My Prime's first transmission fluid change :D

Did you capture pictures at 7K and 17K changes? Were they as dark as the first change?

Thanks!

 

Mine were not. There were residual material but not so ‘hair on Fire.’

Bob Wilson

 

Which kind of additional maintenance can you list?

 

• Early transmission and engine oil changes.
• Four wheel alignment.

Bob Wilson

 

Jason: I just did the CVT juice replacement in my Prime at 35K. Measured 3.1 qts out, but fluid started to flow back out of the fill hole at 2.9 qts, so that is as far as I got. I will check the level at the next engine oil change, but it drives fine in the meantime. I did not send a sample off for analysis, but it was somewhat dark, and after sitting in the drain bucket for 30 minutes, that was black particulate material on the bottom. I am startled that you were seeing obvious lubricant problems at 2K. I have a Gen2 in the family, and changed the fluid at 30K, which was very dark, and smelled burned. When I changed it again at 60K, the fluid looked good as new - I am a RedLine fan, and used their D4 synth ATF for that car, and their D6 for the Prime. Thanks for posting your information!

 

Did anyone have issues taking out the hex bolts? I used a 3/8” drive, might have to upside to 1/2”? It’s torqued down pretty good and there’s no much room on the fill bolt. Any advice? Thanks!

 

No issues when I did ours last weekend with the hex bolts, but the oil filter was a different story:

What did you do to your Prime today?

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

Early Prius had no recommended schedule in the manual, so owners were left to invent their own.
For some time I used and recommended drain and fill with ATF WS at 30,000, then every 60,000.
Slowly I became convinced 30,000, 90,000 then every 90,000
Prof John Kelly recently found that the engineers had recommended every 100,000. I would still do one early change.

 

From what I know, both the drain and fill plugs use a 10 mm hex (Allen or hex socket). You might be able to buy the individual tool or the complete set from someone like Harbor Freight. I've made myself a Word file to follow but I haven't done the project yet. (My car is in Tennessee and the Amsoil ATF, new magnetic drain plug and tools are in Illinois. )

 

I used that unmentioned tool in most mechanic's tool box: a pipe, to extend the arm on my 3/8" ratchet to over 24". Popped right open. I torqued it to about 20 ft lbs when done, plenty to assure no leakage.

 

As you noted, there is no torque limit on removal - apply as much as required to remove the filter. The torque specification on installation is to ensure adequate sealing pressure and also give you a reasonable chance to remove the filter on the next oil change, without having to resort to the long pipe.

My wife took a Camry we were selling for our daughter to a local shop for an oil change and inspection. I was unable to remove the lug nuts with the biggest wrench I had, nor with an electric impact. I took it back to the shop and told them to remove the lug nuts and torque them to factory spec, which they did under my supervision. Sloppy workmanship at best.

 

I drive a regular Prius, not a Prime, so ymmv. Changed transaxle fluid at 5,000 miles and plan to change again at 25,000 miles, then probably never again. Here are the results of the first change. Looks a lot like the OP's pics at 2,000 miles.

 

Long ago on our 1996 Camry I thought I would do the right thing and replace the fuel filter. The factory had torqued the nuts too tight so I did not change it.

Later the local dealer had a service special that included changing the fuel filter. At first they did not change it. When I insisted, they first got in the fuel line back to the tank in case they broke the line removing the filter. The line did not break. That may have been poor workmanship but that car is still on the road.

 

My PRIME has just past 30K and was planning to do transmission fluid drain and fill DIY for the first time. In preparation, I purchased the OEM transmission fluid and washers. But now, I have a question. How critical is it that I have the car raised and leveled. If I try this DIY, I have to perform it on my driveway, but our driveway is slightly sloped. The jack stand may not have exact notch that can keep the car perfectly level. Any advise?

 

The object with having the car level is to get the fill just to the lip of the fill hole, and know that will be an accurate quantity. The spec though, says anywhere from zero and 8 mm below the lip is acceptable.

Also, as far as I can see, Toyota makes no mention that the car should be level (see attachment). I would chalk that up to an assumption on their part, that the only people reading their instruction are Toyota mechanics, using a full lift. Little do they know...

Anyway, to address your concerns, I would just aim to get it as close as practical. Check with a level under the rocker panel seam? One thing, if there's a big distance between the jack stand notches, making it off one way or the other: you could shim under the bases with plywood/particle board scraps, to fine tune a bit.

I find I invariably need to do that when using 4 jack stands, guess my slab is slightly warped: one corner's always "loose", till I add about 1/4" of shim under the base.

Lotsa shims:

 

Great suggestion. Thank you, Mendel as usual. It so happens in addition to working on uneven driveway surface, I have a pair of 3 ton jack stands and a pair of 6 ton jack stands. The heights of the notches do not match, so I may have to play a lot with shims.

 

Correct. And I would not worry about how level the vehicle is on jack stands. The general approach among those of us on this thread is to be changing the fluid far in advance of the 'official' requirement. I just changed the tranny fluid in a friend's V with only 24K on it, and the old fluid smelled burned and was black/red. If it follows suit on my previous Prius changes, the RedLine D6 synth I change out in another 30K will look pristine.

 

The initial fluid is always the worst looking. I would think if it was Redline put in at the factory it would look similar at first drain.

Pretty much the only strong caution regarding fluids in the Owner's Manual is regarding the transaxle fluid, to only use Toyota ATF WS or risk damage. I've only got enough brain cells to follow that recommendation, lol.

And if you've got the wherewithal to get the car level, why not? Any amount of tilt will throw the quantity off, and tilting down from front to rear will likely be reducing the quantity, that is if the fill hole is towards the rear of the transaxle.

 

You're probably right about the first change looking/smelling bad regardless of the origin of the oil. I just got hooked on RedLine years ago and stock it in my garage . . .