I just took mine to the toyota dealer today. 187.00 for trans service. I would to have liked to do it myself like i did on my 400. But if something went wrong i want the dealership to handle it. And considering i am at 109k with orignal fluid than i am good with letting them do the job. Not sure how much was replaced guessing 4 qts based on receipt. Least i am good for a long while.

 

At 109,000 miles draining and filling 3 qts (pretty much what's going to drain out without removing the filter) isn't going to get your fluid even close to being clean. Your best bet is to go back and get the pan pulled and filter replaced at this point. Now you will get a good result combined with the previous drain and fill. Then I would say you were good for a long period of time forward.

 

I too would like to have this done by profession. If I have a fluid and filter change, would all 10.9 quarts be changed ? Is it ok to have it done at a Toyota dealership ? Does anyone have a ballpark figure how much this would be ?

 

What you need is to call Toyota or Lexus dealers or indepenpendent Toy shops and ask if they have a trans flush machine. This will do it right, especially if they pull the pan before or after and change the filter. One or two drain and fills and one filter change all at different intervals will do you pretty good also. I did the the second one (since I bought the car with 84k) and that's what it took to get it very clean. The previous records showed a drain and fill one time at the dealer. This did very little since my fluid was black. If you do drain and fills from new every 20k this will keep it clean enough throughout the cars life.

 

I would agree, but let's say you do simple drain and fills every year...it's only three quarts and this whole procedure takes around 30 minutes. Wouldn't that be sufficient? I mean people are paying close to $200 dollars for simple drain and fills and they're absolutely thrilled to do so.

I removed the pan when I did my first one, the reason being was when I drained the fluid it was so dark that I feared I'd need a transmission (and I'd just bought the car). I wanted to pull the pan to get a closer look at the magnets and check for shavings. Luckily everything was fine in there - no metal on the magnets - evidently the WS fluid gets pretty dark from heat and my car was a southern car operating in the Florida heat. I replaced the filter and gasket - a year later I did a simple drain and fill - the fluid looked like new this time around.

I got got a little cute when I did my second drain and fill; I decided to add the fluid through a transmission machine and I ended up putting a little too much fluid in. I drove around with maybe an extra quart of fluid in that transmission for 10,000 miles, the only reason why I found out is because I noticed some fluid around my pan gasket leaking out. I immediately knew I overfilled it. Sure enough I heated it up to temp and pulled the check plug...fluid came pouring out before it leveled off into the light stream that is required. But I honestly think this is a pretty easy procedure, I've done two drain and fills and a complete service to the thing since I've owned it.

 

My car has 96k and I don't believe a drain and fill will suffice. I think the only way to do this correctly is to change the filter otherwise it's going to get clogged over time.

 

Yeah that's the way I was thinking as well when I first did mine, after taking the pan down and changing that filter I kind of look at it differently now. The filter looked pretty darn good/clean and my magnets had virtually nothing stuck to them. I changed the filter anyway and felt good about doing it, however I don't think I'll ever change this filter again...don't care how many miles are on it...it just doesn't seem necessary. There are cars out there that never require a filter change, it's unserviceable, and the LS 460 technically is supposed to be "maintenance free", although that's laughable, I do think simple drain and fills are sufficient for most transmissions now. But like you I wanted that filter changed.

 

I double checked a pan drop and refill take 3.3qts. My receipt was for 4 qts. Guessing they didnt use all 4 qts. I called asked the toyota service rep said they drop the pan. The filter was not changed. I am okay with that. Wish the cost was half that than i would go back in 6 months or so and have them do it again.

A full service would be around 10 qts. If you work on the torque.

May have to get extra stands and see if i can a level lift on it. But would worry about it slipping off stands.

We do have a place that rents bays may have to look into that option too.

 

I would be totally shocked if they removed the pan. Stunned. There is absolutely no reason to do that, there is a drain plug on the bottom...no reason to pull the pan to do a simple drain and fill. I personally think that the service writer doesn't know what he's talking about - which happens a hell of a lot more than you could imagine - the writers usually get half the story, or none of it at all, and just fill in the blanks as they see fit. And most of the time that's just fine. When you order dinner and start asking the waiter what's the recipe, no one is surprised when they only are able to give you half the ingredients, but it still tastes good. That's all that matters.

 

I wanted to get a fluid and filter change because I'm getting slipping between 2nd and 3rd, mostly when cold. Has anyone had this ??

 

When you say cold, do you mean dead of winter cold, or the first two minutes after start up on any given day? Because if it's freezing out all transmissions act a little funny until they've heated up a bit, but I can't say I've had slipping...maybe a harsher shift here or there when it's 20 or bellow, but nothing close to major.

I think the cheapest - and perhaps safest - thing for you to have done would be a simple drain and fill to see if that helps. What do you got to lose?

 

Pulling the pan without changing the filter is useless. The service advisor lied to you. They never pulled your pan. You got a 3 qt drain and fill if they did anything at all. By the way if you change the filter you get another Qt out.

 

It's been the first couple of stop and go's all summer, right after the first start up ?? then it seems to be ok. I have had a slip into second into third after warm up a couple of times because I took off very easy with very little gas and for some reason it slipped into third. I'm gonna have to keep an eye on it but you're right, I'm gonna have a drain and fill and possibly a filter change as well. We'll see ?

 

Good luck, I'd say you're doing the right thing.mi suppose if you have high mileage on the vehicle and the fluids never been changed it could do you some good on a simple drain and fill or two. Perhaps the via city of the fluid has changed or its dirty and needs replacement. If that doesn't help then next step would be to drop the pan and change the filter. At lest there's no codes.

 

I totally agree. The things I've seen from service writers make me laugh...the stories they tell. Half of them have never even worked on a car in their life - and that's fine - but unfortunately people believe all of it. My brother in law does very well as a service manager, he worked his way up through the ranks, etc. He hasn't made less than $125,000 in ten years - even when he was just a writer he was pulling in $110,000. The funny thing is the guy can barely start his lawn mower...he doesn't know which way a screw driver should be held. I'm serious, but I love how good he is at up selling work. He's great at it. He knows how to talk to people, he's got a great attitude, but aside from the very basics of automotive, he knows nothing about cars.