Transmission Service (1 Viewer)

[Ape Cruiser]

I had planned to service the transmission at 60k miles but now am at 87k so I’m “overdue” although I don’t tow with the vehicle.

In any case I was thinking of dropping the pan and replacing the filter. Is that advisable or should I just do the drain and refill cycle? If the latter, just one drain and refill or multiple drain/refills to get more clean fluid in?

I’ve tried searching and haven’t found a diy write up or YT vid on the 8 speed LC200. Can anyone link that for me please and also link me and website with a service kit? (I can other use source the parts but wanted to ask first)

Cheers

 

[kcjaz]

There are several threads on this topic but, at least IMO, there does not seem to be any widely accepted detailed approach on when and how to do transmission service. I think most here will tell you not to bother with dropping the pan and changing the filter. Especially at 60K miles but also I think still at 87K. And most will tell you not to do any type of cleaning flush with additives or flushing fluids. At most, people seem to do a fluid replacement using a pump to add new ATF as the old stuff is drained.

What I have concluded from reading the posts on this topic and plan to do with my tranny, is just a simple drain and fill at 50k to 60K miles which is just a partial fluid replacement. If I were 87K to 100K and the tranny had never been serviced or I didn't know if it had, I'd replace all the fluid either by the pump method or multiple drain and refills.

 

[gasman4u]

I had planned to service the transmission at 60k miles but now am at 87k so I’m “overdue” although I don’t tow with the vehicle.

In any case I was thinking of dropping the pan and replacing the filter. Is that advisable or should I just do the drain and refill cycle? If the latter, just one drain and refill or multiple drain/refills to get more clean fluid in?

I’ve tried searching and haven’t found a diy write up or YT vid on the 8 speed LC200. Can anyone link that for me please and also link me and website with a service kit? (I can other use source the parts but wanted to ask first)

Cheers

Definitely a good idea to change fluid. As @kcjaz said, there's threads on here (I don't know them offhand otherwise, I'd link for you) and most seemingly are good with the fluid draining and filling to replace entire volume of fluid.

Are you late? Technically, yes. However you're FAR from the point where you shouldn't change the fluid IMO. Change it as soon as you can and leave the filter IMO. Check the SQOD thread and you will find a YT video linked from one of my many questions with a guy who has a sheckshie voiceover to watch. It helped me do mine recently.

 

[rscoleman]

I am at 88k and plan to due full fluid replace on Trans at 100K. It will be drain and replace no power flush or cleaning. I will not be pulling the pan or messing with filter. I do tow monthly about 3000lb, 60 miles round trip at most. 80% of miles are highway trip with rest being around town groceries, out to eat, etc... I do not commute. Unless you do a lot of off road I would say you are good to 100K. I did my diffs and transfer case fluids at 75k and they looked fine no issues. At 100k I will be doing trans, coolant, and new shocks. If you do it sooner let us know what you did and how it went for you. Good Luck

 

[Sandroad]

I had planned to service the transmission at 60k miles but now am at 87k so I’m “overdue” although I don’t tow with the vehicle.

In any case I was thinking of dropping the pan and replacing the filter. Is that advisable or should I just do the drain and refill cycle? If the latter, just one drain and refill or multiple drain/refills to get more clean fluid in?

I’ve tried searching and haven’t found a diy write up or YT vid on the 8 speed LC200. Can anyone link that for me please and also link me and website with a service kit? (I can other use source the parts but wanted to ask first)

Cheers

Super common posts about this. Here’s one long thread with info about both the 6 and 8 speed transmissions. There is no service kit, but info on WS oil needed and part numbers for the sealing washers are in here. There is also a YT link in here on the 8 speed.

Complete Transmission Flush DIY - VIDEO

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[chriscosta416]

I drain the trans fluid into a home depot bucket with measurements and then fill up what came out

 

[Ape Cruiser]

Thanks everyone. I did see that video but for some reason thought that was the 6 speed. I see now it talks about the 8 speed.

I’ll go with the drain and refill x multiple cycles this first go around.

 

[kcjaz]

After watching the video posted above, which I have somehow managed to miss, and thinking more about this on a Friday as a means to avoid actual work, I'm may adjust my plan a little. The part of partial ATF replacement (that I was planning on doing) that I've never really liked, is that there doesn't seem to be any real engineering basis for how much old ATF is OK to leave in or even what "old" really is in terms of miles or the timing (miles) to do this. Fundamentally, this seems to be due to lack of guidance from Toyota. Different dealers do different things and hence all the threads and discussions.

