My 02 sc430 is 9 years old and has 55k miles. I checked the transmission fluid, and it was kinda dark pinkish.

So I bought a few qts of Toyota ATF T-IV from amazon for about $5/qt. Today, I used the mityvac to suck out the ATF fluid from the dipstick tube, measured the fluid volume to be a little less than 2 qts (the manual says for a drain and fill it is 1.9 qts).

Then I added about 2 qts of the fresh Toyota ATF T-IV in the dipstick tube through a small funnel. All it took was 20 mins and $10. I may do another "drain and fill" soon.

Just did a test drive, the car shifts smooth like a baby's butt. . Well, it was shifting smoothly too before the ATF change. I think for 20 mins and $10 it feels good with the fresh fluid in there.

 

There is a transmission pan on the bottom of the car that has a drain plug for this "drain and refill" purpose. Why did you have to suck it out from the transmission dipstick?

 

It is easy, quick and clean. I don't have to jack up the car or get my hands dirty. I use mityvac to change engine oil too.

 

A drain and fill only removes about 2 litres of transmission fluid. There is alot of old fluid still in the torque converter.

To do a proper flush you need about 12-15 litres of transmission fluid to cycle though the system.

 

For normal driving a drain and fill is good enough. The old fluid still looked good.

There is a constant debate about the complete flush, especially for cars with a lot of miles on the transmission.

 

For reference the FSM for '02 models shows 1.9 US qt (1.8 L) for drain and fill but the dry fill volume is 9.4 US qt (8.9 L). So for each drain/fill you're replacing about 20% of the used fluid and unfortunately for every subsequent drain/fill you will also throw out 20% of the good oil you just put in. Mathematically you could never replace all the old oil this way but after 4 drain/fill cycles you will have a little over 5-1/2 quarts (about 59%) of new oil in the transmission.

 

The way I see it, multiple oil flush is cheaper than a transmission rebuild! I was looking at a BMW 545i recently and the transmission was rebuild at 110k km with a bill of $8500.00 AUD. The E60 545i was just out of warranty!

The BMW transmission suppose to have a sealed for life oil. Seems like sealed for life for the warranty of the car.


My SC400 has done over 500k km (the bottom part of the dash has stopped working), with a transmission flush every 1-2 years (depending on how I drive her). I use the SC400 for towing a couple of motorcycles all the time.

The tranny still shift as smooth as as new, no leaks from any of the seals.

I always use Toyota Type IV fluid.

So changing it often is cheap insurance.

 

Your car doesn't have a lot of miles lol a flush would be best in your case. But I guess a drain is better than nothing.