HELP! How to refill automatic tranny fluid!?
 

I was trying to change oil on my mom's SC400 the other day and I believed I have drained the wrong pan. I believe I drained the tranmission fluid, which is located right behind the oil pan. Am I correct? If that's the case, I want to refill it but I have no idea where to start or how to proceed this. Does anyone have links, procedures, tips on how I can myself out of this mess? I searched online for hours and no info has been found on how to do the job....

:-) thanks for the smile. I got rejected from pepperdine today, so I needed it!

For future reference, many of us regulars request you use the search button -- a search under ATF will turn up a massive number of results... quite possibly by yours truly ;)

You're going to want genuine T-IV toyota ATF -- anything else will do bad things to your mom's tranny. You can refill the fluid you drained most likely with a single 4 L can -- that'll set you back about 30 bills. You will most likely not use the full can because the pan only holds about 2 L. I know because I drained my ATF pan twice.

The good news is that swapping out some ATF fluid is a good thing (as long as you replace it!). The SC400 tranny (similar to the MKIV Supra TT tranny) needs to have a fluid swap every 15k. The manual says so, and if you don't you're at risk of ruining your torque converter, or at the very least, developing a flutter/vibration like I did. Check out the link at the bottom of my post for more info.

Refilling is a simple matter -- buy a decent funnel from autozone, and pour the fluid down the dipstick fill tube. Be very careful not to overfill or under fill -- these both are bad things.

The dipstick should be close to the rear of the engine bay. It'll be colored either yellow or orange and say something along the lines of "ATF" on it.

I apologize if I'm being vauge, but it's 2AM, and I don't own the 400 anymore so I'm working off of my gray matter... which wants me to go to bed!

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...threadid=45980


Here's the area that the ATF dipstick should be.

Whoa that is a clean engine, Toyota emblem and ACTIVE SUSPENSION nice !!

haha not mine -- just something I came across using google's image search.

:)


JT

i just drained my tranny fluid yesterday and my brakes. but i have a 300 so i dont know about the 400. since you drained it why not just drop the pan and clean it out, put in a new filter, reseal it and fill it back up. your going to need draxxon III oil for it. i dont think they make draxxon II anymore.

Right, he doesn't. No Dextron in an SC400 tranny, only Toyota T-IV.

George

Not to flame, but re-read my post and check my link to my previous post. The SC300 and the SC400 have two different trannies. There has been an in-depth discussion about ATF fluid and Toyota's proprietary formula for T-IV ATF needed for the SC400 tranny.

Just a heads up.

JT

Thanks, SuperCoupe3
 

I know popping a question before doing a search is a taboo and will "get owned" by other memebrs of the car forum. :egads:

So I just wanna let you know that I did exhaust my search remedies (searched automatica transmission fluid instead of ATF for hours) before I asked the question. Anyways, I put in 2 quarts of ATF type T-IV and I hope that would close the issue. Thanks again, SuperCoupe, for your insightful posting.

hkstallion, no problem, glad to help out someone else who's been victimized by the slushbox :)

stick around -- you'll learn tons just by reading. There are a lot of very bright people floating around this forum.


John