Originally Posted by zracer31

Thought I would chime in on another way to flush out all the old fluid with out a dedicated machine. I removed drain plug on pan and measured how much came out. Then dropped pan slowly and caught remaining fluid and measured it. Replaced gasket and filter, removed fill plug from drivers side of tranny and then added new fluid that equaled all that I took out. Now that there was fluid back in tranny, I disconnected the supply line from the transmission that runs into the bottom of the raditator, added a 1' length of clear hose and inserted it into an empty and clean old milk jug. I had a friend start the car (left it in park) and watched the tranny pump out 4 quarts of nasty near black fluid. Shut off car, reinstall 4 quarts of new fluid in tranny to replace what it pumped out. Repeated the same process two more times ( used 11 quarts total). At the end of the last time, the last 1/2 quart or so came out nice and bright red indicating all the old was flushed out. Reinstalled tranny line on radiator, followed the Lexus procedure exactly as many have done to set proper fluid level and called it DONE!

I have used the same process for all my cars and never had any issues - this is about as simple as it gets and costs nothing but about 10 - 15 minutes to do properly. This worked becuase the internal pump in tranny draws the fluid from the bottom of the pan, pumps it through the valve body, clutches etc then pushes it into the torque converter and then out to the cooler in the radiator and returns cooled fluid into pan to continue the cycle over and over again. By shutting car off after every 4 quarts of old fluid pumped out and adding 4 new qts into fill hole, the tranny "thinks" it is returning from cooler line and maintaining level in pan. It only takes about 15-20 seconds at an idle for the tranny to pump out 4 quarts.

Originally Posted by roadfrog

Depends on the dealer. My dealer rolled their eyes when I mentioned that the US market says the fluid is "lifetime". The Canadian market (and Europe, Asia as well), requires fluid change at 96k miles. Only the US is different - likely due to marketing.

Originally Posted by zracer31

I have used the same process for all my cars and never had any issues - this is about as simple as it gets and costs nothing but about 10 - 15 minutes to do properly. This worked because the internal pump in tranny draws the fluid from the bottom of the pan, pumps it through the valve body, clutches etc then pushes it into the torque converter and then out to the cooler in the radiator and returns cooled fluid into pan to continue the cycle over and over again. By shutting car off after every 4 quarts of old fluid pumped out and adding 4 new qts into fill hole, the tranny "thinks" it is returning from cooler line and maintaining level in pan. It only takes about 15-20 seconds at an idle for the tranny to pump out 4 quarts.

Originally Posted by glenns

Well I screwed this up today!!!

hopefully will sort out in the morning. Followed zracers method, first drained, then dropped pan, cleaned everything really well and installed new beck arnley filter and gasket, all good. added back in about 4 qts, my close guess to measurement of what I got out...some spilled despite being really careful when getting that last bit of the pan to free up from the trans..also quite a bit trapped in filter.

Then pulled line into cooler, took out just around 3 qts, added 3 more back in, and did this two more times.....and where I screwed up is then I checked overflow...bad move as I think I forgot to cycle everything and I drained just over 2 qts..ran 100 yards down street...ehh not right, flared shifts....put it back on lift, opened overflow check bolt and got another quart out....hmm strange, try again about 100 yards...slipping really bad now....almost was not able to get it back on the pad for the lift. (good luck to anyone who attempts this on jackstands or ramps lol.

So...I must be waayyy low. Not sure if my Matco scanner will show trans temp, (still sorting techstream on my laptop) but i can jump the OBD and do that method when I have more time tomorrow.

Inside of trans very clean...fluid pretty nasty, very purple color. Pretty typical amount of sludge on the magnets, trans was pretty good before this, but I think could be a bit smoother.

So those who have done this method with flushing more out via cooler lines, did you cycle the trans many times in D and R and S to get fluid everywhere its supposed to be?

Originally Posted by texas008

Yes that's what i'm planning to do in the next few weeks,
it's just a bit of work, but not that hard, requiring some patience, probably on a similar level to bleeding brake fluid.
only 2 challenges i can see:
1. Temperature monitor: will use the jumper wire procedure, and also use a heat gun as backup,
2. Hard-to-reach Refill plug: will get a 24mm long wrench, or will just refill from overflow hole.

Determined to bring the transmission service down to a easy DIY task.

My friend who worked in the auto repair business mentioned that in the dealership, there is no time to check the transmission temperature, they just let car idle for 5 min and call that the right transmission temperature....

Originally Posted by glenns

Yeah, I bungled the check...added fluid back in this morning, got my buddies really good snap on scanner since I do not have TS going yet...checked at 122 degree, still a lil low added another quart and then got some out of the overflow on the second check. All in all I pretty much probably got 90% of the old fluid out, new filter, and super clean pan and magnets. Shifts feel slightly smoother and little firmer when you get on it harder. After about 5 or 6 miles and couple hard accelerations I re checked temp, nearly 200 degrees...have heard the WS fluid does not hold up to heat all that great reading the other Toyota forums, I can imagine these things produce some heat and a good synthetic and frequent changes are a good idea.

No idea if the old oil was original, i pulled a sample along with my engine oil, will send to Blackstone later.
Did some more reading on these 8 speeds, supposedly the same as what is in the RCF...if so they sound like they can take some very serious abuse and hold up really well.