Transmission Oil Change

[Alice L]

For those of you who tow frequently, do you change the transmission oil in your tow vehicle? I have a 2012 Rav4, V6 with 45K. About 8K has been towing a 13' Scamp and T@B, both under 2500#, the rest of the mileage is split between highway and town. It has never had the transmission oil changed. Would I be asking for potential problems if I changed it now? The engine oil/filter is changed every 5K faithfully.
Thanx.

[Glenn Baglo]

I have all service done on time. I have low miles, but no matter, my RAV4 is serviced every six months; transmission fluid, differentials, oil, filter, whatever is on the list for service at that time.
When they change all the fluids it is painful in the pocketbook, but, "you can pay me now or you can pay me later".

I only have 81,000 kilometers ( 50,000 miles ) on my almost 8-year-old RAV.

[Jon in AZ]

All the vehicles I have owned had a regular service schedule and a severe service schedule. Severe service includes extended idling, lots of short trips, stop-and-go driving, carrying heavy loads, and towing.

Since I tow a trailer that only weighs about half the rated towing capacity and towing only accounts for about 10% of the miles I drive each year, I could probably get away with following the regular service schedule. But I expect 200K trouble-free miles from my vehicles, so I follow the severe service schedule for engine and transmission oil changes. For my Pilot, that's every 5K for the engine and every 30K for the transmission.

[bpfick]

My Tacoma requires synthetic oil every 5000 miles. Rather frequent for a modern vehicle, but that's fine with me. I enjoy doing myself.

As for the transmission, I purposely bought this transmission as it is still "user serviceable". A simple plug and out comes 4 quarts. It take 3 such changes to effectively rotate through the oil, but that's fine. I do this annually.

I had a Honda CR-V that we towed behind it hard and often, poor thing. Yet? With twice a year dumps of 3 quarts and replacement, we put 180,000 hard miles on it, in 11 years, without a whimper. The constant renewal of the additives is what is at work here, for our benefit, I believe. Not cost prohibitive.

I use pure synthetic transmission fluid, although, technically it is merely Grp III off the shelf type synthetic, which isn't the ultra-expensive Group 4 stuff that is out there. Too technical? Pure Synthetic off the shelf from Wal-Mart, famous name brand. :-)

[Kevin K]

My opinion change at
50,000
100,000
125,000
150,000
175,000
200,000

[DanoFL]

I follow my vehicle manufactures maint. schedule. Most have 2 schedules- one for heavy use & another for light use.

Do you have a manual tranny or an automatic?

[Uplander]

Check the color of your transmission fluid. It should be a bright cherry red...if not change it yesterday !

I have my Toyota FJ Cruiser which tows a 4,500 pound trailer spring, summer and fall, serviced by my dealer and they decide when and what gets changed.
I only have oil changes done by others if I'm on the road away from home base camping when my service light comes on. Even then I try to supervise the workers at these quick oil change places as most are not very professional.

If you tow without a trans cooler you might consider changing your fluid more often. If you tow a lot get a good trans-cooler installed. Heat is the enemy of your trans fluid....dark reddish brown fluid indicates you cooked the fluid and transmission.

[DanoFL]

My Toyota dealer (like many dealers) recommends 3000 mile oil changes - which is more then Toyota recommends. Yes they like people coming to their dealership - with money.

s to the color of your tranny fluid - that varies depending on several factors. Manual trann. usually have various weight of motor oil. Automatic are usually red. Ny 2011 Nissan xterra uses a clear ATF fluid.

It is time to get out your owners manual and to download the service schedule from the toyota website.

I would advise that you NOT do any of the power trann flushes offered by oil change places. The 'standard' service of an autotran involves draining the fluid in the pan and changing the filter (which is really more of a screen). One can disconnect an atf line from the cooler and actually pump all the ATF out of the tran while adding fluid in at the same rate. In my 93 winnie warrior (toy V6/ auto), which has a drain plug on the ATF pan, after first dropping the pan and changing the filter, I have since drained the 2 quarts in the pan and replaced it. Doing this on a regular basis somewhat changes the fluid. Note that most auto tran contain a lot more then 2 quarts - mine has 10 quarts - but it is suspended in a number of places so it cannot be "drained" without extensive disassembly.

