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Bought a few quarts of synthetic Amsoil ATF (the one with the blue cap) that's compatible with Toyota WS ATF with the intent on doing a couple drain/refills and realized it might not be a good idea to mix without doing a full flush. Has anybody mixed synthetic and Toyota WS ATFs? I've found conflicting information regarding this topic. I like the better thermal properties of synthetic but also don't want to risk damaging the transmission if the fluids aren't compatible.
From what I understand Toyota WS is synthetic, although maybe the information I was given was wrong. Factory fill is Aisin brandATF. Amsoil is likely a better product than the Toyota WS so I wouldn't worry about mixing the two. I thought about changing my fluid out to Amsoil ATF but just recently did the 12 quarts of the Toyota WS trickle change and the fluid is a nice red and looks completely fresh. I do use Amsoil Signature with Mobile 1 filters for oil and feel it is the best oil I have ever used.
You can't go wrong with Amsoil, in my opinion it's the best Synthetic you can buy hence the premium in price.
This is what 68.000 miles / 110.000 km transmission fluid looks like. Normal driving, no mountains, no towing, daily driven by one person in moderate climate.
Drained fluid had lightly burned smell to it. It wasn't terribly bad but I figured at that mileage transmission could use fresh fluid.
All you need is 24 and 14mm sockets for a simple drain and fill. For overflow tube you need 6mm hex key.
Torque specs are:
Refill plug with new "O" ring 29ft-lb.
Overflow plug with new gasket 15ft-lb.
Drain plug with new gasket 15ft-lb.
Because these have a pan and filter I'd opt for both coming off.
If not into that amount of work, I'd do this. It gets 4 to 4.5qts in one stop as it dumps some of the fluid from the converter into the pan.
Pull the drain bolt and measure what come out (roughly 2.5 qts). Start the car tap the throttle while in park. Turn off engine keeping your run time under 5 seconds. Measure what comes out.
Fill trans with the amount **ORIGINALLY DRAINED**, insert fill plug and start the car to suck up the fluid and fill the torque converter. Let it idle for 30 seconds. Now add the remainder of the fluid removed.
Doing this process and if you drop the pan and filter you can get 4.5qts in one stop. That's 1/2 the fluid.
Use Techstream for best results....
PS only mix if it says backwards compatible. Like Yoda, Mazda has their own long life fluid but years ago I mixed Royal Purple synthetic as they claimed 100% comparability with dino fluids....
This is what 68.000 miles / 110.000 km transmission fluid looks like. Normal driving, no mountains, no towing, daily driven by one person in moderate climate.
Drained fluid had lightly burned smell to it. It wasn't terribly bad but I figured at that mileage transmission could use fresh fluid.
All you need is 24 and 14mm sockets for a simple drain and fill. For overflow tube you need 6mm hex key.
Torque specs are:
Refill plug with new "O" ring 29ft-lb.
Overflow plug with new gasket 15ft-lb.
Drain plug with new gasket 15ft-lb.
Clearly looks brownish, not blackish, and important thing imho is 68k. Virtually not possible to have burned up the fluid at that mileage. Even ChrisFix states replacing burned fluid doesn't harm the transmission, if we get literal, it harms the performance because the clutch material is already shot and is drained out with the old fluid. I could always be wrong but I have a better inclination now after everything I've read, and actually touching and smelling fluid from my wife's. I started on the side of don't touch it, you could ruin your tranny. So wrong....(and to think per this forum some dealerships follow that mantra)
p.s. with such low torque numbers might be better to do by feel with a 1/4 or 3/8 drive, since torque wrenches cannot go below 20% of the max of their range. Many are 5-75 i.e. 15 is the lowest and they are bordering on inaccurate there. I tried on my wife's converting the in lbs. and it was 8-- my 5-75 torque wrench could not do 8....never clicked.
Because these have a pan and filter I'd opt for both coming off.
If not into that amount of work, I'd do this. It gets 4 to 4.5qts in one stop as it dumps some of the fluid from the converter into the pan.
Pull the drain bolt and measure what come out (roughly 2.5 qts). Start the car tap the throttle while in park. Turn off engine keeping your run time under 5 seconds. Measure what comes out.
Fill trans with the amount **ORIGINALLY DRAINED**, insert fill plug and start the car to suck up the fluid and fill the torque converter. Let it idle for 30 seconds. Now add the remainder of the fluid removed.
Doing this process and if you drop the pan and filter you can get 4.5qts in one stop. That's 1/2 the fluid.
Use Techstream for best results....
PS only mix if it says backwards compatible. Like Yoda, Mazda has their own long life fluid but years ago I mixed Royal Purple synthetic as they claimed 100% comparability with dino fluids....
Does this method of draining work for the 2006 is350 as well and is it safe?
I would just check to see it was JWS 3309 compliant. It should have been on the amsoil label. That seemed to be the main thing I recalled with Toyota WS ATF when I used it in my Mini that also used Aisin 6 speed autos. Mini owners would go buy it from Toyota dealerships since it was $5-10 a quart vs $40 a quart for the same thing with a Mini label stuck to the bottle.
Just an update:
- I had the dealer replace about half of the trans fluid with Amsoil ATF and haven't had any new problems so that's good
- Car is at about 90k miles; I bought it used and doubt the trans fluid had ever been changed.
- I had hoped the fluid change would address the occasional hard shifting but it didn't.
When do you notice this hard shift?
If it's during the warm up cycle I would be less concerned. If it does it when fully warmed (driving for 15 minutes nonstop) then I may want to investigate further.
Of course you could reset its leaning curve by pulling a couple of ECU fuses and see how it responds to that.
10-16-17, 09:55 AM
Mixing synthetic ATF with WS transmission fluid?
