ATF Fluid Exchange w/ Discussion

[thescreensavers]

Just got done with a fluid exchange, @53k Miles. Shifting beautifully!

I ordered 18 quarts of WS, while Lexus dealers had their 15% off sales so that was $200 Shipped with new crush washers. Separately, I got a new strainer,strainer oring, and pan gasket. It really wasn't necessary to replace the oil strainer but I was there to clean the magnets might as well.

Here is a pic after removing pan. (This are 62inch-lb, Oil strainer was 7ft/lb or 84in-lb)
I use my 20-200 inch lb torque wrench for all the trans bolts including the drain and check plugs. (Fill plug gets good-n-tight spec )

Pan has 4 magnets (I moved that one on top before I took the pic) they all had nice coating of metal to wipe off.

Something interesting to Note while I had the pan off. If I pull the drain plug I can only get ~2 quarts to drain out. The drain plug is elevated (One in the back) so its by design to retain fluid. The oil strainer sits in the middle ~1/2" from the bottom of the pan. This keeps the oil strainer/trans primed, pulling the pan and strainer I was able to drain a little over 5 quarts.

Now for the fluid exchange I used a cheap HF TransferPump which worked well to fill the trans, its pretty quick!

Once the truck is on It only takes ~30 sec to pump out 2 quarts of fluid. I took the hose off with the Red/pink mark on it from the ATF thermostat. I plumbed both hoses into the bucket just in case . All the fluid came out of the thermostat side, the rubber hose just drained some initially.

Pumped out 2Qts, filled with 2 Qts. Rinse repeat until fluid comes out cherry red, I definitely took it further than necessary, It usually takes 1-2 quarts above capacity. So ~14 quarts should be good, I ended up using 17 cause I had them.

Buttoned everything up and pinned my thermostat, then pulled the check plug at 115F.

Man that took all day but now I am set for many more miles! I'll do another drain and fill in around ~30k miles.

 

[Acrad]

I have seen a few report jacking the front up on a drain does get you significantly more fluid out.

 

[thescreensavers]

I have seen a few report jacking the front up on a drain does get you significantly more fluid out.

Yup that makes sense! If you can elevate the front and "break" the prime then you'll get the most out of it. 2 quarts is about what I get when it's perfectly level. This explains why some people can get more out during a normal drain and fill.

 

[Chronicle]

The transmission has a pump? Where is it and what drives it?

 

[r2m]

Yup that makes sense! If you can elevate the front and "break" the prime then you'll get the most out of it. 2 quarts is about what I get when it's perfectly level. This explains why some people can get more out during a normal drain and fill.

How much of an incline are you referring to? 1 inch? > 2 inches?
Don't most driveways have an an incline? Just do the whole process on the driveway?

 

[thescreensavers]

How much of an incline are you referring to? 1 inch? > 2 inches?
Don't most driveways have an an incline? Just do the whole process on the driveway?

Well since the drain plug is located on the rear of the pan and elevated you have to just incline the front to get more of the old fluid out.

To maximize how much fluid you can get from a drain and fill just lift the front as high as you can safely lift. Can just lift from the front central jacking point.

The transmission has a pump? Where is it and what drives it?

On most if not all automatics it's usually right behind the torque converter.

 

[WTITW]

While I appreciate and can empathize with wanting to do it yourself, This is one job I don’t think pencils out for for DIY. You paid nearly as much for fluid as I paid my LC mechanic to flush mine last time…. With the multi thousand dollar machine that uses the AT pump to change every drop while carefully monitoring pressure for obstructions. That machine isn’t available in the autozone loaner tool program : )

But I do understand the need to get to know her once in a while. Nice work.

 

[Acrad]

Just my $.02… my only experience with AT flushes caused an AT TC failure shortly afterward in my G35 years back. Fortunately covered under warranty but few in the GX community will recommend the use of full AT flushes. Personally.. I’m only comfortable with partial changes from 12 years past going forward.

 

[WTITW]

I’m only comfortable with partial changes from 12 years past going forward.

I think the concern is warranted if you have +100k and no history. But at 53k, thats the ideal time to flush precisely so you don’t get into the situation of having to do drain and fills because theres already too much garbage in the system.

But everytime I disagree with you Im proven wrong, so I should probably just go ahead and eat crow now

 

[thescreensavers]

While I appreciate and can empathize with wanting to do it yourself, This is one job I don’t think pencils out for for DIY. You paid nearly as much for fluid as I paid my LC mechanic to flush mine last time…. With the multi thousand dollar machine that uses the AT pump to change every drop while carefully monitoring pressure for obstructions. That machine isn’t available in the autozone loaner tool program : )

But I do understand the need to get to know her once in a while. Nice work.

It's ok if you don't want to DIY and want to pay someone but there is zero need to have a machine to do an exchange, I've done it few times in the past without issue. I also don't have any mechanics nearby I can trust especially not for a reasonable price in south Florida.

In my past I paid a dealer with the machine you speak of. I think they just took my money without even doing the work since the fluid was still black. cross contamination is a huge deal with those machines as they are rarely cleaned. So ill keep DIYing as long as I want too hah(def getting lazier as I get older) and know it's done right.

I specifically purchased my GX with lower miles ahead of this service as these trans do have known Valve body issues, this is all planned.

This also isn't the first trans maintenance I've done on the GX. I started with essentially two drain and fills right after I bought my GX and added a Magnefine filter and cooler. I waited one OCI ~6k miles for the Magnefine filter to do its job before performing this fluid exchange, part of risk my reduction strategy. Fresh fluid is best but want to keep any debris out of the VB.

As I mentioned I've done exchanges before and even one with higher miles. My Jeep XJ (180k at the time) it got flooded and that stout AW4 lives and shifts like new. It also has a Hayden cooler and Magnefine filter on it as well.

The Hayden cooler on the GX also allows the Stock fluid to run cooler which means the fluid is a tad thicker along with the filter thus protects the VB and trans.