Transaxle Fluid - 160k

First off, I would have done this about 150K sooner. Anyway: are they completely resistant do doing it for you? Did they give you a quote, or it didn't get that far?

If you really have to battle to get any sort of answers out of them, they're likely not the right guys for the job; nothing good ever comes from working with a hostile employee. Try another dealership, just cold call them, ask them for a price, see their reaction. If they're singing the same tune, you could DIY or get any semi-competent independant garage to do it.

The fluid is TOYOTA ATF WS. Have 4 quarts or liters on on hand, you'll need about 3.5. Don't get talked into substitute fluids. Dealerships up here sell it for under $10 per liter. Also it would be best to get replacement washers for the fill and drain bolts. If you can't get them it's not imperative, I think it'd be ok to reuse washers, but really it's preferable to get them. Say if it would take a few days, they're ordered in, I'd do that.

Tools you would need for DIY:

1. Torque wrench (both fill and drain bolts are 29 ft/lb
2. Ratchet wrench, preferably with 3" and 6" extensions, preferably "breaker bar" style (long handle), because the bolts can be a bit stubborn. And a 10 mm male hex socket: both bolts are socket head cap screw style, with 10 mm hex recess.
3. Equipment to raise the car min 6"~ and level it, safely. It's imperative to have the car roughly level to get the level right when refilling.
4. Funnel with 3 foot hose extension, keep hose diameter around 5/8" or less. This to snake through the engine bay from above, for pouring in the new fluid.
5. Drain pan.

Steps.

1. Remove engine underpanel. (Maybe not mandatory, I'd recommend though.)
2. Remove fill bolt. (Precautionary, just in case. You don't want to remove drain bolt, THEN find you have troubles with the fill bolt.)
3. Remove drain bolt, drain fluid, reinstall with fresh washer and torque.
4. Run funnel hose down to fill hole and add fluid. Go slow on the 4 th bottle, just a 100 cc at a time, till it starts coming back out. Then install fill bolt with fresh washer and torque.
5. Install engine underpanel.

 

unfortunately, the prius lifetime seems to be between 150 and 180,000 miles. so i would change it if you're gonna keep the car significantly longer. not sure how you can dislodge anything by gravity draining and pouring in 4 quarts, but what do i know?

 

I recently changed the transaxle fluid on my Gen 4 at 5000 miles. The local shop said the flat-rate guideline book allows 1.1 hours for the service, which they said is about how long it actually took them (and I trust it did). Your dealer should have access to the same information.

 

I'd insist they save the old fluid so you can get it analyzed. Just to make sure they change it.

 

It should $100 at most for pros. Complexity on par with oil change.

 

toyota says it's lifetime, the dealers play ball. no idea why.

 

Our dealership at least has the fluid and washers readily available.

 

They seem interchangeable for multiple models and years so they should have a large stock on hand.. The same crush washers were given to me for a differential and transfer case fluid change for our 98 4Runner. And they are just as useful and effective.

If the last changer of the front differential didn't put the drain plug on with an impact wrench, I would have been able to use all the crush washers.

 

Maybe it's those ubiquitous battery powered impact wrenches: pros are under the gun to work fast, and use them for everything.

 

How much did they charge?

 

Yeah it should be comparable to an oil change, especially for a shop with a lift. The fluid is maybe pricier, depending on what engine oil you normally get with your oil change, and an oil change typically entails a filter change as well, and they don't grow on trees. Do they?

The main reason it's pricier: it's more uncommon.

 

Unless, as you mentioned, they've never done it before. Take my shop. Pumped it in instead of dropping a hose through the engine bay (as my written instructions recommended), but I'd rather they take their sweet time and get it right.

As for cost, the shop gets $80 hr and billed 1.1 hrs. I provided the fluid and washers at a cost of ~$45. So about $135 total. Still cheaper than what the dealership wanted ($175) and I know it was done correctly.

When I take pictures of used (5000 mile) fluid vs new, I'll post so everyone can make up their own minds if this was a waste of money (if a visual is good enough to make this determination). Could be I'm overreacting to the fact that my last two vehicles suffered from early automatic transmission problems and I plan to keep this car for at least 10 years.

 

I guess it's easy to forget how much overhead a shop has. This procedure isn't different from an oil change, especially for a shop that has an service bay and all the tools. Open a bolt, drain, close bolt, open second bolt, fill, close bolt. Done.

A shop with pro tools will not use the funnel and hose method; no way. That's for home mechanics only.

$135 is generous, if you bought the oil. $175 is pretty high, I think.

 

You don't want to contaminate fluid with a shared delivery method. For that reason a funnel with hose is good: cheap, and you reserve it for Toyo ATF WS. It's likely faster than a pump, less hassle.

There's nothing superior or more professional about a pump. It's messier, more trouble prone.

If someone showed at my place with the fluid and washers, I'd happily do it gratis, if they'd give me a hand. Even with my DIY lift method, I think 2 hours max., most of that fiddling around with floor jack and safety stands.

For a shop with a lift and the know how: 30~45 minutes. Some Canadian dealerships had an $80 special on this I believe.

 

Shop charge was about $90 + fluid and washers= $135. I'm good with that. $175, not so much.

One transmission failures I wrote about above was a 2010 Ford Fusion. Took it in for a fluid change at 35K, as per the service manual. Local shop couldn't/wouldn't do it because it required a recirculating pump of some sort to properly flush. The only other approved method was to manually change the fluid ~seven (7) times in a row if I remember correctly (seriously).

So I take my perfectly operating transmission the dealership. Big Mistake. 5 miles down the road after service, symptoms appear. Rough shifting and a high RPM fan behind the front grill that continued to whine long after shutting the car down. Never noticed that before. The transmission was obviously overheating, likely due to debris getting caught in the wrong place, impeding fluid flow.

Long story short, after several months of half (cheap) measures to fix, more failures and several harried road trips (with a 6 month old aboard in the dead of summer in the South), they essentially replaced the transmission. To this day I still get hard shifts from 1st to 2nd after extended highway speeds which of course they can't replicate or make it generate a code. Piss. I never should have had that service done (not to mention a simple recall service when they put a dent on the middle of my hood). Morons. But I digress.

My theory is a drain and fill is all that was done, which is exactly why the job requires the extra precautions. They would never say. Maybe I should have left well enough alone with my Prius.

 

They assured me the pump was thoroughly cleaned (I asked). Had planned to do the job myself but no access to a lift bay nor want to deal with jacks and such. I do change my own oil using ramps but I've not yet tackled that job with the Prius. I don't think the low front end will clear the ramps.

 

Looking forward to your pics. I'm not sure who is right on this issue.