LS - 1st and 2nd Gen (1990-2000) Discussion topics related to the 1990 - 2000 Lexus LS400

Another automatic transmission fluid-thread

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Old 04-29-15, 11:25 PM
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LentZebra
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Default Another automatic transmission fluid-thread

Hello ^^

This monday my LS is going in to the shop to have some work done.
One of the things is a transmission cooler.
I was smart enough to order some Mobil 3309 online for this but dumb enough to loose the post notification meaning i wont be able to claim it in time.

My options are buying Toyota T-IV from local Yota for a grand price or buying some other fluid, with the same classification, cheaper. Like this one for instance: http://www.biltema.se/sv/Bilvard/Olj...ja-2000030020/

Is it worth a try or am i better off jamming a knife in to it?
Old 04-30-15, 03:03 AM
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dicer
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Too funny. Wanting to save a small amount on the fluid and paying big bucks for something not needed.
Lucky for you and the rest of us Lexus was smart enough to put a transmission cooler on the car for no extra cost. There is no need to add a cooler, the Lexus engineers already got that one covered.
So there will be another messed up LS with a bunch of unnecessary holes drilled to hold on an oil cooler that is not needed. NICE
Old 04-30-15, 03:46 AM
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LentZebra
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Originally Posted by dicer
Too funny. Wanting to save a small amount on the fluid and paying big bucks for something not needed.
Lucky for you and the rest of us Lexus was smart enough to put a transmission cooler on the car for no extra cost. There is no need to add a cooler, the Lexus engineers already got that one covered.
So there will be another messed up LS with a bunch of unnecessary holes drilled to hold on an oil cooler that is not needed. NICE
Youre telling me my A650E allready has a cooler which also is big enough to handle track/drift use?

If so im thrilled that i wont be needing an after market one!

And im sorry to break your heart and the hearts of the rest of the LS preservation commitee but yes, yes there will be, in fact there is.
My 300000 mile "movie style-brought back from the dead sitting in the far end of a foreign dealership lot aging away with its garage painted bumpers and various scuffs and dents" allready has a lot of "unnecessary holes drilled in to it in form of pop rivet holes holding the aluminum covering the necessary factory holes in the rear fire wall!

Also coming in monday: Kaaz 2-way (more fun than)LSD ^^
Old 04-30-15, 05:46 AM
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Finn
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Tjena.

Have you checked your local Volvo-shop for fluid? Correct me if I'm wrong but it is supposed to be, as has been noted before, same Mobil 3309 in a different bottle.

I don't know if Volvo has several types of automatic transmission fluid, though.
Old 04-30-15, 08:54 AM
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Banshee365
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Type 'Toyota T-IV' in an eBay search. I bought a whole fast for like $58 recently. Best deal on the fluid out there.
Old 04-30-15, 09:41 AM
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sha4000
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Originally Posted by LentZebra
Youre telling me my A650E allready has a cooler which also is big enough to handle track/drift use?

If so im thrilled that i wont be needing an after market one!

And im sorry to break your heart and the hearts of the rest of the LS preservation commitee but yes, yes there will be, in fact there is.
My 300000 mile "movie style-brought back from the dead sitting in the far end of a foreign dealership lot aging away with its garage painted bumpers and various scuffs and dents" allready has a lot of "unnecessary holes drilled in to it in form of pop rivet holes holding the aluminum covering the necessary factory holes in the rear fire wall!

Also coming in monday: Kaaz 2-way (more fun than)LSD ^^
This is too funny.
Old 04-30-15, 10:01 AM
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Originally Posted by LentZebra
Youre telling me my A650E allready has a cooler which also is big enough to handle track/drift use?

If so im thrilled that i wont be needing an after market one!

And im sorry to break your heart and the hearts of the rest of the LS preservation commitee but yes, yes there will be, in fact there is.
My 300000 mile "movie style-brought back from the dead sitting in the far end of a foreign dealership lot aging away with its garage painted bumpers and various scuffs and dents" allready has a lot of "unnecessary holes drilled in to it in form of pop rivet holes holding the aluminum covering the necessary factory holes in the rear fire wall!

Also coming in monday: Kaaz 2-way (more fun than)LSD ^^
Sounds awesome. Please post some videos of it once you get the drifting going.

Regarding ATF, of course the Type T-4 (= Mobil 3309) is the spec, but I think in general these AT's are very strong so I would not worry too much. That universal substitute you list will probably get you by just fine. I think the Lexus owner's manual I have even says to use Type T-4, but if you can't get it in an emergency to just use DEXRON III and then change fluid when you can (which of course would never get all the DEX 3 out).

So I think you're fine. Just don't hit any walls while drifting.

