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If you want a Valvoline alternative that is better than WS and cheaper, I have been using MAG 1 full synthetic low viscosity ATF in both my Lexus vehicles and it has been excellent. This is after several drain and fills on the RX (same basic trans as the ES) You can get a 6 pack at Amazon for about $32
Great write up. I finally took the time and changed my transmission fluid as well as motor oil/filter, brake fluid & PS fluid (using a Mityvac), since I was doing a brake job....first one at 80,000 miles (2010 ES).
I "flushed" thru 2.5 gallons of Valoline Max ATF. saving the last 2 quarts for the final fill. I went out for a drive to "bed in" the brakes and get the trans fluid hot. Returning in 10 minutes, I got out my IR thermometer and hit the pan for a temp of 99 degrees. I let out some overflow and the fluid temp was 108. I waited a while when the pan showed 98 the oil was at 105. I drained out the balance of the overflow and am good to go.
I like your tip on the wire jump between 4 & 13 but seeing where the OBII plugs are under the dash I decided to go "old school".
Of course transmission fluid really stinks so I decided to scrub the floor and the motor. I'm missing some of the plastic retainer clips for the engine plastic covers but found some on Amazon that look like a perfect match....50 for $5.99.
I’m so torn on this, I’ve always put Amsoil in my cars every 50k but this is the first high mileage car that I’ve had in a long time (114k). I’m torn because it shift perfectly but there’s no record of it ever being changed so chances are it’s still the same fluid in there from day one. My rule of thumb has always been over 75k let it be but I’d like to have this car for a few years as it’s a third car I won’t be putting much mileage on it. If you didn’t know the mileage you wouldn’t know how many miles are actually on it the damn thing feels like new.
Suck a sample out of the dip stick tube and have it analyzed. Go from there.
great idea if we had a dipstick lol. Not an easy thing to get to with this setup. I thought of this but not sure if I could reach any fluid from the fill hole on the top. Im definitely not opening the drain plug unless I’m going in. I’ve done this on my old and TL and my old Camry but I had the Camry from 5 miles and the TL with 20k i just drained the pan into a painters container then matched whatever I took out with new fluid. I also had a dipstick (4cyl Camry SE) on both cars so it was easy to check the fluid levels afterwards. With ramps I won’t be able to get the car level to do the trickle drain technique as all the YouTube videos I’ve watched stress having the car level. If anything I’d probably get a powerflush from a Toyota dealer which I don’t really like because of the possibility of cross contamination, the power flush disturbing existing probably no longer flawless inner seals, and I can’t go with synthetic with a flush.
Great write up. I finally took the time and changed my transmission fluid as well as motor oil/filter, brake fluid & PS fluid (using a Mityvac), since I was doing a brake job....first one at 80,000 miles (2010 ES).
I "flushed" thru 2.5 gallons of Valoline Max ATF. saving the last 2 quarts for the final fill. I went out for a drive to "bed in" the brakes and get the trans fluid hot. Returning in 10 minutes, I got out my IR thermometer and hit the pan for a temp of 99 degrees. I let out some overflow and the fluid temp was 108. I waited a while when the pan showed 98 the oil was at 105. I drained out the balance of the overflow and am good to go.
I like your tip on the wire jump between 4 & 13 but seeing where the OBII plugs are under the dash I decided to go "old school".
Of course transmission fluid really stinks so I decided to scrub the floor and the motor. I'm missing some of the plastic retainer clips for the engine plastic covers but found some on Amazon that look like a perfect match....50 for $5.99.
I slept really good!
Do you see any difference in shifting? Is it any better?
Do you see any difference in shifting? Is it any better?
Psychologically it should...it seemed fine on my test drive. It's only the third time I've driven it this year....it's summer driven only. My wife puts all the miles on it, so when she gets around to driving it tomorrow it'll be a miracle if she feels a difference!
Car doesn't have to be perfectly leveled to check ATF level with the temp procedure. Raise the rear and lower the car on 4X4 blocks or something of similar size (when done, you can just drive off the blocks, slowly). Then raise the front until it's leveled - I put a magnetic level on the chassis part under the driverside door.
You can get a small sample without losing too much ATF by removing the return line at the radiator. You wouldn't need a sample to test, just do the color visual test accepted by mechanics worldwide. Drop a few drops on white towel or paper towel and look at the color. If brown, it's dirty and ready for replacing.
I did a drain and fill myself for the first time on my ES350 (indy shop did two D&Fs at 82k miles). After removing the plastic tube I only got 1.75 qts to drain. The car was cold. I thought I would get close to 3 qts so was concerned it might have been low on fluid.
I added two quarts of WS ATF. There was some excess after refilling, and I checked the fluid temp by measuring the pan and fluid using a laser thermometer. I drove the car after buttoning up everything and immediately got a VSC/ABS error. I checked the codes with Torque app but no engine codes were present. Upon restarting the car, the VSC/ABS errors would disappear, but return within 0.1 miles. I thought it might somehow be related to improper fluid level, so I attempted to recheck the level but use the method to jumper pins 4 and 13 on the OBD2 to let the car tell me the temperature. After jumpering 4 and 13, I saw VSC codes 43 and 51, but could not initialize the fluid temp due to the flashing VSC codes.
I repeated the fill check by laser temp check, and then researched how to reset the VSC codes. I found the method by jumpering pins 3 and 13 as shown on post #18 in this thread: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...rol-light.html
Afterwards I drove the car 4 miles and no codes returned.
Not knowing whether or not the ATF change caused this error, I hope this may help others who might encounter a similar issue.
Thanks LjeksesES, I figured as much, but it just seemed too coincidental. The VSC error is still gone, thank goodness.
After the fluid change the car is shifting much better. It's been driven about 60 miles. Even the wife commented how if felt noticeably improved. Overall I added 3.25 quarts of fresh WS fluid before I was done. Plan to do a drain and fill again in about 10k miles.
I know I'm late to the party for this, but just getting around to working on the tranny. Anyone else having issues getting the pictures to display? I've tried multiple devices, turned off Antivirus, etc, with no luck. The pictures from the later posts show up, just not the ones from the original. Thanks!
I know I'm late to the party for this, but just getting around to working on the tranny. Anyone else having issues getting the pictures to display? I've tried multiple devices, turned off Antivirus, etc, with no luck. The pictures from the later posts show up, just not the ones from the original. Thanks!
craig, pm me your email. I will email you the PDF version of the post with the photos.
01-30-18, 06:23 AM
