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Blackstone Labs ATF fluid report - 2010 Prius

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by bpollard, Apr 15, 2020.

  1. bpollard

    bpollard Junior Member

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    Hello, this is for my 2010 Prius with 159k miles on the engine but 116k miles on the ATF fluid. The fluid that was changed out was also Toyota WS ATF.

    My understanding is that the transmission in our EV vehicles don't operate like a normal transmission. Thus, would you be concerned about the comments that Blackstone made regarding the aluminum in the fluid?

    Thanks in advance!
     

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  2. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    Definitely high aluminum level. You can tell they are a little surprised to not see other high levels of anything else, that’s because there is no clutch packs or anything else like in a traditional automatic.

    The most important thing is at least changing the fluid once, preferably early on like you did. This fluid probably could be good for a while more, but it’s cheap and easy to replace.
     
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  3. 2012 Prius v wagon 3

    2012 Prius v wagon 3 Active Member

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    ... and I wonder what exactly "Universal Averages" is for. If it is for "normal" transmissions that use ATF-WS, I would not expect the numbers to match. Our transaxles are very different.

    And when they say, "If it's shifting okay," it also makes me wonder if the analysis is properly considering such a different type of AT as we have.

    If it were my car, I'd ask them about it.

    Thanks for posting these numbers for others to compare to.
     
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  4. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    Yeah I thought the “shifting okay” comment was pretty funny!

    honestly they probably don’t care what type of vehicle or transaxle this comes from, they are just doing the lab work.

    I’d like to use Blakestone labs some day.
     
  5. GrGramps

    GrGramps Active Member

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    I wonder why they didn't comment on the high reading for zinc? Aluminum and zinc are often alloyed and the excess readings show a similar ratio.

    Perhaps Blackstone could explain this.
     
  6. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    o_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_O
     
  7. The Critic

    The Critic Resident Critic

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    Zinc is an additive.
     
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  8. tvpierce

    tvpierce Senior Member

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    +1

    Might be worth a follow-up email to explain that in this application the fluid is essentially used as gear oil vs a traditional automatic transmission where is is essentially used as hydraulic fluid. It would be interesting to get their take on it.

    BTW, they should have some experience in this area. Many Borg Warner manual transmission from the 80s used Dexron ATF instead of traditional gear oil.