Why do I NOT recommend power flushes? They force fluid in and simultaneously suck fluid out - usually thru the fill tube. Used tranns build up minute bits of coating in various places - a power flush can break these up and if one of these pieces blocks one of the many rather small passageways it can cause big problems.

[Uplander]

My Toyota dealer told me changing oil in less than 5,000 miles is a waste of money.

I trust my dealer for transmission service never quick oil change places.

I thought this discussion was about automatic transmissions and not Manual transmissions. Automatic transmissions are better for towing as they are stronger than manual transmissions and tend to shift better than most operators of stick shift vehicles.

[Alice L]

The manual suggests 30,000 miles for tranny oil changes, cost seems high at around $200. Not sure why the high price when the materials aren't too expensive. But, like the man said, 'pay now or pay later.' Guess I'll pony up. I like the vehicle and want it to last. They don't make v6's in the Rav since 2013.

[Glenn Baglo]

Took my Subaru to a quick oil change place and all the kid managed to do is round the head on the drain plug. They gave up trying to open it and sent me on my way. Had to go to the dealer.

[DanoFL]

I do not trust my Nissan dealer - I have seen things that concern me. Glad yours is doing a better job.

The discussion of manual versus auto would be quite a discussion. Modern autos are pretty good. Of course what matters here is the type of Tranny Alice L has.

[Captleemo]

My advice is to switch to synthetic transmission fluid weather it is an automatic trans or manual. Either way synthetic trans fluid will withstand the heat generated by towing better than conventional fluids. The same goes for the motor oil. I have a 2002 Tacoma and I have been running the synthetic lubricants since I bought it. With this Tacoma I started to shift the automatic transmission into neutral whenever I'm at a red light as I believe it reduces wear and tear on the transmission. I didn't always do this but it seems to make sense. Maybe everybody else does that already and I'm just a Johnny come lately, I don't know.

[bpfick]

On a 2015 Toyota Tacoma, BOTH the engine oil and the trans fulid were synthetic from the factory and the manual expressly insists on synthetic, not even a blend. Honestly, most tech and engineers will tell you that is likely over kill, but so what? (Since Toyota had that engine sludging issue 10 years ago, they're hyper sensitive about regular, high quality engine oil changes. It's pretty much a CYA thing). The price of off the shelf synthetics is virtually the same as semi-synthetics anyhow. No big deal. As I said, I do it myself. It's easy and I enjoy doing my service and knowing it's done right, like my daddy taught me a half century ago. Oil doesn't really wear out, but the collection of impurities and the loss of additive agents do.

My Trans changes, in the manual call for 30K miles, severe service. I do it annually because I do the acceptable drain plug drop. This is the least "complete drop" of the fluid, so every master tech I've ever shot the breeze with says do it twice as often, or 15K roughly, and that computes to annually for me.

I strongly agree with avoiding those forced flushes. Just don't do it!!! So many reasons why not.

[Radar1]

I follow the "severe service" interval for transmission fluids on my Dodge and Subaru and use the factory fluid just so I don't get something that isn't quite right since there are so many types out there now.
I change my engine oil and filter every 5,000 miles with synthetic oil using the grade specified for towing (My Subaru requires a higher viscosity when towing).
I still do my own changes after a bad experience at a quick lube place.

[Joe MacDonald]

My first lumina apv had about 200,000 kilometers when I changed the tranny fluid. I got another 160,000km. Before the body shop burnt it. My second apv had 375,000km, never had the fluids changed. I never had trouble with either one. My envoy has 225000km, haven't touched it yet either. When I had my Hyundai excel, the shop changed the fluid when the car was at about 375,000km. I made it about 15km, and the tranny quit working

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Alice L

The manual suggests 30,000 miles for tranny oil changes, cost seems high at around $200. Not sure why the high price when the materials aren't too expensive. But, like the man said, 'pay now or pay later.' Guess I'll pony up. I like the vehicle and want it to last. They don't make v6's in the Rav since 2013.

