Transmission fluid change and the torque converter??

theryanator · 11-01-2005, 06:04 PM

I talked to my dealership about what fluid they recommend to use to change my trans fluid because I was going to be doing it on my own as my father in law is a municipal mechanic and has the machine to change it. My dealership said that I should have the dealership do it, because that way they could also make sure the fluid was drained out of the torque converter which we would not be able to do if we did it on our own. When I drain the trans fluid on our own doesnt it automatically drain the torque converter as well? If it does not, is this something I should make sure gets done(draining the torque conv.) or is it not a big deal???

Is this a case of "Stealership Tactics" or something that I should consider?

The dealership has me confused now, which I suppose is right where they want me so that I just give in and pay them $300 to do it for me...

Thanks...

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NathanBERG · 11-01-2005, 07:27 PM

First off, Don't ever take your rig to the STEALERSHIP!!!
Yes, if you just drain the tranny there will be fluid left behind in the torque converter and internal lines. The only way to get all this fluid out is to flush it out.
In my opinion, all you need to do is drop the Transmission pan and replace the filter and fluid. If you want to get it flushed then take it to a Good auto repair shop in your area. and save yourself a couple hundred bucks!!

Robinhood150 · 11-01-2005, 08:45 PM

You can also flush it yourself for free. It takes about 12-14 quarts for a full flush, draining and dropping the pan only gets about 1/3 of it out.

A search for tranny flushes should bring up the DIY method.

Robinhood150 · 11-01-2005, 10:42 PM

Excellent job on searching (saw that you brought up another post)

. I'll add that you should check out www.gadgetonline.com. He's got a procedure outlined and other nifty info. Amsoil also has an outline on their website.

marko3xl3 · 11-01-2005, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NathanBERG

First off, Don't ever take your rig to the STEALERSHIP!!!
Yes, if you just drain the tranny there will be fluid left behind in the torque converter and internal lines. The only way to get all this fluid out is to flush it out.
In my opinion, all you need to do is drop the Transmission pan and replace the filter and fluid. If you want to get it flushed then take it to a Good auto repair shop in your area. and save yourself a couple hundred bucks!!

My "stealership" charged me $100 and they did a great job, I even got to watch. Yeap, even I couldn't believe it... turns out some stealerships are good after all...

theryanator · 11-01-2005, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marko3xl3

My "stealership" charged me $100 and they did a great job, I even got to watch. Yeap, even I couldn't believe it... turns out some stealerships are good after all...

no doubt you are right...however my dealership ripped me off from the very beginning on our truck, so I try to take it to them as little as possible, they have gotten enough of my money already...besides they said they charge $200 not the $100 you lucked out on.

So if I am gathering there is a major difference between a DRAIN of trans fluid and a FLUSH of the fluid?

I will check the status of the fluid when I drain it and if it looks burnt I will just go ahead and flush it.

I think I will just buy 16 quarts to be safe, and I can always return the leftovers if I dont end up flushing the system.
Will the trans fluid machines they have at shops FLUSH the system thouroughly?

And to end my questions in this department, any recos for the best fluid for a 144k 99 runner?

Thanks

NathanBERG · 11-02-2005, 01:43 AM

Be sure to clean the collection magnets while you have the pan off.

marko3xl3 · 11-03-2005, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theryanator

no doubt you are right...however my dealership ripped me off from the very beginning on our truck, so I try to take it to them as little as possible, they have gotten enough of my money already...besides they said they charge $200 not the $100 you lucked out on.

So if I am gathering there is a major difference between a DRAIN of trans fluid and a FLUSH of the fluid?

I will check the status of the fluid when I drain it and if it looks burnt I will just go ahead and flush it.

I think I will just buy 16 quarts to be safe, and I can always return the leftovers if I dont end up flushing the system.
Will the trans fluid machines they have at shops FLUSH the system thouroughly?

And to end my questions in this department, any recos for the best fluid for a 144k 99 runner?

Thanks

There is definately a great difference between DRAIN and FLUSH. Draining will marely replace 3-4 quarts of fluid from the total of 12, therefore mixing old and new fluids together. It's better than nothing but way inferior to flushing, which takes 16 quarts to replace 12 quarts of fluid. What the mechanic does is disconnect the transmission cooler lines and plugs them into a machine which will slowly replace all the fluid inside the truck. The reason it takes 4 extra quarts is because some old+new fluid will always mix so the just replaces more "hybrid" fluid with "new" fluid, if that makes sense. The flushing method replaces about 95%-99% of all fluid.

