IS350 Trans Fluid Exchange
#16
Rookie
Thread Starter
Okay I'm confused, so should I or should I not change the transmission fluid?? My car has 138k miles and Ive had it since 80k miles. I drive somewhat aggressively but nothing crazy. My car still shifts smooth and I've never had problems with the transmission yet. Is it still recommended to do this service on my car?
Also where can I even take it to get the service done properly? I took my car to Valley Lexus in Modesto for service when I was having an electrical issue and it seemed to me they had no idea what they were doing because they couldn't figure out the problem and we're trying to nickel and dime me to death by trying "possible solutions". Needless to say my opinion of them changed after that...
So with that being said , how can I even trust them to change it for me? Or can someone recommend me to another place? Perhaps Toyota would do it?
Also where can I even take it to get the service done properly? I took my car to Valley Lexus in Modesto for service when I was having an electrical issue and it seemed to me they had no idea what they were doing because they couldn't figure out the problem and we're trying to nickel and dime me to death by trying "possible solutions". Needless to say my opinion of them changed after that...
So with that being said , how can I even trust them to change it for me? Or can someone recommend me to another place? Perhaps Toyota would do it?
The drain and fill method isn't a bad option it just takes a long time and many iterations before you have exchanged enough fluid to consider the fluid clean... as someone else already mentioned. Just make sure you know exactly how to check the fluid level. If you're not confident that you can do it properly by either checking the level or adding exactly what you removed you will have shifting issues.
Let me be clear, if your transmission is in good working order, a fluid exchange will keep it that way. If your trans is slipping, setting codes, I doubt it will do much. If your shifting is slightly delayed, a little "funny" then an exchange might help. Just note that if this is the case you've waited too long.
World Standard fluid is advertised as a lifetime fluid. In practice it isn't. My personal/family vehicles:
2005 Rav4 got it new, has a dipstick. Black fluid at 50k miles. Would it go to 100k or more? Yes. Was it dirty? Yes. Could you feel shifting issues? No. I replaced it every 50k. It's at 150k with no issues. My mom drives this like it owes her money.
2011 Scion tC, black fluid at 40k. Exchanged it. Will do 40-50k intervals on it as well. My wife beats this car senseless.
2010 IS350, got it at 104k. Never had an exchange. No shift issues. Replaced the fluid at 104k. It was sludge. Will replace again at 40-50k because it's me driving.
If you drive like grandma never pass, and/wot, you might make it to 100k with healthy fluid. I have yet to see a Toyota with decent looking fluid past 60k. I'm not saying Lexus is lying. I'm simply saying that if it were me I wouldn't wait that long. At 100k the fluid is gritty. That can't be good for your transmission. They are assembled in clean rooms for a reason. That sludge has to degrade the friction materials and slow down the solenoids.
Let this be my last post regarding this matter.
#17
Lexus Champion
Refer to my original post. It's all there. Call your Toyota dealership and ask them if they have a BG transmission fluid exchange machine with fittings for the new Sequoia transmission and/or if they know if it will be able to exchange the IS.
The drain and fill method isn't a bad option it just takes a long time and many iterations before you have exchanged enough fluid to consider the fluid clean... as someone else already mentioned. Just make sure you know exactly how to check the fluid level. If you're not confident that you can do it properly by either checking the level or adding exactly what you removed you will have shifting issues.
Let me be clear, if your transmission is in good working order, a fluid exchange will keep it that way. If your trans is slipping, setting codes, I doubt it will do much. If your shifting is slightly delayed, a little "funny" then an exchange might help. Just note that if this is the case you've waited too long.
World Standard fluid is advertised as a lifetime fluid. In practice it isn't. My personal/family vehicles:
2005 Rav4 got it new, has a dipstick. Black fluid at 50k miles. Would it go to 100k or more? Yes. Was it dirty? Yes. Could you feel shifting issues? No. I replaced it every 50k. It's at 150k with no issues. My mom drives this like it owes her money.
2011 Scion tC, black fluid at 40k. Exchanged it. Will do 40-50k intervals on it as well. My wife beats this car senseless.
2010 IS350, got it at 104k. Never had an exchange. No shift issues. Replaced the fluid at 104k. It was sludge. Will replace again at 40-50k because it's me driving.
If you drive like grandma never pass, and/wot, you might make it to 100k with healthy fluid. I have yet to see a Toyota with decent looking fluid past 60k. I'm not saying Lexus is lying. I'm simply saying that if it were me I wouldn't wait that long. At 100k the fluid is gritty. That can't be good for your transmission. They are assembled in clean rooms for a reason. That sludge has to degrade the friction materials and slow down the solenoids.
