Mother of all changing ATF in tranny threads - Level set instructions link in post #1
 

Hello guys, so I read my manual that claims to never change ATF in our transmission as its suppose to be good till 100k... well I have some bad news for everyone. I have a friend who works for Lexus dealership who said he serviced a couple of IS350 and found out that the ATF in those trannys is pitch black and low on levels by 60k.

Starting to dig deeper into this issue I found a thread by Just F Me memeber who had his tranny replaced because original failed possibly due to spoiled and burned out ATF.

So, needless to say I will be changing my automatic Tranny Fluid coming up on 45k and had a question: Does our car have flush lines to do the ATF flush and what is the proper way to do it because I know simply draining it will only get about half out. Let me know...

**EDIT** Level set instructions are here: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...ml#post9168165 **/EDIT**

We have a trans cooler in the front of the car. If I was on a desert island I would get the full amount of trans fluid the car holds and then put it in a clean bucket, put the inlet house in there, and put the outlet hose in another bucket and run the car right exactly until the bucket is empty.

However, please be advised that the Tech Manual tells the tech that the ATF needs to be at a proper temperature, and there is a special process for filling ATF in this car. I believe you need to perform some actions with the shift level and brake pedal (there was a previous post about this

Ughh yeah i just read a bunch of forums saying that its pretty much the biggest PITA to change it and most dealers won't do it, especially if there isnt even a proper procedure in the manual to do it, in any case ill be taking my car to the dealer to see what they can do, i figure If i have a service record of me taking initiative to change it, if tranny fails like it did with Just F Me member at least Dealer wont be able to tell me: "your tranny failed because you didnt service it"

There is nothing wrong with my tranny, just paranoid, i dont trust this World Standard Fluid to last a lifetime, sounds like a warranty cheap out

Interesting. Ill let you guys know what mine looks like when I change the fluid next month. My transmission is out of the car so I have an unfair advantage...

I had a leaking transmission sensor replaced in my car at the dealer under warranty and it took two return visits to get the level right... :(

..even the best techs get this wrong....sooooooooooo temperature sensitive!


Digger08

What my mechanics had me shift the lever up, and down slowly then checks the fluid a few times..lol. I have a friend who works for Toyota that says their fluid is the best there is in the industry. Even bugermass (Tuner) believes in the fluid. If I ever get to increase the power of the car I do plan on increasing the size of both engine, and transmission coolers. For peace of mind.

Look at this link. Look at the ATF that Joe Z pulled out of his car at 50k miles... I'm replacing my fluid this weekend after having about 13k miles on it to see how it looks to new fluid.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/7470703-post66.html

I am going to be replacing the trans fluid at my next oil change as well as the diff fluid.

what do you all recommend for each of the fluids and also how much.

Thanks

I'm doing those same things this weekend...I'll let you know how it goes. I bought 5 quarts of Toyota WS (it's probably the only fluid you should use in there to prevent problems), and I'm going with Mobil 1 75W-90...i think. I think the manual calls for 85W-90 or something...I went to toyota and they don't even have the fluid there. Blitz_714 used the same mobil 1 fluid for his diff when he installed it.

Subscribed! Definitely take this in consideration. Mine is 32K and I am obsessive about keeping oils/fluids in good condition always.

I need to do the same, but don't think I could do it at home... don't have the proper jack/stands/time lol Wonder how much the dealer is gonna charge me, unless there's some one in NorCal that could help me out?!

I think dealer charges $400 for transmission fluid replacement.

Really? This again?

Do yourselves a BIG favor. Pull a sample, send it to Blackstone, and THEN decide if it needs to be changed when you have real evidence the fluid is at or near end of service life.

The fluid for a full change costs way more than the $20 Blackstone is going to charge for analysis, and if you find out your fluid is only half used, you just saved a ton of PITA.

FWIW, one of the reasons they've gone to "lifetime fill" is the same reason your ball joints no longer have zerks on them to service the grease inside. The warranty engineers found out the techs injecting the grease into the joints also managed to get a small shot of dirt in the joint, so it actually shortened service life. Ball joints an owner can service went away in the late 70s for this exact reason.

So assuming you can drain and refill without getting dirt in the transmission, even with one of those magic fluid swap gizmos is way beyond optimistic. Take a look at Just F Me's thread with the two ATF UOAs in it. Notice the insolubles in his vs. mine? Somehow, dirt got in his gearbox. Mine never had a plug touched on it until I took the sample. If someone at some point "serviced" his gearbox and got dirt in it, voila! We have the big difference between his UOA and mine.

So assuming you can change this 1. without introducing contaminants, 2. with enough of a fluid swap to be effective, 3. while getting the fluid level correct, is a pretty tall order. It's also why I didn't change the fluid in my gearbox after I got my analysis results.

I know that CL only represents a small sample size of ISF owners, and I know that JustFMe is one of the very few people to cross 100K miles, thus far, but we don't exactly have an epidemic of failing transmissions going around. Personally, I'm more afraid of the myself or the tech doing something to make the situation worse by attempting a charge than I am with running the factory fill up to the dealer recommended 100K.

Not sure about SOMEHOW dirt got into my box dude. I never opened it up. All the particulates inside the oil was from the gear box it self so you can't say that dirt was some how introduced to the gearbox.

Secondly, I don't know what those guys are doing at Blackstone, but if you look at the UNIVERSAL AVERAGES, how come the numbers are different from your oil vs my oil considering we both use the same oil and the same transmission?

This is my report i got from blackstone when i sent the fluid in at 87,000 miles
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...ransreport.png

This is lobuxracer's report...
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...ATFresults.jpg