sheikhmax

My point here is who to believe really. If you read the attachment it is screaming "INSPECT ONLY"

co4wheel

"Inspect only"

To me that just does not make any sense. What are they inspecting? That is has fluid? That it is at the right level? I guess that is all they can inspect. Looking at fluid tells you nothing. NOTHING mechanical last forever. It should be replaced eventually. To deny that fact is just not reasonable.

chitown40

Many factory fills were on the low side. Plus over time fluid can seep out, get burned off, etc. The proper way to determine the right level is to start with replacing exactly what you took out, then add an extra half of a quart or so, and do the temp. check method as described in detail in the the FSM. Once the trans is at the proper operating temperature, you open the overflow bolt and allow the excess fluid to run out until there is just a steady slow trickle. That is the correct level.

Also, changing what's in the pan every 30k would be the equivalent of changing about 1/3 of your engine oil each oil change and adding 1/3 new oil. Would you really do that? Changing it three times in 90k does not give you new fluid...

Flush it out properly and fill it per FSM procedure. A drain and fill is a waste of money. If a dealer want to do that service then they are not doing you any favors.

LoneHiker

Ok let's look at all of these issues 1 by 1...

1. Those of us advocating the 30k mile fluid change are not completely flushing the fluid, we are doing a normal fluid change. This only removes about 1/3 of the fluid each time. This is why 30k makes sense. Transmission fluid lasts 100k miles. It doesn't matter that it's TOYOTA SUPER POWERFUL WORLD STANDARD garbage. That's marketing nonsense and it was a mistake for Toyota to ever make such a claim.

2. We use WS fluid in these vehicles because the transmission requires it, not because it's better. In the same context, on my Cummins diesel pickup truck with NV4500 manual transmission, it requires Castrol SynTorq LT fluid. It's not because it's better in any way, but it's because the transmission internals require that particular additive package. I come from the world of working on industrial equipment and I can't believe the marketing nonsense that goes into consumer vehicles. Lifetime automatic transmission fluid is not technically possible, so get that idea out of your head.

3. I made the statement that color means nothing when looking at used transmission fluid, and I am 100% correct in this statement. I used to deal with this stuff every day. If you want to know the real story on your fluid, you need to send a sample off for analysis. It's something we used to do at work all the time. Because, we weren't a jiggly-lube that was trying to rip off the consumer public. The idea of fluid color having any real meaning was created by oil change shops trying to upsell.

4. Why does color mean nothing? You can have beautiful fluid that is full of contaminate particles from some part of your tranny wearing out (chromium, etc), and you can have dark brown fluid that is in perfect health. You cannot tell what's going on from color. This is one of the few honest descriptions of transmission fluid found on the web, I highly recommend reading this page:
http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/141

5. I think the original poster mentioned the shop used a flushing machine to remove the old fluid and put the same amount back in. THIS IS TERRIBLE. The reason shops do this, is that properly checking the fluid level takes time, and they don't want to spend the time that you've paid for to have it done properly. They have to warm up the transmission, connect a scan tool to read the temperature, and then check the overflow plug. Too much time they say!

6. The info that you've linked from Lexus about not changing WS fluid is old info that Lexus no longer advocates. They now advocate 60k changes, but even that is not sufficient when doing the normal 1/3 changes.

7. The idea that Lexus dealers are trying to upsell you on fluid changes that are unnecessary is only partially true. Believe me, they would much rather replace your entire transmission which failed because you never changed the fluid. It's the quick oil change shops that usually try to upsell on fluid changes by using the color as a method to scare you. Check this out for more details:
Hopefully the above info helps to clear up these issues.

Goosed

That was the single worst transmission replacement known in the industry. My dad worked for LQK and he delivered about 2 a week on average for a long time.

Goosed

I knew enough to know not to force it out via a flush. That's bad news. Just didn't know how the dealer would cycle it all out. Do Lexus dealers flush or run, drain, run, drain?

BlackCat81

A power flush is not a regular flush. A regular flush that uses the trans pump to cycle fluid will be fine. A power flush is a machine that increases line pressure to force clean fluid through. I haven't seen one of those in years and years.

co4wheel

Mine uses a machine that puts new fluid in as it draws the old fluid out. The pressure inside the transmission is no higher than it is during normal operating process.

sheikhmax

After all this discussion.

I have scheduled a flush tomorrow at my dealer.

My Service Advisor told me :

1st they will get the old WS Fluid out.
2nds they will run some cleaner in it.
Then cycle new fluid.

He mentioned, for the flush they don't to drop the pan.


Not sure how they do it exactly?

BlackCat81

Run it through the trans cooler lines, that's how.

Goosed

Curious and skeptic of the cleaner. How do they "rinse" the cleaner out?

sheikhmax

Not sure. But I will try to get details once they finish.

sheikhmax

Below is what it states on my Bill and Service History as done:

*********************************************
AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION SERVICE FLUSH AND TREATMENT - 123308 PERFORMED AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION FLUID FLUSH, REMOVE OLD FLUID, POWER FLUSH THE TRANSMISSION ASSEMBLY, ADD CONDITIONER AND REPLACE WITH NEW FLUID PERFORMED AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION FLUID FLUSH, REMOVE OLD FLUID, POWER FLUSH THE TRANSMISSION ASSEMBLY,
*******************************************

I am hoping this takes care of the occasional Transmission Shudder that happens when i am between 20-35 MPH and transmission tries to downshift but shudders. I let my foot of accelerator and it downshifts and smooths out.

BlackCat81

Sounds like a converter or valve body issue trying to unlock the converter.

co4wheel

Let us know.