Let this be my last post regarding this matter.
The drain and fill method isn't a bad option it just takes a long time and many iterations before you have exchanged enough fluid to consider the fluid clean... as someone else already mentioned. Just make sure you know exactly how to check the fluid level. If you're not confident that you can do it properly by either checking the level or adding exactly what you removed you will have shifting issues.
Let me be clear, if your transmission is in good working order, a fluid exchange will keep it that way. If your trans is slipping, setting codes, I doubt it will do much. If your shifting is slightly delayed, a little "funny" then an exchange might help. Just note that if this is the case you've waited too long.
World Standard fluid is advertised as a lifetime fluid. In practice it isn't. My personal/family vehicles:
2005 Rav4 got it new, has a dipstick. Black fluid at 50k miles. Would it go to 100k or more? Yes. Was it dirty? Yes. Could you feel shifting issues? No. I replaced it every 50k. It's at 150k with no issues. My mom drives this like it owes her money.
2011 Scion tC, black fluid at 40k. Exchanged it. Will do 40-50k intervals on it as well. My wife beats this car senseless.
2010 IS350, got it at 104k. Never had an exchange. No shift issues. Replaced the fluid at 104k. It was sludge. Will replace again at 40-50k because it's me driving.
If you drive like grandma never pass, and/wot, you might make it to 100k with healthy fluid. I have yet to see a Toyota with decent looking fluid past 60k. I'm not saying Lexus is lying. I'm simply saying that if it were me I wouldn't wait that long. At 100k the fluid is gritty. That can't be good for your transmission. They are assembled in clean rooms for a reason. That sludge has to degrade the friction materials and slow down the solenoids.
Let this be my last post regarding this matter.
As for driving habits, I'm fairly aggressive. I do a lot of passing, and tend to be on the faster side of driving. Not a maniac or anything but my car definitely is no stranger to red line lol.
Now I'm just not sure what to do, should I take my friends advice and leave it, or should I change it? As far as I know it's never been done on this car. At least not in my possession of the past 2 1/2 years and 58k miles.
#18
Drain and fill will not hurt the tranny for sure.
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ncatona (10-22-20)
#19
Rookie
Thread Starter
Well I'm at 138k miles, my transmission shifts fine as far as I can tell. But I asked my mechanic friend and he said that if the fluid has never been changed out before and the car shifts fine, that it probably "might" be best to not change it. As flushing the fluid at this point might cause damage...
As for driving habits, I'm fairly aggressive. I do a lot of passing, and tend to be on the faster side of driving. Not a maniac or anything but my car definitely is no stranger to red line lol.
Now I'm just not sure what to do, should I take my friends advice and leave it, or should I change it? As far as I know it's never been done on this car. At least not in my possession of the past 2 1/2 years and 58k miles.
As for driving habits, I'm fairly aggressive. I do a lot of passing, and tend to be on the faster side of driving. Not a maniac or anything but my car definitely is no stranger to red line lol.
Now I'm just not sure what to do, should I take my friends advice and leave it, or should I change it? As far as I know it's never been done on this car. At least not in my possession of the past 2 1/2 years and 58k miles.
#20
Instructor
Well I'm at 138k miles, my transmission shifts fine as far as I can tell. But I asked my mechanic friend and he said that if the fluid has never been changed out before and the car shifts fine, that it probably "might" be best to not change it. As flushing the fluid at this point might cause damage...
As for driving habits, I'm fairly aggressive. I do a lot of passing, and tend to be on the faster side of driving. Not a maniac or anything but my car definitely is no stranger to red line lol.
Now I'm just not sure what to do, should I take my friends advice and leave it, or should I change it? As far as I know it's never been done on this car. At least not in my possession of the past 2 1/2 years and 58k miles.
As for driving habits, I'm fairly aggressive. I do a lot of passing, and tend to be on the faster side of driving. Not a maniac or anything but my car definitely is no stranger to red line lol.
Now I'm just not sure what to do, should I take my friends advice and leave it, or should I change it? As far as I know it's never been done on this car. At least not in my possession of the past 2 1/2 years and 58k miles.
#21
Driver
iTrader: (1)
I have a couple of questions regarding this if anyone knows, is there a filter that needs to be replaced and would you recomend going with a full synthetic fluid? I called the place I usually get my car serviced and he did a blind quote of $150 for a full flush and service but he also thought there was a filter that needed to be replaced.
