Transaxle fluid change last night

Strange then it would be overflowing when you removed the fill bolt. There's a bolt up atop the transaxle if I'm not mistaken; maybe someone previously filled through there??

Spec for the level is: level with the fill hole lip, or up to 5 mm lower.

 

Never bothered with the level. Just jacked it up in the front and put in 4 quarts. 14 years and170000 miles still perfect.

I also used Redline D6…….hear that Mendel Redline D6.

 

Between the redline and the grossly out-of-level raised car, what can I say…. I know:

vat oil

 

If you remove the plug when the WS fluid is hot after regular driving fluid will be overflowing. Remember that we fill up the transaxle with room temperature fluid and put the plug on. However, WS fluid like all transmission fluid expands with temperature. Many Toyota/Lexus cars using WS fluid nowadays require to check fluid temperature with a scanner to accurately set the level. Many other vehicles also set fluid at specific temperature ranges.

 

It's possible that someone had previously filled the trans while only the front of the car was raised on jackstands. That would explain the overfill when the car was level.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

On the driver side of the car there are 4 10mm hex bolts and another 10mm Allen bolt like the drain plug on the bottom. The 10mm hex farthest back had trans fluid on the tip and released pressure when I took it off.

I have BT tech skid plate so I can access by removing 2 nuts and a screw from the side panel in the wheel well.

I watched the autobeyours tech fill atf ws from the side through one of those bolt holes, but it’s been a decade and don’t remember which one and after taking them off the other day it wasn’t obvious which one they used.

 

I'd stick with Toyota's instruction. Well, except the 2nd gen Repair Manual mostly keeps quiet about filling, since it's "lifetime". At least they ID the fill bolt, in the pic I posted.

 

Doing it that way looked significantly easier than dealing with leveling the car and running a tube down and trying to fill exactly to the bottom of the fill hole, and the autobeyours folks rebuild crashed Priuses, so they know what they’re doing. I’ve never seen it discussed on here so bringing it up for benefit of the community if someone wants to figure it out.

 

If you raise and level the car, fill through the fill hole till it starts coming back out, how is that hard, lol.

That method's worked for me 3 times (on a 3rd gen), which is probably two more times than warranted (overkill).

 

well we’re Prius nerds and it would save 10 minutes of leveling and we need to know all the hacks.