Good luck.
Old 04-30-15, 11:59 AM
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haha great thread, and gets me excited!

yes the car has a factory cooler built into the lower part of the radiator but can certainly benefit from an external one when drifting is planned for the future. really the benefit is increasing the fluid capacity but remember there is a working temperature for all fluids. get it too cold and it won't work properly. in other words, size the cooler appropriately (aka not too big)!

speaking of fluid i would stick to toyota t-IV or equivalent. i believe mazda also uses the same blend (search more to confirm this).

and i never knew they made a KAAZ diff that fit our rear ends! of course that takes special fluid too. keep us updated!
Old 04-30-15, 03:54 PM
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At the start of the thread there's no mention of a wrecking yard save that's going to be drifting, so please forgive my ignorance. Its still a bunch of $$$ to have a shop do something as simple as adding the oil cooler. Since it is going to be a drifter are you planning on gutting a lot of the weight, like all the interior stuff? And maybe just removing the guts from the rear doors and just using the skins, welding them shut all for weight savings. I'd think the lighter it is the less power required to drift. I'd use what ever for trans fluid in that but to do so may require an overhaul of the trans. The best fluid for performance is a type F as it has way less friction modifiers and most performance trans fluids are based off it. The friction elements lock up faster with less slippage, though the ecu may not allow for that. If I was modding for performance I would be losing the ecu and using stand alone types for both engine and transmission, they would have total user programming interfacing, so adjustments could be made. I think drifting would be a kick, I'm just not sure what kinda car I'd use. Do they have different classes to run and rules for engines etc.???

Last edited by dicer; 04-30-15 at 04:03 PM.
Old 04-30-15, 05:05 PM
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PureDrifter
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you need something that meets the 3309/T-IV/aisin spec. anything will cause it to slip.

Finally someone else put's an LSD in, i've felt all alone for a while now, albeit mine's a more street-able torsen
Old 05-01-15, 06:11 PM
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Bill Dowd
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Putting a trans cooler on your car is the best thing you can do, I run both Mobile one and Max life in my trans both are synthetic and never lost a trans or PS or rear end using synthetic. My 91LS 400now has 324,000 still going strong I change my trans fluid and PS every 30,000. I had a 91 Toyota Cressida it went 530,000 miles when I sold it and nothing wore out. I also use a small trans cooler on my power steering on all my cars and never lost a PS rack and pinion my 2006 Camry only has 79,000 miles and again I used a trans cooler all my cars I use the biggest one I can cram into the car. I have driver thru Death Valley at 129 degrees plus and no problems a trans cooler will extended the life of your trans for years and years.
Old 05-02-15, 03:45 PM
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Wow, thanks for the quick response everyone!

Originally Posted by Finn
Tjena.

Have you checked your local Volvo-shop for fluid? Correct me if I'm wrong but it is supposed to be, as has been noted before, same Mobil 3309 in a different bottle.

I don't know if Volvo has several types of automatic transmission fluid, though.
Tja!

I skipped Volvo/Mazda dealers bco shortage of time and the guess that it would cost about as much Toyota.

Originally Posted by Banshee365
Type 'Toyota T-IV' in an eBay search. I bought a whole fast for like $58 recently. Best deal on the fluid out there.
If any of those would do it would be half of the allready cheaper one i found in the store!

Originally Posted by oldskewel
Sounds awesome. Please post some videos of it once you get the drifting going.

Regarding ATF, of course the Type T-4 (= Mobil 3309) is the spec, but I think in general these AT's are very strong so I would not worry too much. That universal substitute you list will probably get you by just fine. I think the Lexus owner's manual I have even says to use Type T-4, but if you can't get it in an emergency to just use DEXRON III and then change fluid when you can (which of course would never get all the DEX 3 out).

So I think you're fine. Just don't hit any walls while drifting.

Good luck.
Haha il try but im a noob at drifting as much as i am working on cars so it might not be pretty.
As for hitting walls: i sure hope not! That would end things faster than a slightly worse fluid.

My worries comes from reading a lot of forum threds on the subject where people have been yelled at for even considering using somethin other than Toyota stamped.

Originally Posted by timmy0tool
haha great thread, and gets me excited!

yes the car has a factory cooler built into the lower part of the radiator but can certainly benefit from an external one when drifting is planned for the future. really the benefit is increasing the fluid capacity but remember there is a working temperature for all fluids. get it too cold and it won't work properly. in other words, size the cooler appropriately (aka not too big)!

speaking of fluid i would stick to toyota t-IV or equivalent. i believe mazda also uses the same blend (search more to confirm this).

and i never knew they made a KAAZ diff that fit our rear ends! of course that takes special fluid too. keep us updated!
Glad to hear!
Im super excited about the diff! I bought it late last year (had a thread here about it) and was planning to install it my self but shortage of skill and garage made me finally have it done by a shop.
I had a lengthy discussion with Ray from Kaaz USA who confirmed with Japan that the Supra/GS DAT3020 diff is a match for any car with a 1uz fe engine. The only option is a 2-way though, id have a 1,5-way if i could choose.

