What is the group wisdom on changing the transmission fluid in a 2007 RAV4 4 cylinder automatic? The Toyota maintenance schedule doesn't specify changing the transmission fluid at all for "normal driving conditions" and only specifies replaceing it at 120,000 miles if you use the vehicle for towing.
My thought is that it would be better to do a partial replacement every
Ed
Hello, Asking this on behalf of a friend in England who has a '56 Champion. It was originally a South African car shipped in kit form from Southbend. 60,000 original mikes, Specs are - model 56-G, 3 speed manual - Borg Overdrive factory installed, 6 cyl engine. Last time he operated it - some 12 years ago - it performed fine. He just brought it back to life - which only involved fresh fuel - but now when he puts it in gear it does not move. The driveshaft does not rotate. There are 5 or 6 possible issues listed in the factory manual - which he has - none would seem applicable. It goes into gear - but when you release the clutch - no go - with no evidence of clutch slip. The solenoid is working etc. etc.. He's put the rear up on stands and let it run - no result. Apparently long ago this happened and the problem was that the fluid in the OD was thick. Putting it up he got it to warm and go. Not this time.
So - has anybody been through this? Is there a flush and refill protocol? He was thinking of a kerosene flush of the OD - which he believes is the problem - that it's stuck in freewheel - but wants to be sure he won't do damage.
All help and insight appreciated!
Peter in Denver
Nah. Cheap insurance.
A lot depends on the type of driving you do, check the condition of the oil, if it begins to look a bit dark and smells not like new, change it, oil and filters are usually cheaper than transmissions.
Your vehicle may use the new World Standard ATF - you can tell because there is no transmission dipstick. If that is the case, just follow the factory recommendation.
It has a dipstick. The shop manual makes it look like changing just the fluid would be fairly easy. My though is if I just do a partial change (replace whatever drains out when the plug is removed) that I'll keep the fluid in good shape. This is waht I am doing for my Niassan truck.
Ed
I would just watch the condition of the fluid, and if it starts to get brown, do the drain and refill. Just make sure you use the correct ATF type. I am assuming that this is your SO's ride, and the the time and money spent changing the ATF is a good investment compared to the brain damage you would get if the transmission tanked before she was ready for a new ride ;-)
Definitely. Her last two cars went becasue of transmission problems (a late
80's Camry and a mid 90's Chrysler mini van). Of course both had in the neighboorhood of 200,000 miles at the time of failure.Ed
What? A 90's Chrysler tanking a tranny?!?! Who would have thought?!
Question: were you the original owner, and did you ever put Dexron/Mercon into it?
My '94 LHS and my '92 Grand Voyager both were service religiously by Chrysler dealers, and the trannies in them were top notch! I gave the van away, the guy scrapped it and didn't take the tranny! (He has three other vans). The only GOOD thing on the van!
AFAIK, all they ever had in them was Chrysler ATF+3.
didn't many chrysler tranny's fail because people used other than chrysler tranny fluid ? Or were they just junk in the first place?
The van transmission failed a couple of days after being serviced at Jiffy Lube. We both think it was their fault, but hard to prove. I am going to try very hard to keep the RAV4 as far away from Jiffy Lube as I can.
Ed
Exactly what I did with our 88 Camry .... sister-in-law has it now and it currently has 327,000 miles on it, original engine and tranny.
I did a drain/fill every 30K and oil changes every 4K.
YMMV.
Did they flush it?
I called them because my boss did business with them (er, wait...ProLube, but the same idea). I wanted to do a flush on my LHS. I asked them if they used ATF+3. They told me they had a 'generic' ATF and added 'modifiers' to the solution to make it work with any tranny. "How much?" "Since you work for Joe, $75." Ok, thanks...
Never called back again. Did a drain and fill with MOPAR. it ran rough for a couple days and then smoothed right out.
I bet Jiffy Lube does the same thing...
Yeah...you gotta use ATF+3 or ATF+4 (whichever it says on the dipstick). You *can* use ATF+4 in an ATF+3 tranny, but not the other way around.
I'm willing to bet 99% of Chrysler tranny failures are caused by people not using the right stuff, or going to Jiffy Lube. ;)
...and the difference is?
;-)
Nope, I owned three Chrysler products in the early to mid 90's, a 94 Chrysler New Yorker and 2 Dodge's. All three tanked their transmissions at about 60k miles. All had about the same symptoms except for the one that the Chrysler dealer put in to replace the New Yorker's OEM transmission, that one just wouldn't shift into any forward gear. All of them would slip or jerk and then down shift when they tried to shift into 4th gear (overdrive). None of them every had anything other than MoPar ATF in them (I guess that's what the factory used, I never had a chance to change it).
Chrysler produced junk in the 90's, none of them used a Chrysler engine and I think their transmissions must have been made by Mexican's who weren't smart enough to figure out how to cross over the border.
Needless to say, I will never own another Chrysler product. Although the best car I ever owned was a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere that I bought new in the fall of 1966. Damn, I wish I still had that beast.
Jack
replying to Ph, mwijage wrote: hi, i own a rav4 of 2007 model, odometer reading is 32,000km, i used to change the engine oil, oil filters etc but never change the transmission fluid, now let me know the procedure of doing car service generally especially changing the transmission fluid
replying to C. E. White, lay wrote: type of transmission required
replying to Ray O, lay wrote: Yes no dipstick
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