fomenter

I have 120k on my 2009 ES350 and I'm thinking about getting my transmission serviced soon. I have all the service records since day 1 (from lexus website-I'm the second owner) and it looks like they have not changed the tranny fluid since new...

I talked to the service manager at my local lexus dealer and he told me to flush it. I said how about drain and fill ??but he insisted that it would not harm on my transmission and I should not worry about it

What would you do in such case? Flush or fill and drain

note:transmission shifts perfect, nothing wrong with it.

Thanks

Blueshark

My mechanic did a fill and drain method. Not going to detail, but the car is lifted and running, he drain some and fill some then repeats. The point was the volume drained is refilled exactly. He use a hole from the engine located toward the firewall.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

I was always told flushes caused damaged on cars with no service history, that being said that was on cars that called for transmission service but people new rules did. In a car that requires no transmission service, I'd be less apprehensive to do a flush as the fluid is probably a higher spec than other cars. Everyone I've seen that's done a flush in ISs, GSs, and ESs that I've seen haven't had any issues

mocanu

I'm in the no flush camp since I've had a transmission fail right after a flush, never again. I've got one mechanic for my sprinter and truck and a different one for my Prius and Lexus. My Prius mechanic does a lot of work for local Toyota dealers. We discussed the Lexus and decided that he'd do a drain and flush over several scheduled motor oil changes. This will delute the old fluid with new fluid given that this method only changes about 3 quarts at a time.

12jimmyjam

I didn't even know you could do a drain and fill on these. I thought it was an all or nothing thing. Does anyone have a link to a tutorial?

jagtoes

Here is the conundrum as the Lexus/Toyota transmission is a sealed for life unit. No one has determined what life is though but anything after 100K miles puts you into the "life" zone. Before doing anything I would get the ATF analyzed . Based on the results then make a decision as to what you want to do. The correct way to flush the transmission is a significant job as you need to pump and fill at the same time in order to get all of the fluid in the torque converter changed. Also with new fluid it has detergent which will clean up all of the ports and circuits which may affect the function of the transmission. So this is a tough call but I would check with both the transmissions mfg and the dealer service manager to see if there is a recommended flush on a lifetime sealed transmission. By the way a correct flush may take between 10-20 quarts of ATF depending how contaminated the fluid is.

chuyrobles

Many trany mechanics do say not to flush a trany with over 100K because the detergents in the new ATF may dislodge too much crud and potentially plug up things. I think you are still in the safe zone to do one or two drain/refills before doing a flush. Wait 5K between refills or a flush, and definitely change the ATF filter.

I have the 'lifetime' ATF in my Tacoma; Toyota says to flush the trany at 50K for severe service duty. I do an ATF flush in all my vehicles at 60K, and replace the ATF filter every other ATF change - and I've been using Valvoline MaxLife for all of them.

http://www.aa1car.com/library/atf.htm