course they are two different fluids. One is a coolant (Toyota long life coolant) and the other is transmission oil (Toyota WS-ATF). That dealer is certainly clueless.

Apparently though this is a pretty common situation (dealers clueless about the Prius ATF). I think it's because changing the ATF is not listed in the maintenance schedule so most have never actually done one yet.

There are some good guides here for the transaxle ATF change if you want to do it yourself. It's a pretty easy job.

 

That's why I do most maintenance by myself. Not only do many stealerships rip you off, they are clueless to boot.

One of my cars needed a new fuel pump last year. The car broke down 30 miles from home and we only had two cars at the time. Luckily (?) the fuel pump failed right by a dealership for the same manufacturer. I figured what the heck, I may as well have them do it. They know what they're doing right? Nope. Not very soon after getting the car back, a check engine light for emissions lit on the dash - gross leak in the evaporative emissions. Never saw it before in over six months. That's a strange coincidence, eh? Well, the code is still there because I wasn't going to return to the stealership to have them "diagnose" what was clearly their mistake. I'll live with it. The technician who changed out the fuel pump must have missed something. Hey, he's human and I've made hundreds of mistakes myself. But again, these people do these repairs FOR A LIVING! Is it too much to ask them to get it right the first time. Yep.

 

For anyone familiar with the "B" ark, in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the one populated with Middle Managers, Telephone Sanitizers, and so on: maybe add Service Writers to that population?

 

And that was Alan Jay Toyota?

 

I can't recommend a dealer but I will tel you, don't let them charge you for more than 1/2 hr of labor + fluid. Should come out to less than $100.

 

Try Koons in Westminster-410-857-1400

 

Antwerpen Toyota - has been my dealer since 1990 and does an excellent job on maintenance and repairs. Website below:

Clarksville Maryland Toyota Dealer | Antwerpen Toyota Scion | Clarksville MD Toyota Scion Dealer

 

My dealer conversation a little while ago today...
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Me: How much would you charge for a transaxle fluid change on a 2007 Prius?

Dealer: The front or the back?

Me: There's just the one.

Dealer: Oh, right. (searches around for price) $200.

Me: Why does it cost so much? Prius owners report paying $60-$80 for the change.

Dealer: Well, there's a lot of labor (it should take a half hour), and they have to flush out the fluid (you can't flush the transaxle fluid in a Prius), so the charges can really add up (Luscious Garage just confirmed by phone they would charge $80 for such a service, and were audibly surprised when I told them of the "specials" going on in New England).

Me: Thanks, have a good day.

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I called five other dealers, two quoted me around $200. Another wouldn't give me a price because I wasn't at 100k miles. The next one insisted that you NEVER change the transaxle fluid in a Prius, EVER, because it's World Standard oil. I told him I would like to have it changed, and he told me that they would not do it for me because the manual said clearly to "inspect" the fluid at intervals, but did not use the word "replace". The last one just said the Prius doesn't require a change, and rather than ask any questions like the others I'd wasted time with, I just said thank you and we hung up.

I guess I need to pick up the reading on my "Auto Repair for Dummies" book, looks like I'll be doing this one myself.

 

In the dealer's defense, they are only going by the manual that Toyota recommends. In other words, Toyota does not recommend a transaxle fluid change so why should they do it?

We've seen the results of the guys that had their oil analyzed and we see that it needs to be changed. I'm still not sure why the manual doesn't state to change it but has anyone had a transaxle failure due to an oil problem?

Your experience is the same as mine. Some said they can't do it, some said it was $200 and one dealership said it was $200 to change the transaxle and transmission fluid.

I did mine for the first time myself last month. The hardest part is getting underneath the car to do it because you have to have the car on 4 jacks or something similar.

 

Get that in writing lol

 

Buy one for your dealer while you are at it.

 

Good to hear you finally got taken care of. Now go check your oil to make sure they didn't overfill it.

 

Dealers arew rip offs and the techs who most probably change the fluids are young and inexperienced kids. I went though the same issue with calls to the dealers and got quotes all over the place. I ended up reading the posts and foud out how simple it is to drain the transaxle. a drain plug and a fill plug. It cost me $28 bucks (4 quarts x $7.00 of Toyota trans fluid. It's easy working on this 2006 Prius. I love it!!

 

The dealer gave me the same comment about the "world standard" fluid. What is this "world standard" thing anyway? Do they mean it will last the lifetime of the world?

 

They're referring to Toyota ATF WS (WS==World Standard), which is what you're supposed to use.

The consensus here on Priuschat is that it's NOT lifetime fluid and people change it early, as a precaution.

I waited until quite awhile to change mine and put up pics at http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...24-changing-transaxle-oil-22.html#post1287277. Of course, I didn't discover posts like http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...nsaxle-oil-testing-results-6.html#post1178029 until I had racked up over 50K miles. Perhaps I should've changed mine earlier...

 

I know what WS means, my question is why do they call it that? We know it's not lifetime fluid. I guess my point is, what does world standard actually mean? Does Toyota think that if they named something "world standard" people would think more highly of it?

It's like when people say "lipstick on a pig." It's still a pig, just like this is still transmission fluid.