Lavrishevo

iTrader: (1)

It's right there on they side. Remove cover to access the fill hole. Look at it closely and you will see it.

BMW7_LS430

I have a hard time believing that it can't be located but I have never tried so I will know when I do. Even the picture on guide shows it clearly.

C8V6C

^The two bolts holding that Black cover on yeah?

Pretty sure it will make sense when I am under there. And that's a good idea with the milk jug...that way we know exactly how much is going back into it.

XJSFan

I read in the back of my 06 LS430 owners manual on page 369, that a drain and refill of WS ATF is around 1.8 quarts... Some here stated that you can get out around 3 quarts.. Later today I will drive my LS up on ramps and take a look and see if I find a cover and the drain/refill holes...

BMW7_LS430

If one gets it on ramps and drains then I expect to see more just because of different gravity effect.
I bought 4 quarts of Toyota ATF WS just to be safe. Part department said I can return as long as it is not opened.

If you find the fill plug then please find out thread size as well. I am thinking of adding a Fumoto valve and that way drain and refill can be a breeze. This idea can be even extended to route the fill tube attached to the Fumoto valve all the way to the engine compartment and that way when it comes time to drain & refill
1. Jack up car on ramps (Even this can be avoided by adding a Fumoto valve to the drain plug but I jack up the car for oil change anyways)
2. Drain
3. Replace drain plug
4. Open Fumoto valve
5. Fill from the engine compartment measured amount
6. Close Fumoto value

XJSFan

Got the car up on ramps and removed the plastic cover. The fill hole is there and also saw the drain bolt on the pan. If I would have had the correct wrench to get the fill plug off, I could have done the drain and fill. I decided to put the plastic cover back on and will let the dealer do it this summer. Pain in the butt getting the plastic cover back on. Replaced the bottom bolt but could not line up the top bolt, so said the heck with it. You need tiny hands to get those threaded again.... I think I will stick with just doing oil changes. LOL.

Stu

Nice try, you got further than I did. Too bad you couldn't do it ....so close ! Like you, defeated, I am gong to have mine done at the dealer as well. I will do this yearly from now on if the fluid is not gross, If its black I will repeat it 3 more times over the next 6 months.

Lexus sell us a solid car with little maintenance needed. They don't build it to be easily user serviceable so an owner could do easily and inexpensively do their own regular and preventative.

The choices are try to DIY anyway and do the work and accept the the hassles, and risks, maybe add the "wrong" fluid, too much or too little and save $100, pay Lexus top dollar for them to do it ... or be one of the owners to trust Lexus "lifetime fluid" - and sooner or later you'll have your LS getting a new or rebuilt tranny installed... either way the dealer wins.

God luck everyone. I will be interested is seeing what happens now

BMW7_LS430

Thanks for checking it out.
Is the plastic cover necessary or you think it can be left off?
Is there enough room to put a Fumoto valve on the fill plug and run plastic tubing?

ipwn

Call me rude but I'm tempted to make a video to just clear the air and have people shut up.

Too much fannying around here.

I made a video for the jaguar club, I'm going to do one for the Lexus crowd too.

XJSFan

Sounds great.

I did sleep on it and will take another attempt at it next week. Does anyone know what size wrench you need to get the refill plug off? Is it a 22mm?

BMW7_LS430

Good deal!
Curious how hard it is to get to the fill plug on LS430.
Thanks for the effort.

sorka

I don't get it with these crazy change intervals. Drain and fill at 90K??

Someone else said every 25K would be excessive?

How about every 5K? That's right. I do a drain and fill on our sc430 sealed trans every time I change my engine oil. The pan must be smaller because it only get's 1.4 qts.

I use my mityvac extractor plus to pump new fluid back into the overflow hole which saves a bit of time over removing the panel covering the fill hole.

The drain and fill takes about 5 minutes, but then it takes another 5 minutes to cross pin 4 & 13 on the DLC connector and run the transmission until the D light comes on solid indicating it's at 115 degrees.

I always add a tiny bit more than came out and I usually get a small trickle when I open the overflow back up to make sure the level is correct.

I do this every oil change. Even without fluid mixing, it would take 8 or 9 changes to change out the fully capacity, but given the fluid mixing it would take a lot more than that.

I also changed out SC400s trans fluid on every oil change which varied from 5K to 10K miles depending on the appearance of the oil. I just sold it with 334K miles on it without the trans ever having any issues. I'm an aggressive WOT floor it type of driver and drove our SC400 it's entire life just like that. We just replaced it 18 months ago with an SC430 with 11K miles on it when we bought it.

sorka

BTW, I just found out that I can monitor the transmission fluid temp with my ELM327 bluetooth dongle and a compatible ELM327 app for a smartphone. I use Torque on my android and it works perfectly for reading the transmission temp.

BMW7_LS430

Do you have a lift? If not, how to you get the car level? I would love to do this every oil change but haven't figured out how to do this only with one set of ramps.

sorka

Service ramps on the front wheels and jack stands on the rear pinch welds. I use hocky pucks on the pinch welds to keep from bending them.