My LE owner’s manual does not say when to change tranny fluid. I have 86,000 miles on it. The dealership says it’s time. It runs well now with no problems. Who’s right?
Most mechanics use 3 years or 30000 miles as to when to change transmission fluid . This is one of those things that might be a good idea to change now . You don’t need a dealer to do the service .
Also have you ever changed the engine coolant ?
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And brake fluid.
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I think this may come from marketing department rather than the engineers. Especially the transmission fluid, non-CVT transmission will usually go past the warranty period without being serviced.
We’ve had that same question about Toyota’s trans fluid recommendation before. You might try the forum search feature (upper right this page) to see what other’s have said. As mentioned by PB above, manufacturer’s are motivated to sell their cars, and know the customers often use the total cost of ownership stat to decide which car to buy. If trans fluid doesn’t need to be changed, that lowers the total cost of ownership stat. Conflict of interest in other words. IMO auto- trans fluid is inexpensive to change, esp in comparison to installing a replacement trans, & should be changed at least every 50K, or sooner when the fluid first shows/smells of deterioration. I’d guess your best course is to follow the advice of your mechanic.
The recommendation here btw for the best method for replacing conventional auto trans fluid is very simple, drop & clean the inside of the pan, inspect/sieve for metal debris, replace the filter, and refill with fresh. This method may not be practical on some transmission designs however, and using a machine to tie into the trans-cooler lines might be the better common sense method.
Search the Forum ? What a waste of time . All that will do is find a bunch of confliting posts and outright guesses .
If the manual does not recommend changing something, I’d skip it unless there is a problem the dealer has identified. Whatever you do, avoid the fluid flush scam.
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It can’t hurt and only help. I would do it now.
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My truck’s original owners manual states 150,000 miles! Am I going to wait that long? No, had it done at around 50,000 miles, next chance will be done around 80,000 miles.
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I change my automatic transmission fluid and filter every 90,000 miles. Always by pulling the pan, never by having a shop do a “fluid exchange” or flush.
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+1 for changing the transmission fluid every 30,000 miles, regardless of what the manual says.
There are transmissions that die every day that were “running just fine” the day before due to old, dirty fluid.
Transmission fluid is a heck of a lot cheaper than a new transmission.
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Pretty sure my 2009 has the same transmission. FWIW, I had the fluid changed at 59k and 121k. I bought it with 58k and don’t know if it was changed before then. The recommendation I’ve seen is 60k. If you haven’t had yours changed before now you’re past due.
Tester
I vote to do it now.
On that Toyota there is no pan to drop and no easy to change filter, so just drain and refill.
Going forward, repeat every 30-60k miles.