#22
I have a couple of questions regarding this if anyone knows, is there a filter that needs to be replaced and would you recomend going with a full synthetic fluid? I called the place I usually get my car serviced and he did a blind quote of $150 for a full flush and service but he also thought there was a filter that needed to be replaced.
Put Toyota WS ATF back in the trans..
#23
Lexus Champion
So I called my local Toyota dealer and they said they can do it for $300. However for what I've read on here, you can't even full flush the tranny, correct? So what exactly even gets done??? I don't wanna shell out $300 for nothing either.
#24
Driver School Candidate
Transmission oil change
hello guys , i just called the dealer today , asked them about change transmission oil with 2008 lexus is350 , how mach is cost!? the responding was ! we don’t recommend to change now , keep it like that if you don’t have any problem with transmission . can anyone explain to my why the don’t like change the transmission oil!?
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scchreiber (12-17-21)
#25
Driver School Candidate
Loud air noise
Yes did my first drain and fill at 113000 miles. Fluid was a little burnt. But I did not have any issues before just thought if needed to be done. After I was done driving for a while I gave the the car about 75% throttle and it made a weird noise like a loud air being sucked though a tube noise coming from under the car????? The car shifts fine. What would that noise be? Im scared I've been babying it ever since. My plan was to drain and fill every week until fluid is clean. Can someone help?
#26
Lead Lap
iTrader: (13)
Yes did my first drain and fill at 113000 miles. Fluid was a little burnt. But I did not have any issues before just thought if needed to be done. After I was done driving for a while I gave the the car about 75% throttle and it made a weird noise like a loud air being sucked though a tube noise coming from under the car????? The car shifts fine. What would that noise be? Im scared I've been babying it ever since. My plan was to drain and fill every week until fluid is clean. Can someone help?
#27
Driver School Candidate
yeah its not coming from the engine. It's coming from underneath the car from the transmission. At least that's what it sounds like no check engine light
#28
Instructor
Sounds more like the exhaust leak. Take it to exhaust/muffler shop, let them look it up and see if there’s a problem.
#29
Driver School Candidate
My 2006 is350 is 190k miles already. Didn’t see transmission fluid change in the carfax report when I bought it at 180k+ five years ago. Had been thinking of changing the transmission fluid myself since then.
Originally, there was a slip shifting from second gear to third gear. So I worried that a fluid change might cause even worse slipping.
As I had been driving it mildly, the shifting gradually turned quite smooth, which could be software automatically adjusting for my driving habit according to some articles. The only thing with it is some occasional 0.5 seconds of gear clacking in deceleration.
It’s probably a good time to change the fluid now. Will just drain and fill myself at home and see what happens. Remember somwhere says the temperature should be 90 farenheit, so probably will do it this summer.
Originally, there was a slip shifting from second gear to third gear. So I worried that a fluid change might cause even worse slipping.
As I had been driving it mildly, the shifting gradually turned quite smooth, which could be software automatically adjusting for my driving habit according to some articles. The only thing with it is some occasional 0.5 seconds of gear clacking in deceleration.
It’s probably a good time to change the fluid now. Will just drain and fill myself at home and see what happens. Remember somwhere says the temperature should be 90 farenheit, so probably will do it this summer.
Last edited by scchreiber; 12-17-21 at 11:15 AM.
#30
Lexus Test Driver
iTrader: (2)
My 2006 is350 is 190k miles already. Didn’t see transmission fluid change in the carfax report when I bought it at 180k+ five years ago. Had been thinking of changing the transmission fluid myself since then.
Originally, there was a slip shifting from second gear to third gear. So I worried that a fluid change might cause even worse slipping.
As I had been driving it mildly, the shifting gradually turned quite smooth, which could be software automatically adjusting for my driving habit according to some articles. The only thing with it is some occasional 0.5 seconds of gear clacking in deceleration.
It’s probably a good time to change the fluid now. Will just drain and fill myself at home and see what happens. Remember somwhere says the temperature should be 90 farenheit, so probably will do it this summer.
Originally, there was a slip shifting from second gear to third gear. So I worried that a fluid change might cause even worse slipping.
As I had been driving it mildly, the shifting gradually turned quite smooth, which could be software automatically adjusting for my driving habit according to some articles. The only thing with it is some occasional 0.5 seconds of gear clacking in deceleration.
It’s probably a good time to change the fluid now. Will just drain and fill myself at home and see what happens. Remember somwhere says the temperature should be 90 farenheit, so probably will do it this summer.
2IS Transmission Fluid-change-A760E RWD