Where to buy ATF?

i have a couple quarts of synthetic ATF -- its called ATF+4 (for chrysler cars) --- i 'm thinking this meets or exceeds the ATF-WS (World Standard ) -- i know the coolant i got at advance, aside from not having pink dye to make it ez to see, is rated far 150k ....

 

i went to autozone and they have some of the 'semi synth' atf by Lucas in the back room
at $7.99 a quart which is what he pulls up for an 05 prius.
write now i have reg. mercon 3 atf --- which goes into the tranny at 102k .. i have no idea if this is the 1st oil change on the tranny as i got the car at 80k ... I would think the ATF+4 Synth would exceed semi-synth .. and i'm not sure the WS is even semi-synth ... ...

 

So you fill from the drain hole? There is enough gravity to push the fluid up to the fill hole?

 

a good article mentioning various atf comparisons but specifically regarding Chrysler ATF+4
Chrysler transmission fluids: 7176, ATF+3, ATF+4

 

this yahoo forum article repeatedly states that Dexron III in your Chrysler will cause failure within a week .. ??? I wonder what it will do to a toyota tranny ....
What automatic tranny fluid is an equivalant to Mopar ATF+4? - Yahoo! Answers

 

Not unless you turn the car upside down.

You put the drain plug back in, put your hose in the fill hole and put a funnel in the other end of the hose which is snaked down from under the hood, then pour the fluid in, 3 1/2 quarts and it will start running out. Replace the fill plug and your done, just like Bill said above.

 

Chronon, recycle your odds-and-ends of tranny fluid, get 4 quarts (or liters) of Toyota ATF-WS, it's about $9 per. Your transaxle will thank you.

 

That's what I figure but the way he worded it it is seemed to me that he stuck the hose in the drain hole and filled till fluid "pours out the fill hole". If the hose is tightly in the fill hole, it won't pour out, right? The hose would have to be smaller than the fill hole.

Read more: http://priuschat.com/threads/where-to-buy-atf.120381/page-2#ixzz2SHPe5s3h​

 

The hose IS smaller than the fill hole.
Only here's an issue brought up before, and I think I experienced it during the previous ATF change:
It took all 4 qts. of Redline D6 ATF. None came flowing back out the FILL HOLE.
I was careful this time and did not spill any during the fill process.
Someone else spoke of this and was worried he had over-filled it.
I had the car level ± 0.2° in pitch and roll. ( I'm a geek for accuracy ).
I had to clean up and get ready for a hot date. I was done dickin with the car for the day. Plus I only had the 4 qts.

Has anyone else experienced this?

I'm waiting for the analysis on the Mobil 1 ATF that I ran for ~7k miles.
The magnetic drain plug ( my mod ) had a light coating of dark dust.

Chrono, those articles talk about a shudder in the shifting of old-school transmissions. That's from the friction clutches, right? The Prius doesn't deal with any of that. It just needs a clean lube. I believe just about anything will work. But don't be so cheap. At least treat your Prius to 4 qts of the same brand and vintage of ATF.

Side Note, different thread:
I also changed the engine oil and filter at 7k miles. Mobil 1 5w-20 Extended Performance and a Mobil 1 oil filter.
Both the best money can buy, no? The filter definitely looks superior.
I'm having the engine oil analysis done also.
I hope to not do this work on the car again for 15k miles (as promised by the Extended Performance).

 

thx guys -- yes i want to get 4 qts of the same -- ATS+4 synth .. write now it has dexron 3 because the engine was just replaced and it was handy and abundant .. My magnet drain plug also had some 'iron filings' type of stuff on it - that is after 22k driving, i presume it had whatever recommended for the original owner since i'm 2nd hand, but not sure if he did or was covered ... i think people have used Synth in the tranny, i know Bob Wilson did alot of extensive tranny tests with gen 1 and pressures and so forth .. thx for putting my mind at ease .. yes i had read that prius doesnt have to have all the fancy pink radiator stuff (and much of the aftermarket green stuff exceeds the 100k rating as well) - i can get clean water from the de-humidifier tank so that I dont need to buy 50/50 premix and lug it around and pay premium -
and the same for the ATF - WS (world standard) does not mean Synthetic .. i wonder why toyota doesnt promote Synth tranny fluid ... (for longer lasting , higher MPG) -- perhaps it's too slippery for the tranny somehow ..

 

Chrono,
You are One Low Budget Son of a Gun and I salute you !
'Distilled water from the de-humidifier' ?!? What about the floaty bits and bobs and VOC's that are in there.
Would you drink it? You know you can buy drinkable distilled water at the super market (~a buck) and mix your own 50/50 anti freeze?

And I'm not a faithful follower of ATF WS, so I'm with you there!
But then Toyota recommends not changing it, so why the faithfulness of some? Old news/arguments....

But I just saw that you don't have a Gen3 after all the time on this thread.
Is there a thread on what happened to the original engine in your Gen2?

