Hi, I have 1995 camry with 207k miles on the odometer. Last complete fluid replacement (flush) was done at the toyota dealership in August 2003 at 148k miles...
Since then I have not done the transmission service. So it has been almost 3 years and about 60k miles now... Would you recommend doing the transmission flush or not?
If I were doing this myself - I know I have the drain plug in the pan, another one in the differential box - how much fluid am I able to replace just draining both plugs and refiling it? The Haynes manual calls for total of 4.3 quarts of Dextron II for bot tranny+differ.
Careful now, does the tranny share fluid with the diff, or are they separate?
If you drain the diff, you might not be able to get the diff fill nut off to refill... it's a real pain to get off.
If it were me, I'd just drain and refill, and do another drain and refill the next time I change the oil. Repeat as often as you like. Cheaper, too, than a flush... and I think it's Dexron III nowadays, can't seem to be able to find Dexron II anymore...
Agree there. Always open the fill plug first for this reason. If you can't open the drain plug, then you can always use a pump to get the fluid out through the fill hole. At least this way you can always fill it back up.
There is no reason you should ever get a flush. Just drain and refill the fluid every 15,000 miles. Replace the strainer and gasket every
30,000 miles. If you need to change out all the fluid, instead of flushing, try drain and refil every week for three weeks should do the trick.
But the important thing is to change the strainer - not just clean it. Wipe up all the metal shavings in the pan, clean the magnets and put them back in the original positions.
Check to see if there is a coating of black powder on everything. If you change out the strainer, there should be much less of it next time. Fram has a nice ATF kit with a cork-rubber gasket, it's a nice kit although I am not a fan of their oil filters.
Good idea. Thanks! As the fillplug for the differ is in the back I can imagine how hard it is to get to it...
Are these plugs screwed on some thread-lock or any glue/silicone ? Why would they be hard to get out with a breaker bar ?
After taking them, do I put them back dry, or should I put some antiseize ?
Well, if you can drain only 1/3 of the old oil volume, than after 3 changes you will have still about 1/3 of the old oil in there... Notice, with every change the old oil which is left in there mixes with the new one... :-(
I have heard the toyota does not recomend replacing the strainer... Why do you think it is importand if even a manufaturer does not think so? They tend to be rather on the "safe" side as it comes to replacing parts... All to get more money from the owner in the Service Department ;-)
I have to get some length of metal pipe to get the leverage on my L-shaped 10mm Allen wrench :-) Or get the one goes into a 1/2" socket and use a breaker bar. Why would the plugs be so hard to unscrew ??? Do they torque them to 90 lbs or what ?
Yes, I have noticed a quart of Dextron costs like less than $3. I wonder how much am I able to drain through the plug at one pass...
I was able to drain about 2 qts, a little more if I was patient and let it sit. Helped a lot if the engine was warm - I commute 2 miles to/from work, did it along with my oil change right after work. Wear rubber gloves - the oil can be hot!
Choice is yours... waste a little tranny oil at $3/qt, or go for a flush at $100+. Sure, it's not 100% efficient, drain and refill, some old oil remains... but still. Do it more often if you like - I do it every other oil change. And a good thing, my garbage service picks up used oil.
The diff fill nut is *much* worse. I finally gave up and had Pep Boys drain and fill my diff - about $30, I brought my own ATF. I supervised them tho to make sure they got the right plug - they almost drained my tranny. !!!
About the tranny gasket and strainer - if I could do it again I'd use the kit from Napa Auto Parts. I got a kit from Pep Boys. Strainer was made in Vietnam. My old strainer looked in good shape, clean... but I was feeling adventurous. ;-) And yes it was messy work.
You can actually reach the filler plug from the driver side, and unscrew the bolt. I find it hard to imagine that you need anything other than a standard 3/8" 8" ratchet. Or maybe you should use a standard 3/8" 13" breaker bar. 1/2" will help, but hard to think you need them. UNLESS the bolts seized to the aluminum casing (!). Did you try with the engine warm? I always change after warm up, just be careful of the hot components.
