gemigniani

Are you absolutely sure the trans fluid temp will reach 190 degrees after 15 minutes of driving and 5 minutes of idling? While I think it could happen on a very hot summer day, I have my doubts the tranny oil could heat up that fast on fall, winter and spring days when the outside temp is more like 40-75 degrees. I shall test this in the near future; i.e. I'll start draining the fluid in the pan after 15 minutes of driving and 5 minutes of idling on a 55 degree late November day and dip a thermometer into the fluid that's draining to check its temperature.

Tetguy

Your grammar could sure use a lot of fine tuning. I have a hard time trying to understand what you are talking about. In the video, on my computer with 5.1 audio, I definitely hear the engine running while he is performing the test. At 12:58 does not show the car running. That occurs at 13:15 and the car is running according to his Techstream app. I have no ideal what I ,should be looking for at 21:45 either. I have a suspicion that the video may have been altered. I also think that 287,001 people really could not give a damn whether the car was running in the video or not because the procedure is supposed to have the car running. The purpose of the video was to show how thermal expansion relates to trans oil. I seriously doubt 287.001 viewers rushed out to buy this equipment. This leads to your assumption that 15 min running and 5 idling is enough to get the proper level of oil in the transaxle. Very low chance of that happening as there are too many variables affecting what the temp of the oil will be. Your instructions make no mention whatsoever of checking temp. The video earlier in the thread using a scan gauge makes a lot more sense than yours does by a country mile, and MUCH MORE ECONOMICAL than the toyota procedure. Your banjo kit is a waste of money. A funnel with a long tube and a scan gauge ($150.00) is all that should be required.
The short inner tube in the trans pan has been around since 2007. The procedure was to heat the oil in the tranny to 104, then let the excess above fill tube drain. Toyota, Chev, Ford and Chrysler have all embraced this new procedure in just the last few years. This will enable them to eliminate that inner tube in the near future thereby having the customers go to them instead of small shops or DIY for fluid change.My new Lexus now has a recommended trans oil check every 32,000km.(20k miles) . Moneymaker moneymaker!!! Oxydation is the biggest catalyst in oil degradation. This is a closed system except for pcv valve. Very very low chance of degradation.

• Inspect and adjust levels - engine oil, brake fluid, engine/inverter coolant, power steering fluid, transmission fluid, differential fluid, and washer fluid

How did your Lexus procedure go?

camlex

FYI, All transmission has Vent.

Engine oil every 5000K brake fluid 2 years drain and refill. Toyota/ Lexus
Brakes, battery and tires !!!

Tetguy

Hi Camlex
you did not understand my last statement regarding PCV valve..I am very well aware that all trans have PCV valves. What I was trying to illustrate was that the only place that could possibly allow contamination to occur was the PCV valve.or the tube connecting the pcv valve had a leak because the rest of the system is sealed.
In regards to your last statement above, I copied one of the lines out of 21 from my service procedure manual. Trans check etc is at service 3. Service is done every 5000 miles. Every service interval is labelled either service 1, service 2 or service 3. Trans check is included at service 3 only. which is every 20k miles. And I plan on doing most of the servicing myself until I`m too old
Good Luck.

camlex

positive crankcase ventilation. Basically recycles escaped waste gasses in your engine to reduce emissions and also increase efficiency of your engine.
PCV mislead me.
and you asked about "How did your Lexus procedure go? "
so I wrote what I do to maintain my car. I don't go by book. it's Lexus.
Your English is really great. Have a good night and Good Bye.

hisstojay

I would be really hard pressed to accept this "forever fluid" theory...material deteriorates over time especially when heated up. I have heard people who eventually opened the tranny pan during fluid change, citing sludge deposit in the pan. I actually had cold feet when Toyota started with this sealed transmission "magic".
My take on it: It wouldn't be bad to change the fluid at intervals just for the sake of better performance of the tranny.

bc6152

My belief is that the engineers at Toyota are a lot smarter than most members of this forum regarding designing transmissions. I have a hard time believing that Toyota would promote sealed transmissions if they thought that the transmissions would fail if the fluid wasn't changed. So, this is why the SM at your local dealers are refusing to change oil that isn't necessary. Toyota, and Lexus specifically, enjoy excellent reputations for durability and quality. Lexus is either on top of customer satisfaction surveys or close to it every year and I'm sure they want to keep it that way. My money is on Toyota and what they recommend for my car. I have faith that they want the best for my car.

gemigniani

The 6 speed ES transmission is not "sealed". While it doesn't have a dipstick anymore it still has drain and fill ports and an oil filter just like Toyota automatics of the past. And it generates more wear debris than previous Toyota automatics so Toyota was forced to install a large paper element oil filter inside them in place of the previously used small metal mesh filter screen and install four magnets inside the oil pan instead of just two as was done in the past. The WS fluid is ultra low viscosity (for better fuel economy) but it also deteriorates faster that fluids of the past, in part, because the normal fluid temp of the 6-speed is in the 180-195 degree range vs. 150-176 degrees of the 3 and 4 speed Toyota automatics of the past.

If a 6 speed owner plants to sell/trade their ES within 100,000 miles then they can get away without ever changing the fluid. If the owner wants 200,000 - 400,000 miles of transmission longevity then they need to keep relatively fresh fluid in the tranny at all times which means they need to drain and refill the 2 quarts in the oil pan roughly every 20,000 - 30,000 miles or do a near complete fluid replacement change every 60,000 miles (which can be accomplished via 3-4 consecutive pan drains and refills (2 quarts each time).

Freds430

Agree 100%. Find it humorous that so many posters complain of the dealerships taking their money for services not needed and than Service Managers tell their customers the transmission fluid does not have to be changed and they will not believe them. I too will trust my local Service Manager on this.

gemigniani

Sample drained from a near new Camry to show how fast the fluid starts to get dirty and/or deteriorate in other ways.

chromedome

I had a chat with my Lexus service manager and he said that, for the hybrid at least, a drain and fill at 120,000 km would be recommended. That's about 70,000 miles. No one's done it at his dealership yet because no hybrid has hit that mileage.

Mike728

This is a Chinese dealer, right? Does your manual state to change it, or is it just recommended by the SM?

camlex

My question will be to Toyota smart engineers, why does the power train only cover 6 years/ 60,000 miles if they have smart design with a good, reliable lifetime transmission fluid. A solution to my question would be that they should provide us 7 years with 100,000 miles. My 97 ES300, I had 362,786 miles with original transmission and Engine, except I had to change the power steering pump.
If you regularly change your car with fresh oil, its hard to brake Lexus/ Toyota cars. I also have a 2002 Camry as a spare car with 252,000 (1MZ-FE) and it runs better than new cars.
I don't care what they say, I drain and refill every 15,000 miles. Additionally, at 50,000 miles I drop the pan, change the filter, clean the pan and the magnets, and put them back with fresh fluid.

Tetguy

Very interesting. ..2017 Camry., 5874 miles, filthy trans oil. Why the need to check the trans on a sealed trans at such low mileage? I assume you got the oil analyzed then took it to your Toyota dealer. A copy of the analysis would be beneficial to see what the problem is. The problem is not about oil getting dirty at 5874 miles.

camlex

Was able to measure temperature?
Please update. Thanks,