I wish i had read that more thoroughly before i went to work on my other LS. I was trying to empty the coolant and black stuff came out when going for "one of those smaller hoses instead"

this much managed to escape before i came to my senses and plugged it back

can i drive it anyway or should i top it off before? Autos are really sensitive on levels from what ive read.

Originally Posted by dicer
At the start of the thread there's no mention of a wrecking yard save that's going to be drifting, so please forgive my ignorance. Its still a bunch of $$$ to have a shop do something as simple as adding the oil cooler. Since it is going to be a drifter are you planning on gutting a lot of the weight, like all the interior stuff? And maybe just removing the guts from the rear doors and just using the skins, welding them shut all for weight savings. I'd think the lighter it is the less power required to drift. I'd use what ever for trans fluid in that but to do so may require an overhaul of the trans. The best fluid for performance is a type F as it has way less friction modifiers and most performance trans fluids are based off it. The friction elements lock up faster with less slippage, though the ecu may not allow for that. If I was modding for performance I would be losing the ecu and using stand alone types for both engine and transmission, they would have total user programming interfacing, so adjustments could be made. I think drifting would be a kick, I'm just not sure what kinda car I'd use. Do they have different classes to run and rules for engines etc.???
No worries, its in better shape than i care to admit interior wise and other. Every panel and screw i removed from the interior was a tiny stab at my heart but it was the plan from the get go!

And i guess its easier than i thought to install the cooler from what ive learned today but i still have no place to be (used the warehouse at work for my other car today) and the shop gave me a really good price.

That fluid and tech talk is way above my level.

From what ive learned now sourcing parts for my soon to be drifter id go for a Nissan S13, nice when everything has been thought of allready. An LS still has its perks but way to much for a novice, but i love it and im way to stubborn to hit the breaks on this project!

Plans/Dreams for the future is a manual swap, otherwise id have it overhauled and a shift kit installed, but i figured a cooler was a must to get me through the summer.

Originally Posted by PureDrifter
you need something that meets the 3309/T-IV/aisin spec. anything will cause it to slip.

Finally someone else put's an LSD in, i've felt all alone for a while now, albeit mine's a more street-able torsen
Cause it to slip?

Partly because of your help in my diff thread

Was looking for a torsen for a "cheap fix" at first but they were nowhere to be found, and i refuse to weld a daily. :P

Originally Posted by Bill Dowd
Putting a trans cooler on your car is the best thing you can do, I run both Mobile one and Max life in my trans both are synthetic and never lost a trans or PS or rear end using synthetic. My 91LS 400now has 324,000 still going strong I change my trans fluid and PS every 30,000. I had a 91 Toyota Cressida it went 530,000 miles when I sold it and nothing wore out. I also use a small trans cooler on my power steering on all my cars and never lost a PS rack and pinion my 2006 Camry only has 79,000 miles and again I used a trans cooler all my cars I use the biggest one I can cram into the car. I have driver thru Death Valley at 129 degrees plus and no problems a trans cooler will extended the life of your trans for years and years.
Wow, youre experimenting a whole lot with oils it seems? Perhaps you could tell me what engine oil to use.
Reading forums is confusing but one way to go should be using a cheap high temp mineral, castrol gtx 20W-50 for example, and changing it a few times per season?
Old 05-02-15, 08:17 PM
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depending on how tight it was set up (initial torque) when it was installed you could have as twitchy a daily as if you had welded it. Tomei and Cusco both offer 1.5 way diffs that would have worked.

I'm referring to the lack of trans fluid causing it to "slip" . If that's ALL the fluid you lost you'll be fine, as long as the transmission fluid is near the line on the dipstick.
Old 05-07-15, 01:28 PM
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Originally Posted by PureDrifter
depending on how tight it was set up (initial torque) when it was installed you could have as twitchy a daily as if you had welded it. Tomei and Cusco both offer 1.5 way diffs that would have worked.

I'm referring to the lack of trans fluid causing it to "slip" . If that's ALL the fluid you lost you'll be fine, as long as the transmission fluid is near the line on the dipstick.
I heard Cusco etc were all so much more expensive that i didnt even bother looking them up. Besides, drift car so what the heck. :P
And i hope its not so tightly set up that it will be the same as welding it, what would be the point then?

Regarding the tranny i did that thing a favour, it was still well up to "warm level" even when cold.
Guess il replace it all as soon as i can anyway since ive bought two batches, of 10 liters each, of fluid.
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