They are tightened to around 25-35 lbs I think. No thread locker or antiseize specified.
I always do dry as I change fluid often enough. But if there is a lot of road salt and stuff, consider using a dab of antiseize.
True. But this has been used as a standard fluid "replacement" procedure, short of a machine flush, for instance, to rid a temporary use of Dexron-III in a synthetic ATF environment. In general it's sufficient and a lot cheaper than a flush, unless you have serious transmission problem requiring you to get a flush (like ATF black as old engine oil). ATF should never be allowed to be darker than orange-ish or slightly brown.
Strainer is considered a "clean only" item. That's what I used to do. But after getting a Fram strainer kit with cork rubber gasket for a couple of dollars more than the dealer gasket, and after noticing the lack of black powder coating over the internal components, I realized cleaning the strainer just isn't enough (you can't effectively clean a strainer in its casing even with compressed air). Fram's got a cool kit. None of that recycled rubber tire gasket in other kits.
Manufacturers also specify longer intervals for marketing purposes. One is not going advertise a 60K-mile spark plug interval when all others go for 100K-mile no tune-ups. Besides, most people sell their cars before 60,000 miles. That's why you get one of these invitations to trade in your car after only 4 years (this tells you about the intended design life of the car). But it depends on what you want to do with the car in the longer term -- keep or trade, etc. For some Camrys there actually were no specified timing belt replacement intervals. But wouldn't you at 60K? I'd use a Gates timing kit. Great stuff.
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About 15 more 10mm bolts than a standard oil change ;) The same large drain pan for oil change and plenty of old newspapers just in case. If you are mechanically inclined to do these things I would recommend that you try it at least once, so you see it first hand and make your own calls after that.
============================ For the diff. drain plug use a 10mm hex socket. I have a 1/2" to 3/8" converter that allows me to use a 1/2" ratchet handle. That way you can exert enough force to crack the bolt loose. For the diff. fill plug, just "daisy chain" two combination wrenches. I use 17mm and 19mm, hooking the open end of one wrench into the box end of the next. That will give you enough leverage to easily remove the fill plug. Then use a funnel and clear plastic tubing to fill it from above.
... for some value of "easily". ;-) I couldn't remove the fill plug no matter what I tried. Plus, with all of that force on my combination wrench (yes I tried the two wrenches) I was having visions of the car collapsing on me despite the jackstands. I guess I'm just more claustrophobic than your average Joe... ;-)
========================= Perhaps it's that I'm using some very nice Proto wrenches that were quite expensive, so I don't worry about anything bending or breaking. It's only a fill plug. Doesn't need to be that tight. If the car's been to a quick lube place that could be part of the problem as they seem to like to crank things down extra tight. On my '77 Toyota truck when a transmission shop replaced the clutch, they had to use an acetylene torch to remove the fill plug thanks to the quick lube guys. It seems they rarely replace the gasket either. On the Camry, I've never had a problem though. When you set it back in, it doesn't really need to be tremendously tight, plus I always like to use fresh sealing gaskets. With the aluminum crush washers, the plug needs to be broken loose, but with the two combination wrenches, you've got enough length that it should allow you to exert sufficient force. If you really get stuck, just have a professional mechanic break it loose for you, then afterward you'll be fine. To your credit you checked this before removing the drain plug!
I've long only nipped-up drain-plugs once, and that includes the oil-filler cap. After the original 5SFE oil-filler cap broke becuase of overtightening, I've found they dont tend to loosen in between removal, rather they tighten. With the sump, its important to make sure the bolt has bottomed and is applying axial pressure to the seal, then I give it just one moderate tweak. I dont have trouble next time.
With the transmission and diff, the situation is worse, if you overtighten, the plug will be very tight, as tho you really reefed on it. Something to do with dissimilar metals perhaps. The oil between the threads may simply squeeze out leaving metl on metal contact ie alloy-housing to steel. Grips like crazy.
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