So I decided to check my tranny fluid along w/ oil this morning and when I pull out my tranny fluid and put a couple drops on a white paper towel it turns out to be a dark purplish color..



I was reading up and I read that it's suppose to be a light red color.. I don't think it'd go bad already considering I just did a tranny flush about 2 months ago. Maybe less than that.

I drive a '98 GS300 and the fluid that I used after my flush was the one the owners manual states to use.. Fluid type T-IV..

Anyone care to shed some light on this? Think I need to do another flush or ???

 

yea T-R fluid is supposed to be nice cherry red n smell sweet. looks like your fluid is getting roasted quick. Did the place before actually FLUSH your car or say they flushed it n drained n filled?

 

They just lifted the car up and drained out the old and stuck in the new.

 

your gonna have to do the drain and refill a couple times to get it fresh

 

drain and fill will only get u a bit.

go to a toyota/lexus dealership and ask for a low pressure tranny fluid flush. should take up to an hour, and take up to 12L of tranny fluid. majority of the tranny fluid is in the torque converter, which a drain and fill cannot take out.

 

I'd just fill and drain it a few times with short intervals. That's what I'm currently doing. The fluid is getting pretty red color by now.

 

That only changes 2 quarts of fluid. Not a flush at all. Hopefully they didnt rape you in cost for doing a "flush".

as stated above flush is about 12 quarts not 2. the good is that all the fluid is removed and the fluid will be cherry red. The downside (from what ive heard/read) is that itll dislodge some of the gunk in the tranny and mess up the insides?

its up to you really.

 

Depends on miles. If there are over 100k I wouldn't do a full evac.

 

I have been doing tranny fluid changes every 30k since the car was new back in 2000. Is that a bad thing?? i hope not!

 

thats a very good thing

 

drain and fill or full evac?

 

^^^^^drain and fill, occasionally ill take the tranny pan off and replace the filter thats inside

 

Ok. Just wanted to be sure. That's a good habit to get into. I usually do a drain and fill once a year.

 

Thanks for all the reply's guys!

Think i'll hit up my closest Lexus dealer and do a low pressure tranny flush.. Will call in the next couple of days to get a quote on how much it might cost..

McKrevice: My car has 141k miles.. What do you recommend doing?

 

I'm no pro so check with a shop that you trust or a mechanic you trust. I as always under the impression that if the car has never had a full evac, doing one with that many miles is looking for trouble. You wash away all of the deposits left by the old fluid which in fact may be helping your trans. You wash that away and you are asking, I believe for leaks or other problems.

I have never done a full evac on my Ford Escort winter beater, just 3 drain and fills for the past 100k miles and after I do one it runs fine. I did do a full evac with Amsoil on my 2000 GS400 in 2008, but it only had 34,000 on it at the time.

This might be an urban legend, but I have heard of this for years.

Someone with more knowledge will chime in I'm sure.