Should I be worried about dealer transmission fluid change mistake?

2004 and later Prius MUST have WS fluid ONLY. I would not put it passed them to only fix your paperwork. You may consider having it replaced (I would do it twice) by someone you can trust will put the correct fluid in. I'm not sure but you may be able to have the old fluid tested to see what it is, such as by blackstone laboratories.

 

Look that doesn't mean they didn't use "WS", they just didn't specify what type of ATF it was on the invoice.

The QTY=10 is a bit more worrying, however it is physically impossible to overfill more than 4qts, so luckily they are only overcharging you on this one (stating 10 instead of 4 purely to pad out the invoice total).

 

I think dealers can be trusted for some work but with fluids it can be hit or miss... mostly miss. Which is surprising because you'd think being a Toyota dealer the least they could do is used the manufacturer recommended fluids. If you have a vehicle with very specific fluid requirements, I'd do the work myself. The transmission fluid change on a Prius is dead easy if you have a bit of mechanical know-how (can change your own oil) and the space to do it. There is no torque converter on a Prius, so do not buy the story that it needs to be flushed (for probably something north of $150).

All new cars are becoming picky when it comes to fluids, which is why it's surprising the dealers don't care... I guess they're thinking they'll use the cheapest fluid (what they can get in bulk from a local supplier) and use it to maximize profit. (Gaining a lifelong customer... not worth it compared to an extra few bucks for the service department...) Whatever fluid they put it will very likely get the car to 150k miles. Once a fluid related failure happens, the car will be long out of warranty and it will hardly be worth proving the failure was based solely on the dealer using the incorrect fluid.

Of high-MPG cars, VW TDI's probably have the most restrictive requirements when it comes to fluids (engine oil, particularly), and the dealers screw it up all the time. And at least with the mid-2000s PD engine, the damage from the wrong oil can be seen in 60-75k miles. All because the dealer wanted to save a few dollars. Most VW service departments are the worst, at least in the US. Nice cars that are ruined in most non-fanatic owners eyes because of crappy dealer service.

Scott

 

Yea... I'd get Blackstone to test a sample ($25) to see if the ATF they claim they used is the real deal... If it isn't then paying a lawyer to write a letter that's CC'd to Toyota managment, PR department, BBB might get you a brand new transmission from a different dealership than the one that botched the job! I mean if there's a way to get a brand new transmission out of it and you want you car to last more than 300k miles...

 

I don't think there is any affordable way to test whether the fluid is WS or not. Used oil analysis just measures things like viscosity and contaminants. It won't tell you what brand or type of fluid it is.

 

A UOA also measure elements that are in many of the manufacturers additive such as magnesium, calcium.....

By comparing with known WS UOA's the OP can get a pretty good idea if it's WS but it won't be conclusive proof unless the numbers are way off and he knows which numbers to look at.

 

i can't speak for any dealers other than Benz, but if the tech isn't a POS, he isn't gonna put anything in your car that will hurt it. MB dealer techs must use the right fluids all the time, cause the dealers don't need the hassles or lost business that comes with screwing people around. and we all are very careful. any tech who has alot of "comebacks" is gonna get ragged on hard about it, and/or fired. if it was me, i'd want to talk to the tech that did the work. he most likely did put WS in it if he cares about the quality of his work. but there may be other types of atf that are compatible with WS.

 

A couple of days/weeks/months is not going to damage the transmission.
OP should spend $40 for the right oil and change it himself. Worries then over, and back to his life.

BTW, WS oil is red. He might want to run by the dealership and see what color the other stuff is.

 

I would like to think the luxury dealers have higher standards than the mainstream dealers. If I dropped $65K on a car, and knowing how stringent the Germans are with everything including fluids, I'd sure as hell only want MB authorized fluids. I'm sure BMW is the same way. Not sure about Audi. I know for a fact VW is an exception to this. If VW could corral their dealers and force them to get their collective stuff together, especially in the service department, they'd be much better off.

And I'm not so sure if it's the technicians choice on what fluids get used. Again, I don't have much dealer maintenance experience (my background is in fleet maintenance). The techs probably have to visit the parts counter (lest you want things to go missing...) to get parts and charge out fluids. The parts manager (or service manager) might say what gets used. Of course, the laziness on the techs part could come in when specifying the correct fluid for the vehicle on which they're working.

Unfortunately, fluids are an easy thing to cheat on since, in most cases, they won't cause problems until the car at least 100k miles. I don't think there's a WS-compatible fluid... maybe AMSOIL has one. If this fluid is truly the "World Standard" and is being used in many Toyota models, you'd think some company would start producing a fluid that meets the WS spec.

Scott

 

Amsoil specifically says their WS replacement isn't suitable for Prius.

 

The car might cost a lot, but I suspect the fellow changing the oil is making minimum wage.

 

Yeah, sometimes the oil changer was the lot boy last week. What matters is why he has become the oil changer. It could be because he has has demonstrated potential and they are trying him out to see if he can move up the ladder. Or, it could be because he's the managers son and has screwed up too many cars as lot boy.

 

Lots of people myself included are running Redline D6. And Lots of people are running Walmarts version of Toyota WS. Lots of compatible fluid out there.

 

......so far

 

What, did the tech admit that he used T-IV instead of WS? I didn't see that detail mentioned anywhere in your post. Perhaps he thought it was just the QTY that was the issue, in which case he would only have changed the paper work, nothing more.