handogg

The good thing about changing ATF Via this method is you get it all changed out at once (can be a good or bad thing). The other pretty nice benefit is that you don't have to get under the center of the car to drain nor have to get in and up to refill.

The trend on this forum is to NOT FLUSH out ALL ATF at once but rather to drain and refill 2 quarts at a time. The majority of people believe that doing a full flush is not necessary and is actually harmful for the Transmission. At the same time, no one seems to know 100% for sure and is just going off of what someone else's friend of a friend of a friend who is a Lexus employee of some capacity said. Also keep in mind Lexus doesn't even recommend changing ATF at all because it is "Lifetime" fluid. I personally am not a believer in the fluid is keeping the transmission held together theory. Do as you wish but at your own risk. I did this on a 2004 LS430 w/ 83k miles but this presumably will work on any sealed transmission LS430 2004-2006 or any car for that matter really.

I went ahead and flushed out 13 quarts and it looks as if it could have used another 2 bottles. I wasn't going to make a trip to the dealer for more ATF so I just went ahead and called it a day with the 13 bottles. Strangely enough the Toyota WS was cheaper at Lexus than at Toyota by about 2 bucks a bottle !

I successfully did this and drove the car afterwards to run some errands. The Car shifts much smoother than before. I did not experience anything negative.

I used...
An oil pump - can be found at any auto parts store
Large glass containers - Glass is better than plastic because plastic can bend and reshape which may cause inaccuracies in your measurements - I found some large glass vases at the dollar store The glass Vases held ABOUT ONE QUART.
INSIDE Diameter 3/8 vinyl tubing - can be found at home depot for less than $5
Some clips to attach the hose to your glass vase
A LARGER Container or temporary place for your used ATF
A second person to help you out if possible.

The process of doing the flush is as follows.

Jack up the car on either side so that you can have access to the undercarriage.
remove the lower engine cover.
locate the radiator. At the bottom of the radiator, you will see 2 small hoses. These are transmission lines. Follow the hoses to the metal lines.
Disconnect hoses and connect your vinyl tubing. As you disconnect the hoses, point them up so they do not leak ATF (I tucked them up into spaces near the cooling fan)
The shorter of the two lines will be the line that spits out the nasty old black ATF
The longer of your two lines is the return line back to the transmission. Connect this hose to your hand oil pump

Connect the end of your discharge hose to your glass discharge container. Have a helper hold it in place or use some sort of stable holder for your container and your clip. If you have a spill before your measurement, you're screwed (so keep that in mind)

Start the car and watch your discharge container fill up. Shut the car off when your container is about 3/4 full. Carefully maneuver ATF that is still in the hose into the container
put an identical container next to it and fill it with NEW ATF until you've matched the amount in your discard container and use your hand pump to pump it back through the return line.

The first container came out PITCH BLACK
By about the 8th container/quart the atf was coming out brown
By about the 10th, it was slightly red
by container 13, it was mostly red

Another quart or two would have sealed the deal but unfortunately, I ran out.
So yes before you ask, I started and shut off the car 13 times.

You want to do this with the car completely COLD
after the 3rd container, I could already feel the ATF was getting warm but NOT hot.
You will lose minimal amounts of ATF when disconnecting the lines and from ATF that is stuck in the hoses/oil pump that does not make it back to the metal return line (I compensated and guestimated the amount) If it is not 100% exact but close enough - I imagine you'll be just fine.

k7q

iTrader: (37)

Great job. I bought my 05 LS at 200k miles. Previous owner neglected it. I flushed mines and it slipped. rebuilding it wasn't too bad since I had a buddy do it.

handogg

It was shifting normally before the flush and after the flush started slipping ?

mannye

Need WAY more information here...

Did you carefully measure the amount of fluid you took out and replaced? Over or underfilling can cause....you guessed it... slippage.
Was it slipping already?
You then had to rebuild the transmission? Were you going to do this anyway?

mannye

handogg!!! Epic post! I love it. Thank you for taking the time to post this!

HAve you had a chance to drive more and notice if the fluid change is still making a difference? What about the fluid in the cooler itself? Can you specify the make and model of the pump you used?

Johnhav430

This reminded me of when my buddy cheated on his wife, they separated, he moved into an apt., then they got back together, and moved into a nice new house. I was moving one of his barbells, and the 45 lb. plate fell off cuz the collar wasn't tight, and it hit the new hardwood floor....BANG!! I felt horrible. He goes, don't worry, I was gonna get the floors redone anyway. Really?

NO.

k7q

iTrader: (37)

I bought the car with this transmission problem. It would down shift hard from 3rd to 2nd and 2nd to 1st. Slipped after flush


I bought the car with this transmission problem. It would down shift hard from 3rd to 2nd and 2nd to 1st. Replaced filter and did a couple of drain and fills.

