wsrivers

Checked my owners manual and it says that my 94 ES300 uses Dexron II transmission fluid. Now I'm looking to do a drain and fill but can't seem to find this fluid sold anywhere. Is there some other fluid that I should use or is this Dexron II fluid sold at the dealership? And should I have a drain and fill or a flush done?

Oro

Dex II was replaced by Dex III, which is fully compatible. You can use any "Dex/Merc" labeled ATF. I'd go to Walmart or Amazon and get the Castrol Transmax Dex/Merc right now, both have it on sale for $15/gallon. Other makers call it "Domestic Vehicle" ATF.

Dex III was superseded about 2005 by Dex IV. It is thinner, but supposed to be fully backward-compatible with DexIII. Valvoline "Maxlife" is the most common go-to fluid in this category, about $18/gallon at Walmart and a dollar or two more at Autozone. Much more expensive by the quart. it is fully synthetic so it is supposed to be more shear-stable thus over the long term, not much of a loss in that regard. I do notice harder shifting in my Dex III spec'd vehicles when I used a Dex VI equivalent.

Next time I need to change fluid, I am going to use Pennzoil Platinum High Mileage ATF. It is fully synthetic, made with GTL basestock, has HM additives, and is Dex III viscosity. It is $6.50/quart at Pep Boys, kinda hard to find but is the best stuff I can find on spec.

If you are unsure of the service history, what I would do is drop the pan, clean out any residue that might be in the pan. There very often is a fair amount on a high mileage vehicle that has not had very regular ATF changes. If you don't, your new fluid loads back up with this and you loose a lot of the protection in the fluid you just installed. Change the filter if it's a paper cartridge, or just inspect it if it's a wire mesh (many Toyotas are like this).

After that, you fill the pan with clean fluid. Then you disconnect one of the cooler lines and in 3 qt. increments, pump out the old fluid and replace via the fill tube. This will take about 10 -11 qts. total. You will now have a very high % of totally clean fluid in a clean system. You will have some small % of old in there as the mixing in the torque converter keeps it from being a straight "push through" of replacing the old with new. But it's very complete, safe, and the best you can do.

You can do a simple drain/fill, but it will leave a lot of old fluid. It takes about 9 or so drain/fills with 24 to 30 qts of fluid to get the same percentage of fluid in as a cooler line exchange. There are a lot of people who will tell you not to "flush." It's an old wives tale. As long as you don't using a pressurized external pump, there's no way it's inferior or can cause damage. Using the AT's own internal pump to do it is safe, quick, easy, cheap. Here's a DIY on how to do it. This is from a later model Camry, but it's basically identical.

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/10...lush-pics.html

Once you set a baseline of clean pan, clean filter, clean fluid, the accepted practice is to then just do a drain/fill every 30k. You will keep a system clean and with a high enough percentage of clean fluid to not need the flush/exchange again.

Take an extra quart of ATF you have left over and then flush your PS system; it needs attention, too. Like this:

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/10...ce-needed.html

nsghtbrwry

You know what's weird, in my A-series transmissions (A140E, A247E, A541E x2) MaxLife makes them shift buttery smooth. I used OG ACDelco Dexron VI in the A247E (2000 RAV4) and it shifted kind of harsh, and a little bit of slippage when kicking down at highway speeds...MaxLife drain and refill 10k later fixed that.

In my U140E's, MaxLife does make them shift a bit harder. A thing to consider: there's a guy on the Toyota Nation forums who uses SuperTech Mercon V. I think it's synthetic blend, and it's definitely quite a bit thicker than Dexron VI-type fluids (which is why he uses it). His transmissions have been running fine on that stuff.