I have a 97 3rd gen with 160k miles on it right now. Just got it and from what I can tell the fluids were not maintained at all. I just flushed out what I believe was the factory coolant and factory brake fluid. So now I am moving on to the t-case and diffs which also have never been changed. But my concern is with the tranny.

My question has to do with the auto tranny. I heard of people flushing out the ATF fluid to late in the game and the new fluids detergents actually causing damage to the internals. Is this something I should worry about? I was planning on paying toyota $130 to have them flush it but I could use some advice.

 

Had similar concerns as I have a '99 w/ almost 100k miles. From what I've read, if the fluid is not burnt, you shouldn't have an issue with a flush. If it is burnt, it's best not to flush but just remove the pan, clean it out, and replace with new fluid. Doing this more often (than usual) will extend the life of your AT tranny. I've also added a tranny cooler (Hayden) to try and extend the life of the tranny.

 

I hope this is more of an urban legend. I'd like to know for sure though, I've got 206K on an auto and it looks like it could use a good flush.

 

I've seen it happen on GM's buts thats about it. My brother used to work at one of their dealerships. I'll check the fluid tonight, gonna get a long piece of aquarium tubing and see if I can pull some out to look at it.

 

should be able to drain alittle out of the pan using the drain plug, would be alot easier than sucking some out of the fill tube.

 

or you could drain some from the radiator in and out lines.