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Well done. Glad to hear that you achieved excellent results. I would not worry about leaving out the magnets.
As you concluded, I do not believe it is necessary to drop the pan if you do a series of drain-and-fills early enough in the lifespan of the vehicle. I did my first series at 65,000 miles and expect to do it again at 110,000 to 120,000 miles if we keep the vehicle that long. I do not anticipate ever having to drop the pan. The vehicle now has 83,500 miles and its transmission continues to operate exactly as designed.
The days of automatic transmissions having dipsticks are long gone. Dipsticks make it way too easy and inexpensive for the average Joe to spend 30 minutes changing his own ATF in his driveway. No automotive manufacturer wants that to happen these days. They want you to have to book an appointment with them and then pay them an insane amount of money for an ATF refresh. Sad but true. I have ATF dipsticks on my 1999 Ram and 2013 Outback 3.6R and I really appreciate that. No ATF dipsticks on my wife's 2015 RX350 or 2006 Jaguar XK8 so they are much more complicated and time-consuming to do.
The moral of the story is simply this: Fresh ATF is always a good idea, especially when you are able to do it yourself....
I agree with you. I don't know what toyota was thinking with the non dipstick. Maybe it was to please dealerships. Toyota and lexus is just too reliable and dealerships want to make money. The dealership charged my sister 500 for a brake fluid change! I was so upset she didn't ask me if it was b.s. Dealerships are the scourge of the market. Manufacturers don't like them and consumers don't like them. My apologies to anyone reading this who works at a dealership.
Yep, far too many dealerships rip off every customer gullible enough not to shop around these days. Well-respected indie shops are the way to go post-warranty. Fortunately there are a couple in our area that I occasionally go to when I am not equipped or do not have the skills to do the job at hand.
Yes, they never looked at your fluid. They assumed you had no idea what was involved and just lied about because Lexus said it was sealed for life - which it is not. The owners manual states that under severe conditions to do a fluid change at 60,000 miles. VW used a version of this transmission and had so many failures under warranty they sent out a notice to get the fluid changed at 40,000 miles!
This is a long story but it is how I decided that if on the initial drain you get less than 2 to 2 1/4 quarts of fluid then your ATF fluid is low.
I bought a used 2013 Sienna that has the same engine & transmission and 89,000 miles. I did not know the service history but the throttle response off the line was slow compared to the RX although it ran and shifted well.
I did a transmission drain and fill and only about a quart and a half came out. When I filled it back I added 4 ounces more and it shifted and accelerated better. On the second cold drain and fill I added a little more fluid and by the 4th drain and fill I put in 2 1/4 quarts which is what the RX takes. After that fill the Sienna had the same instant throttle response and shifting as the RX. It lead me to believe it had low fluid. It did not have any leaks. It may have been low from the factory or had a sloppy transmission service previously. It ran great for 20,000 miles when I traded it in for the 2016 Sienna that was a lot nicer. When I did a drain and fill on the 2016 Sienna I got 2 1/4 quarts!
Here is a link to the Yoda of Toyota - The Car Care Nut on youtube. He is a Toyota Master Tech who recently left the dealer and opened his own shop. This goes into detail on doing the insanely complicated temperature sensitive transmission fluid level check. He covers a few cars, but pay attention to the 6 speed automatic. It was used in many Toyota and Lexus vehicles.
Well, between you and Rx in NC, you likely saved me from a transmission shop that was going to refill it too low. The place near me in east TX only does fluid changes on Monday mornings and when I pressed for the details, they said they connect the car to the computer and run it at operating temperature and use the red tube as the overflow indicator. When I asked about the spec saying that was only good at 104-110 degrees they said no, they run it to operating temperature and use the red plastic tube. Which after reading 100+ threads and watching two 30 minute Youtube videos, I believe that would cause my transmission to be under filled. So I'm getting the Idemitsu fluid and will follow your cold fill procedure. Your guys are great!
Wise decision to DIY. It is the only way to guarantee that the procedure is being performed correctly. And it truly is easy as long as you are willing to measure your drained ATF for three successive drain-and-fills. Let us know how it goes.
There was a guy on eBay that I stumbled across (he was located in Texas) selling his own design transmission fluid change kit for the U660e that uses a longer metal overflow tube designed to work at transmission operating temperature. I bought one a few years ago put it in the RX and after some testing decided he was a genius and that Toyota should have done this at the factory.
He did advise to install the tube and with the car off to move the shift lever through all the gears to be sure there was no interference. I had no problems.
He also provided a fill tube that attached to the fill hole on the side with a nice banjo bolt and went up into the engine compartment where I strapped it near the battery. It has a PVC container at the top to pour fluid in and a snap on top. I have been using it for a few years.
The instructions are to drain and fill, then drive 15 minutes and idle it on level ground for 5 minutes and while idling remove the drain plug and let if overflow to a drip and you are done.
However, I can no longer find him listing it on eBay.
There is a factory level check method using a level check gauge and specifies AT temp in normal operating range (185-194°F). The method described above using the standard plastic overflow tube and temp 105-113 is just an alternative method.
