ATF fluid changes ARE Required.

I'm torn here....thats either a MGTD which is an awesome car or a Fiat which is a really fun car.
I had a brand new 1972 Fiat 128 hatchback back in the day. This one.
I loved that car.

File:FIat 128 Coupe.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

 

I used GoldPlug for my Gen2 oil pan and transaxle drain plugs. Insanely strong magnetic plugs. LINK

Stumbled across another PC member who must work at a machine shop, and he custom made some magnetic drain plugs for his PriusV. LINK

 

Have you pulled that plug with the magnet attachment since this mod? I'm curious what it's picking up. Our last car had a magnetic drain plug on the transmission, it would pick up a paste of silvery sludge. Reassuring.

 

Transaxle soon. Currently at 127K miles. Planning to do at 130K miles.

Oil change yes. Small amount of a very fine and thin layer of "silver". I guess wear particles of the aluminum cylinder walls, and pistons (if made of aluminum). The one drawback w/ this magnetic oil pan drain plug is two hands and some force (not a whole lot, but enough) is required to seat this plug. It really want to stick to the outside of the oil pan as it gets closer to the threaded hole. But guess its doing its job.

I'll have to take a picture of both plugs at the 130K serivce.

 

I thought aluminum was not magnetic. Is there some "iron" mixed in with the aluminum when they "cast" the engines ?

 

Aluminum is a non-ferrous metal, it isn't attracted to a magnet, no matter how strong the magnet is.

 

The oil pan is stamped steel.

 

Haha. Momentary mental lapse. Yup, aluminum is non-ferrous (iron). Only thing that came to mind that would give the silverish color was aluminum. Thanks for the correction.

 

Just got back from having mine changed for the first time at 60k.

Took it to a shop that only works on Lexus/Toyota here in my area. When I called for the appointment, they were a little confused as to why I was having it done at 60k instead of waiting until 100k. I asked them to take a look at the fluid when they did the change. Sure enough -- they were surprised at how bad it looked. Cost was about $125 BTW. This wasn't a cheap place I took it to, and I knew that going in. Would have done it myself at the next oil change, but I do my oil changes using Rhino Ramps. I didn't feel like going out to buy jack stands to get the car level.

I'm going to have to take my wife's Prius C in sometime soon now too.

 

Changed the ATF WS in Elsie's 2012 ''v'' this morning---- it positively looked like it needed to be changed---- black and nasty.....I rented a lift at a local repair shop and did it myself, biggest problem was with those junky-nice person push-pin fasteners holding the plastic under carriage on. Before I do my own-- I will go buy new ones and cut those sorry SOB's off with a chisel and save 3/4 hour.

 

A paint can opener is helpful for lifting the centre caps, with the right angle hook.



Coupled with a slim flat blade screw driver. The main reason they jam, I think, is that grit gets into them. Washing them off with soapy water before reinstall helps. Just watch they don't go down the drain.

 

Just for comparison, someone recently got a Blackstone analysis of their Chevy Volt transaxle fluid at 79,500 miles and got back results that look quite a bit better overall than the Prius transaxle fluid results that people have been posting here. And that's in spite of the fluid-bathed clutches in the Volt.

Of course, that's only one datapoint. I may get my Volt fluid tested at some point between now (99,000 miles) and 150,000 miles whenever I get around to doing my 3rd engine oil change.

79,500 Mile Transmission Fluid Analysis

The 79,500 mile blackstone fluid report summary said:

Has anyone seen Blackstone or similar transaxle fluid analysis reports for the newer Ford-manufactured hybrids?

 

Love the Prius hate on that site but good old Bill's on there though. Couldn't open the UOA file there without joining.

Lots of people use Blackstone UOA but I don't think they provide a TAN report. That's the number you want to see on a Prius UOA
because the only thing that can possibly attack the mg windings is how acidic the fluid has become. WS has a pretty good calcium package
to mitigate acid (long life) but that also adds some more wear to some extent. So tradeoff's.

I use
wearcheck.com They do a pretty good job and include TAN no extra charge. $25.

About Oil Analysis » Wear Check International - The Oil Speaks…We Listen…You Save

 

I can't upload the PDF here right now but here's an image snapshot of the PDF:

 

Thank you.

Notice at the bottom TAN and TBN are blank? That's the most important result when chasing a Prius trans fluid UOA.
How acidic is my fluid? That tells me the lifespan of the fluid in that trans at that mileage.

They must charge extra for that.

But overall that Volt report looks really really good on the wear. The Volt must be very easy on the trans fluid.
Or someone is driving that car very nicely.

But just cause it has low wear numbers it does not tell you how acidic its getting which if you had that number you could project how long the fluid would last in that trans. Its very important to modern transmissions and a UOA is useless imho without it.

 

That's my D6 UOA from Wearcheck you posted lol. I have used D6 since 07 and been condemned on here for using it as it was going to eat my dingo's I mean windings so why are you busting my chops?

 

I'm really not sure why, since the test results at 79,500 miles looked very good. I don't understand the desire to use a more expensive alternative when the default appears to work close to optimally.

I can certainly understand using Mobil 1 or other synthetic engine oils back in the days of conventional default engine oils etc. but that differentiation in performance doesn't obviously apply here.