Also, synthetic is always the best. My dealer told me that if I didn't bring in synthetic they would use the new Type-T fluid and then Dexron III. Don't know how all that works, but that's what I've been told.

Also, I believe the reason they are charging you $200 is because they don't wanna help their customers. They will come up all kinds of excuses about how they have to open up their machine to use customer fluid etc. etc. Now, if you want to use their own fluid it should really only cost $100-$120 for a flush. Don't know how much a drain and refill costs.

Lucky me, I have a good dealership in my area (read: Capitol Toyota in San Jose, CA) and they had no problem using my own synthetic fluid. They didn't pull any BS. They always have one of their flushing machines that are spankin' clean and after they use customer fluid they just run hot water through it and bam, it's clean again.

IMO, $200 is too much, i would try and find someone who cares about your needs and will do it to you for a good price with proper service.

ebelen1 · 11-03-2005, 07:44 PM

[quote=marko3xl3]There is definately a great difference between DRAIN and FLUSH. Draining will marely replace 3-4 quarts of fluid from the total of 12, therefore mixing old and new fluids together. It's better than nothing but way inferior to flushing, which takes 16 quarts to replace 12 quarts of fluid.

Are you sure there is 12 quarts of tranny fluid in the truck? I don't think this is right. When we dropped the pan, we replaced 4 quarts and I don't think the torque converter has another 8 quarts in it. I think there's probably another 4 quarts max in the tc and the lines. Can someone confirm for me?

vegaskurt · 11-03-2005, 10:34 PM

There is a chain of jiffy lube like places out here and most of them have that machine. I believe they charge $49 to do the flush if you bring your own fluid. The local toyota dealer wants $130 to do it. But 16qts of synthetic is $$$

So my advice is to find a local shop if you were quoted $200.

marko3xl3 · 11-03-2005, 11:14 PM

[quote=ebelen1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marko3xl3

There is definately a great difference between DRAIN and FLUSH. Draining will marely replace 3-4 quarts of fluid from the total of 12, therefore mixing old and new fluids together. It's better than nothing but way inferior to flushing, which takes 16 quarts to replace 12 quarts of fluid.

Are you sure there is 12 quarts of tranny fluid in the truck? I don't think this is right. When we dropped the pan, we replaced 4 quarts and I don't think the torque converter has another 8 quarts in it. I think there's probably another 4 quarts max in the tc and the lines. Can someone confirm for me?

Reminder:

Pan+TQ+Lines+Cooler

MTL_4runner · 11-04-2005, 04:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ebelen1

Are you sure there is 12 quarts of tranny fluid in the truck? I don't think this is right. When we dropped the pan, we replaced 4 quarts and I don't think the torque converter has another 8 quarts in it. I think there's probably another 4 quarts max in the tc and the lines. Can someone confirm for me?

He was correct.....there are @12 quarts.

Dropping the pan will only change about 1/3 of the fluid so you would need repeated changes to have the same effect. Now if the fluid is not in bad shape or under severe use, then doing a flush becomes less critical (most of the time I just drain and fill, dropping the pan every 45k to clean the filter). If you are switching to a synthetic, then yes, you should also pay for a flush initially.

ebelen1 · 11-04-2005, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTL_4runner

He was correct.....there are @12 quarts.

Dropping the pan will only change about 1/3 of the fluid so you would need repeated changes to have the same effect. Now if the fluid is not in bad shape or under severe use, then doing a flush becomes less critical (most of the time I just drain and fill, dropping the pan every 45k to clean the filter). If you are switching to a synthetic, then yes, you should also pay for a flush initially.

You've been spot on for every other question I've asked but 12 quarts? My buddy has a super duty and he doesn't even have 10 quarts. His auto tranny is massive compared to ours. I understand that there is fluid in the tc and lines but another 8 quarts. I'd like to see the specs. I think someone else posted that their manual said 7.6 quarts. Thanks.

MTL_4runner · 11-04-2005, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ebelen1

You've been spot on for every other question I've asked but 12 quarts? My buddy has a super duty and he doesn't even have 10 quarts. His auto tranny is massive compared to ours. I understand that there is fluid in the tc and lines but another 8 quarts. I'd like to see the specs. I think someone else posted that their manual said 7.6 quarts. Thanks.