 

yes, i have drank the koolaid, i mean water froh the de-humidifer, but i have read that u really need a special kind of de-humidifier intended for that purpose .. yes, the demineralized or better yet de-ionized (maybe too clean ) distilled is like 68 cents at wallie world .. -- i got taken - 6.99 (special) at advance auto for 50/50 .. then i saw for about $11 at wallie world u can get the straight stuff .. doh !
i think the toy dealership makes likely half ther $$ on service and parts ... so of course they want u to buy their pretty pink parts ..

i dont have a gen 3 no -- i have the 'iconic' -- before the style change in 08 i beleive .. The thread is "hydrolock" - the original engine at 102,500 .. got hydrolocked and is gonna be scheduled for pickup for core return next week -- $100 --
cyl. 3 had a huge bend in the CR , cyl4 CR snapped - 1 and 2 and almost un-noticeable bends ..
i plan to post some pics there in that thread ..
I was injecting water with into the IM, below, the MAF - and seeing improvments, mostly after 5 min. warmups - i got sick of refilling my qt. container that i was pumping from about every 50-100 miles or so i decided to use the big 1 gal WW tank up higher in the engine room -- i was stupid for not thinking of gravity siphon getting set up and never put a 1 way check valve in - it was a temp set up and
i was going to switch to the ultrasonic mister setup as i was awaiting parts and was just getting ready to make the switch when a friend was desperate to have his computer get his kaspersky anti-virus loaded onto his windows vista laptop, all the way over his fav. wi-fi place , which was extra driving and .. anyways, i think i'm going to do my engine water testing on lawnmowers that are expendable before dealing with expensive hybrid vehicles !!! i had a series of misfortunes due to other circumstances after that starting with a scooter i bought to get around on whilst doing the engine swap -- i wasnt about to drop $1200 for labor only --
it was not exactly a fun 2 weeks with my family helper (and pusher) .. but we got it done ...

 

Could you post a link to your Gen2 threads?
I like pictures of engine destruction! I would love to hear the whole story !!

Buddy,
Water injection has been studied and tested every which way to Tuesday. You may be reinventing the wheel. You do know there is no energy in water, correct? Point to any performance use of water injection. Your engine makes less HP in humid air than in the same dry air. But carry on. You never know, right?
The one place water works is in its evaporative cooling. If you had a boosted engine with an intercooler you could mist the outside of the intercooler and have water potentially do some good.

I have a buddy with 314,ooo miles on his Gen2 and only recently has oil consumption increased to ~ 1300 miles/qt.
Always uses Mobil 1 0w-20. Most likely valve stem seals are wearing. These can be replaced with the head on the engine. His only repair costs so far are ONE $40 battery module from 'battery buddy' and the labor to install it.
The point here is, if you don't dick with your engine trying to reinvent the ICE, you too may have a long life, fuel efficient car.

Way off topic,,,, Good luck,,

 

I know, the engine had ALOT of life left on it .. was not making funny noises as i had mobil1 synth since about 80k mi in it ..
The labor is the huge cost - goes faster 2nd time around(hopefully won't have to !)

When you say module, do you mean one of the 28 modules in his HV pack failed afetr 300k miles ?
I notice the SOC usually hovers around 50-60% and that's about it ..

I did see, at like 45mph and so forth, 75 mpg and higher with the 'squirt gun' sized water injection .. - engines run on vapor ...
not liquid -- many good things about heating the fuel using the hot coolant for better, safer gains ... anybody in this forum try that ???

 

Chrono,
Yes, "one of the 28 modules in his HV pack failed" at around 280k miles.



I don't want to rain on your parade,,, but,,, these guys buying parts at Lowes and trying to reinvent how a gasoline powered ICE works are wasting their time in their back yards.
If there was something to water injection wouldn't everyone be using it?
Do you see FE competition cars, race cars, research cars, aircraft, auto manufacturers, stationary generators using it?

Do you know what would increase the fuel economy of your Gen2 Prius?
Ugly, unusual, aerodynamic modifications. Skinny LRR tires. What else????

And if you don't do long road trips, Plug-in extra battery pack mods like:
PHEV Add-On Battery Systems

• PHEV 2KWH Kit for $1,995.00
• PHEV 4KWH Kit for $3,495.00
• PHEV 8KWH Kit for $5,495.00

But calculate the pay back on these.

I plan on a few aero mods some day soon...

Off Topic again,,, Sorry.

 

Water injection is real, and was used by GM in the 1962 Oldsmobile Jetfire. The "Turbo Rocket Fluid", otherwise known as water+methanol, prevents knocking that would otherwise occur at the high compression used in that vehicle. The Jetfire F85 injected the mixture to prevent detonation when the turbocharger was on full boost.

 

Gents,
We are way off topic, aren't we?

But RobH, get real. That engine had a single barrel side draft carburetor and was a very early example of turbocharging, (if not the first production use of it). Water injection was probably the only thing GM could do to keep detonation under some kind of control. The water inj. did not add anything to the performance or economy of the engine.
Well maybe if it was actually burning that methanol it added some power. But not economically.
Do you have any example that is not over 50 years old?
And an example where it adds efficiency to an engine?

 

water injection used in high compression and/or turbo charged to reduce detonation - it
increases 'octane' rating ...
***
Iin other news, I went to autozone and mentioned to the kids behind the counter about how the guy
said lucas was recommended in the computer but not on the shelf but in the back room ..
the kids also couldn't find it on the shelf and saw there were 16 units in the back room and brought a couple out
of the Lucas semi-synth ... and then we saw why they probably werent on the public shelf ..
They say on the bottle "Not for use in CVT " ..!

 

Chevy came out with a turbocharger option for the Corvair a few weeks after Oldsmobile and it used a different system, so it didn't need any water injection to prevent detonation. Back in the 70's, I put a water injection system on my '69 Vette to prevent detonation because it ws running 11:1 compression. It didn't add any fuel mileage, it just allowed the car to run on the crappy gas back then. I added alcohol in the colder days so the water wouldn't freeze.

As for ATF, I'll be picking some up at the Toyota dealer this week so I can change the fluid in the trans.

 

I'll verify that, I had a friend who had a '65 Corvair Corsa with a turbo, 180 HP. It drove pretty nice and had more power than the none turbo which was 140 HP. Air cooled engine would overheat in the mountains though and I doubt it lasted very long.

Sorry if this seems a little off topic.