Hey guys-its been awhile. The 2002 is still going strong with 147K on it. I had a radiator leak this week, so I pulled it out. While I'm at it I was going to change/flush/fill the transmission fluid. This is one thing I've never done on a vehicle before. There use to be a Tech article, but the link is now bad.

http://www.4runners.org/articles/difftsf/

Anyone have a tech write up on this? I did search....

Thank you in advance!

 

Your link is almost right, you just need to change "articles" to "writeups"

That link is for manual tranny's though. You have an 02 so you'll need this one.

http://home.centurytel.net/stevenjac...sh/tranny.html

Of course if you don't want to drop the pan just skip that part.

 

If your 4 runner is shifting fine, I'd just pull the transmission pan bolt, drain old ATF, clean and reuse the crush washer, and then tighten the bolt 1/4 past hand tight.

2.5 to 3 qts of Castrol Import ATF or Pennzoil Multi vehicle ATF to refill. Check the dipstick after 100 miles. Read when hot.

 

I have a 99 Limited and the last time I did a drain and fill it took a little over 5 quarts to top it off.

 

When I installed the ATF cooler, I flushed out 12 qts of old fluid at the output line before I connected the cooler to it. With each qt out, I cut the engine and added a new qt of Castrol Dextron VI. By the 12th qt, it was coming out clean. I didn't drop the pan - just drained from it initially, replaced the crush gasket and tightened the bolt back up, and then finished the flush at the output line as described above.

She's been running just fine since then (~2 months) with no leaks so far. I also included an inline magnefine filter during my cooler install.

I'm a lot less worried about dropping my pan to clean the strainer since I installed the inline filter. I figure anything that gets loose on the strainer and gets into the fluid is going to get trapped in the inline filter. I'll be replacing the filter once a year or so.

 

Thanks for the link and information!

I've had one wonderful week. On Monday a piece of angled steel came flying off a truck on the freeway, I couldn't dodge it because their were people on either side of me. It put a hole the size of my fist in the side of one of my rear tires. Pulled over to change the tire. Couple things wring: I'm in a suit and its raining, really fun! I get it up on the jack and the spare out in less than 5 minutes, however, the old tire was stuck on the axel (happened before when changing breaks or rotating tires). I spent at least an hour trying to get it off and finally restored to calling a tow truck. Then some guy pulled over to help, ran home, got a sledge hammer so we could tap it from behind, got it off and on my way.

Then go to buy a new tire and they don't make the kind I had on the truck. I needed 4 new ones anyway, so spend a crap load on new tires.

THEN on the way home the truck overheats. I got a hole in the radiator....

Long story short, that's why I changed the tranny fluid, because I had to pull the radiator off. Things come in 3's.

Thanks again for the help! Very much appreciated.

 

I have searched, but was unable to locate a how to write up on changing the ATF filter on a first generation. I'm trying to drop the pan, and am a little stuck. I took of the sway bar, and now am stuck on the drive line. Any suggestions?

 

You'll have better help with that year here: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116/