I don't fault you for questioning it, it does sound like alot...Gadget actually says he put in 15 qts.

http://www.gadgetonline.com/TransFlush.htm

So when you drain the pan you actually only do 1/5 of the fluid not 1/3 as I mentioned earlier. :pat:

ebelen1 · 11-04-2005, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTL_4runner

I don't fault you for questioning it, it does sound like alot...Gadget actually says he put in 15 qts.

http://www.gadgetonline.com/TransFlush.htm

So when you drain the pan you actually only do 1/5 of the fluid not 1/3 as I mentioned earlier. :pat:

Well, I removed the fluid in the cooler and that was less than a quart. The pan had almost four quarts. The TQ is tiny and just doesn't make sense that the TQ and the lines have 10 quarts.

Nevertheless, gadget had a bone-dry tranny and he put in 15 quarts so that has to be right. Thanks for the post.

11-01-2005, 07:27 PM	#2 (permalink)
NathanBERG Registered User Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Washington State Posts: 359	First off, Don't ever take your rig to the STEALERSHIP!!! Yes, if you just drain the tranny there will be fluid left behind in the torque converter and internal lines. The only way to get all this fluid out is to flush it out. In my opinion, all you need to do is drop the Transmission pan and replace the filter and fluid. If you want to get it flushed then take it to a Good auto repair shop in your area. and save yourself a couple hundred bucks!! __________________ 1990 4Runner 4x4 3.0 Auto. Sitting on 31X10.50 Baja Claws, Aisin manual hubs, OME shocks & coils. Optima Redtop, 40 Series Flowmaster and High flow Cat

11-01-2005, 08:45 PM	#3 (permalink)
Robinhood150 Contributing Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Wandering around Phoenix Posts: 6,043	You can also flush it yourself for free. It takes about 12-14 quarts for a full flush, draining and dropping the pan only gets about 1/3 of it out. A search for tranny flushes should bring up the DIY method. __________________ Steve. '93 4Runner V6 Auto 4x4 Robinhood's Lair. \|\| Gettin' Off 4wd Club member Lots for sale:5.29 ARB IFS third member... Click Sierra Club policy: [A reason to close trails] ...Physical soil damage, often readily visible, resulting in: a. Erosion, causing soil loss and damage to stream banks, streams, and fish habitat... Lesson...Stay on the TRAIL!

11-01-2005, 10:42 PM	#4 (permalink)
Robinhood150 Contributing Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Wandering around Phoenix Posts: 6,043	Excellent job on searching (saw that you brought up another post) . I'll add that you should check out www.gadgetonline.com. He's got a procedure outlined and other nifty info. Amsoil also has an outline on their website. __________________ Steve. '93 4Runner V6 Auto 4x4 Robinhood's Lair. \|\| Gettin' Off 4wd Club member Lots for sale:5.29 ARB IFS third member... Click Sierra Club policy: [A reason to close trails] ...Physical soil damage, often readily visible, resulting in: a. Erosion, causing soil loss and damage to stream banks, streams, and fish habitat... Lesson...Stay on the TRAIL!

11-02-2005, 01:43 AM	#7 (permalink)
NathanBERG Registered User Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Washington State Posts: 359	Be sure to clean the collection magnets while you have the pan off. __________________ 1990 4Runner 4x4 3.0 Auto. Sitting on 31X10.50 Baja Claws, Aisin manual hubs, OME shocks & coils. Optima Redtop, 40 Series Flowmaster and High flow Cat

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11-03-2005, 07:44 PM	#9 (permalink)
ebelen1 Contributing Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Socal Posts: 1,964	[quote=marko3xl3]There is definately a great difference between DRAIN and FLUSH. Draining will marely replace 3-4 quarts of fluid from the total of 12, therefore mixing old and new fluids together. It's better than nothing but way inferior to flushing, which takes 16 quarts to replace 12 quarts of fluid. Are you sure there is 12 quarts of tranny fluid in the truck? I don't think this is right. When we dropped the pan, we replaced 4 quarts and I don't think the torque converter has another 8 quarts in it. I think there's probably another 4 quarts max in the tc and the lines. Can someone confirm for me?

11-03-2005, 10:34 PM	#10 (permalink)
vegaskurt Registered User Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Reno, NV Posts: 374	There is a chain of jiffy lube like places out here and most of them have that machine. I believe they charge $49 to do the flush if you bring your own fluid. The local toyota dealer wants $130 to do it. But 16qts of synthetic is $$$ So my advice is to find a local shop if you were quoted $200.

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