Only use the Toyota specified fluid.

 

+1 use only the recommended trans fluid. Here is some additional info on the subject.

http://www.motorweek.org/features/go...nsmission_talk

 

Cool thank you for the information the link is very informative ok so I'm only going to have the dealer do it
Thank you

 

Good luck! My Lexus dealer refused to change my fluid so I did it myself using genuine Toyota WS transmission fluid.

 

why does your leaxus dealer refuse to change your fluid ?
is it because of the years and miles on your lexus ? is it old and high mileage ? or is it not to old and not to high
wondering if maybe the reason is they are afraid to do it and don't want to be reasponsible if soemthing happens perhaps

mine only has 55k on it and its 6 years old as of today

 

Mine is a 2007 and at the time I think it had around 120,000 miles on it. They refused to change the transmission fluid because it "never needs changing" and that was that. Frankly, if a customer wants to waste their money, I'd let them (after warning them it was a waste of money first).

 

wow i would have thought they would have been thinking hes got high miles if we do this and screw up his trans we have to pay go fix or replace it

i know some shops down here like Tires Plus and Firestone
they don't service Transmission that are over 70k or 80k i think unless you can show proof that its been services on a regular bassis or that it's not the Original trans and has had work done to it
becuase they don't want you pulling in a car with 100k on it getting the trans flushed then comming in saying it doens't shift propperly or somethings not working

 

Are there any real cases that people know about that a trans has been damaged due to a fist time high mileage fluid change? This sounds like it could be one of those theories that sorta sounds logical except it is untrue.

 

I see my local garage guy drain the transmission fluid out, drop the pan, wash the pan, change the filter and button it all back up. Add new fluid and off you go. I wouldn't think that doing this would hurt the transmission, especially if the old fluid has a very slight burnt smell to it and the car had a bunch of miles on it. I used to do my Lumina LTZ every 35,000 - 40,000 miles and its still going.

 

Thanks garsarno. I wonder how these things get started. It seems to me that the removal of dirty ATF with its grit has got to be better than the supposed benefits of leaving it in there.

 

When I say transmion flush I mean to say fluid drain and refill alot of people think that I mean hooking it up to a machine and flushing it out
I would never have a power machine power flush my transmiooson unless it was bad and I was trying to do it as a last resort before having it rebuilt if needed

There is a flush machine company out there called motovach I think if I rememevr correct my old mechanic up in Ohio issues it it runs off the car as the car is running it takes old fluid out and pumps new fluid in but not by power it runs of the car itself
That is the only machine I would have used on my car

But what I really want done is just to have them drain it and replace any filters or screams that can be got to reasonably and then refill it

 

The issue is that you cannot drain but a couple of quarts from the transmission by dropping the pan This leaves another ten quarts or so of old fluid in the system. Even the manual method I used of disconnecting the transmission coolant line and pumping out two quarts, adding two quarts, and repeating doesn't get all the old oil replaced. But it does pull out most of it.

 

I know that i am speaking of two tottaly different creatures here but is there a chance the ES350 Transmission is kind of set up like my Cadillac GM 4t80e Tranny where you can only get a few quarts out when dropping the pan but unless you are aware of the tranns fully
then you don't know there is also a sump dank drain plug hidden up on the side that you can get to with the pan removed but not many know about it unless they have acctualy torn down and work on transmissions

is this possible maybe this is why you can only get a few quarts out of the ES350 trans ?

 

That's what they used to do. But that was using the old type transmission fluid that cost about $2 a quart. So you could waste say 10 quarts or so to "flush out" the old stuff. But the new synthetic based runs $8+ per quart.

 

Now I'm debating if its really even worth it to drain the 2 qts and result with just 2 qts or just leave it not sure 2 qts would even make a difference and I only wanted to do it because I'd like to see it last 200k. Maybe more I Usualy trade in cars or keep a vehicle untill about 220k that's when I start looking for my next ride and with 55 now I'm thinking maybe 4 years is what I'm looking at