Alice that is the same as what they use to charge me to change the transmission fluid on my Subaru Outback as well.

When I pulled with the Outback I did have the transmission fluid changed each year due to the large number of towing miles I was putting on the car as well as due to the weight of the trailer - close to its tow limit. The reason for the high cost was the price of the transmission fluid that was recommended by the vehicle manufacturer. I looked into buying some and doing it myself but it turned out the fluid was pricey and about 75% of the total cost.... so I had them do it.

As has been mentioned not all vehicles take the same transmission fluid. Not only are the colours different so is the pricing of it.

My current truck fortunatly takes a much less expensive transmission fluid and much easier to change then the Outback.

[Wallo]

Got away for $150 for engine and tranny oil change. The service dept. Recommended 40-45k miles for tranny. Had just a "drain and fill" done, not the "force flush". At least if anything goes wrong less than 100k miles it's covered under warranty. Not sure if oils were synthetic or not. Counting on dealer to know correct type. Thanks for all the info.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Fiberglass RV mobile app

[Carl V]

Originally Posted by Captleemo

With this Tacoma I started to shift the automatic transmission into neutral whenever I'm at a red light as I believe it reduces wear and tear on the transmission.

Actually, it's the opposite.
When you're waiting at a red light in gear, there is absolutely no wear on the transmission. The torque converter is slipping, and that causes no mechanical wear at all.
Wear occurs when gears are selected. When a gear engages, there is a slight wear on the clutch pack every time, just like when you let go the clutch on a manual. It only lasts a split second.Once the gear is engaged, there is no wear. When the engine is under load (ex: accelerating) this wear is more important. Of course it normally takes thousands or millions gears shifts to wear out a transmission, and when the engine is idling the wear is minimal, but still, shifting from D to N or N to D for no reason engages and releases the 1st gear clutch, and not only offers absolutely no benefit it actually causes unnecessary wear.

Regarding the torque converter slipping: in an automatic, the torque converter is what replaces the clutch found in manual transmissions, it links the engine with the transmission and the rest of the gear train. Imagine two ventilation fans facing each other. You turn one fan ON, the other will spin too (a bit slower) because of the airflow. Torque converter works the same, except the fans are a turbine and an impeller and they sit in the transmission fluid. The engine spins the turbine, which drives the impeller and the transmission, creating an hydraulic coupling between the engine and the drivetrain. This "soft" coupling allows the turbine and impeller (the engine and transmission) to spin at different speeds and makes smoother gear shifts. When you're stopped at a right light in gear, the turbine spins but since you are not moving the impeller doesn't. There is no contact or direct link between the two, there is no wear, it's just the oil circulating around.

In a word: shifting in N at stop lights is not a good idea.

[Carl V]

Lots of Toyotas here it seems.
Not all vehicles have a drain plug on the transmission pan, but mine has (Highlander). I'm glad for it because removing the pan is much more difficult on my vehicle. There are a couple bolts on the pan that are just behind a crossmember and are very hard to remove.

Unlike engine oil, draining the transmission pan doesn't drain all the ATF. There is still some that remains in the torque converter and in the pan itself (the drain hole is recessed). On mine I can drain about 75% of the ATF.

I've done it once (the fluid was noticeably dark), refilled, drove the vehicle for one week, then drained and refilled again. So I've replaced over 90% of the fluid, which is now bright red. That was 2 years ago, I intend to do it once again next spring. I used Mobil 3309 ATF, which is the equivalent of Toyota's Type IV ATF.

A drain and refill is pretty simple, similar to an engine oil change. Lots of videos on Youtube that explains the procedure for various vehicles.