Yes, drained 2 quarts then fill 2 quarts? Not hard to do.

Didn't slip. Hard down shifts 3 to 2, 2 to 1.

I had a feeling I had to rebuild the transmission anyways since I bought it with a problem.

TSB was done and still same problem. Took to dealer and replaced the ecu for $1800 to fix the problem.

Wow, only one of the grip clip failed and one 45 plate dropped? You were able to balance the other end from falling. You must be a typical Lexus owner. Super strong. thumb's up to you!

handogg

Thanks from the Thanks button are appreciated !!

Fluid in the cooler stayed in the cooler. I lost a bit when disconnecting but only a nominal amount.

I drive every day. Car is perfect.. Next on the to do list.. second tran oil cooler. wired in dash cam and some sort of tv entertainment system w/ an xbox. I don't even play xbox but think it would be cool to have !

I don't have a specific model for the oil pump but they are pretty universal and sold and any auto store.

Johnhav430

haha just thought of something else, the reason I felt so bad, was that when I was 19, I finally bought a new guitar, after playing junk all my life with terrible action. My roommate hits a coffee table with it, ON DAY 1. And he didn't even play the guitar. I was so angry and held it against him. Funny how I damaged my buddy's brand new solid hardwood floor and he joked about it. Guess when you grow up that happens....I was pretty ripped in 2004 when I was in with this workout klatch in the office....Jack Lalanne would have walked the other way if he saw me!

LiCelsior

iTrader: (32)

awesome job man.

doodoo

iTrader: (8)

Its been a while since I've been on here. But anyway back to the subject of this thread, I really want to do this since mine is a 2004 with almost 130k miles. No issues with my tranny and shifts fine. I have 13 qts. What I wanted to know is if it would be ok to drain out more than one quart at a time? I don't want to start my car 13 times honestly especially on a cold motor as well. Perhaps 6 quarts, pump in 6 quarts and then 7 quarts to finish it off? Or perhaps 5,4, then 4? I am thinking of just getting 2 clear storage bin containers and marking those two to drain and fill the correct amount. I have a hand pump and the clear tubing already. Planning to do it next week hopefully.

Gronemus

I've been meaning to post some of my experiences when I changed my fluid earlier this summer but have never found the time. Here is a brief description of what I did.

Bought a one gallon cheap sprayer from Menards for about $8. Also picked up a few feet of clear hose, I believe about 3/8" inner diameter. Modified sprayer so that clear tube directly attached where the spray wand came out of the bottle.

Next, I disconnected the rubber hose between the return line to the transmission and the radiator and attached the hose from the sprayer to the metal line leading back to the transmission. I then attached another clear line from the nipple on the radiator and ran this to an empty 5 quart oil container. I could use the graduation marks on the bottle to tell me how much fluid I pumped out.

Fill up sprayer with transmission fluid. Start the car up. Pump out as much fluid as you feel comfortable with, stop engine. Pump up the sprayer and be amazed at how easy and quickly the fluid goes back into the transmission. Rinse and repeat. I'd bet that I could do a full flush in less that 30 minutes using this method.

I wasn't sure about my initial starting value and ended up checking the fluid level using the proper method described elsewhere but if you are careful in how you keep track of how much fluid you take out, you should be able to put back the same amount.





Good luck...

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

​​​​​​Hey I wanted to know how exactly did you modify that sprayer to pump the ATF back into your tranny when you did your flush? I figure this would speed up the process since I plan on doing my GS and LS soon. Thanks in advance.

Johnhav430

Prior to doing my wife's (in which 5/12 comes out and it has a dipstick), I thought "black" was a death knell. Her car had 71k original. After only one change, the color changed to sorta light/clear with a reddish. Pretty sure the 2nd change is gonna make it cherry red. Even though it appeared black in a clear plastic bottle, it was not burnt, and did not appear black when smeared on a white paper towel, more med brownish...my conclusion is it would be nice to be cherry red, but not being so does not seem (to me at least) as bad as it sounds or looks if black. It really depends on the angle. Smearing on a white paper towel and smell likely tells a lot...

campisi

I used the same method as OP when I changed my transmission fluid. I'm original owner and I changed the fluid at about 97K miles. Stuff I pumped out was more like mud-colored but didn't smell burned. Replaced almost exactly as the OP did and all's been well since. The transmission shifted and behaved perfectly before the change and it still shifts and behaves perfectly. No "improvement" in performance noted between old and new fluid. I'll be doing it at 150K miles though after seeing that brown gloop that came out at 97K.