I had been thinking of just draining the ATF from the pan which is about 4 QTs which is about 1/3 of the total AFT volume every 50K miles. Doing this effectively means that I'll be blending new fluid with an ever changing "old" blend. The table below shows what I mean:

At 250K miles on the truck, I would still have 13% original ATF that has seen 250K miles. This might be fine or it may not be. Who knows. Why even replace the "lifetime" ATF at all? Well, "lifetime" to most of us is different than most car consumers. In my mind, there are only 3 reasons to replace the ATF. Either it degrades/breaks down with use or it gets contaminated from use with gear and clutch material debris or both. If we had fluid property and contaminate level criteria, we could just sample and test the ATF and do partial replacement at stay within the specs. To my knowledge we do not have that. In the absence of that, my guess is that 1/3 new fluid starting at 50K is probably good enough, especially if the bigger reason to replace is removing contaminates over fluid property breakdown.

What the video made me think about is that it really isn't too much more work to achieve replacing more than 1/3 the fluid by using the method in the video. Sure, its a little more effort but you achieve near total replacement with new ATF. So the next question is, is there any down side to replacing the ATF every 50K to 100K vs. 1/3 replacement every 50K. Its hard for me to see how running near 100% new fluid could be bad (not talking about a 250K tranny that's never been serviced). The only down side to me is the little extra effort and the cost of ATF. Though I have heard some people claim that there is some benefit to some level of contaminates as the transmission and ATF is broken in. I have a hard time believing that's true. Transmissions have ATF in them for only 3 reasons: lubrication, hydraulic and hydrodynamic forces to enable in shifting and torque conversion, and cooling. All of these things require a certain set of fluid properties that were determined by the Toyota engineers (or they built a tranny designed for the fluid they had).

So, my Friday afternoon conclusion here is that, for a vehicle that I intend to drive forever, replacing the ATF before it really needs to be replaced is better than waiting too long and my 1/3 replacement every 50K doesn't plan really have a solid basis and isn't really much different in terms of effort and cost (as DIY) than the video method. 50K miles is arbitrary and just based on discussions I seen and is almost certainly sooner than the vast majority if transmissions get serviced, even LCs. I think the time to do it is between 50K and 100K but that is just one guys opinion.

 

[NikP]

I'm planning doing a pan drain every couple of oil changes which is similar to your idea. I figure over time I'll have a pretty decent blend of newer oil. I have 200k mikes and don't know the history so I'm reluctant to do a complete flush for fear all new oil will create issues. I'm also thinking about resetting the transmission memory with Techstream when I do to the drain and fill.

 

[linuxgod]

After watching the video posted above, which I have somehow managed to miss, and thinking more about this on a Friday as a means to avoid actual work, I'm may adjust my plan a little. The part of partial ATF replacement (that I was planning on doing) that I've never really liked, is that there doesn't seem to be any real engineering basis for how much old ATF is OK to leave in or even what "old" really is in terms of miles or the timing (miles) to do this. Fundamentally, this seems to be due to lack of guidance from Toyota. Different dealers do different things and hence all the threads and discussions.

I had been thinking of just draining the ATF from the pan which is about 4 QTs which is about 1/3 of the total AFT volume every 50K miles. Doing this effectively means that I'll be blending new fluid with an ever changing "old" blend. The table below shows what I mean:

View attachment 3531362

At 250K miles on the truck, I would still have 13% original ATF that has seen 250K miles. This might be fine or it may not be. Who knows. Why even replace the "lifetime" ATF at all? Well, "lifetime" to most of us is different than most car consumers. In my mind, there are only 3 reasons to replace the ATF. Either it degrades/breaks down with use or it gets contaminated from use with gear and clutch material debris or both. If we had fluid property and contaminate level criteria, we could just sample and test the ATF and do partial replacement at stay within the specs. To my knowledge we do not have that. In the absence of that, my guess is that 1/3 new fluid starting at 50K is probably good enough, especially if the bigger reason to replace is removing contaminates over fluid property breakdown.

What the video made me think about is that it really isn't too much more work to achieve replacing more than 1/3 the fluid by using the method in the video. Sure, its a little more effort but you achieve near total replacement with new ATF. So the next question is, is there any down side to replacing the ATF every 50K to 100K vs. 1/3 replacement every 50K. Its hard for me to see how running near 100% new fluid could be bad (not talking about a 250K tranny that's never been serviced). The only down side to me is the little extra effort and the cost of ATF. Though I have heard some people claim that there is some benefit to some level of contaminates as the transmission and ATF is broken in. I have a hard time believing that's true. Transmissions have ATF in them for only 3 reasons: lubrication, hydraulic and hydrodynamic forces to enable in shifting and torque conversion, and cooling. All of these things require a certain set of fluid properties that were determined by the Toyota engineers (or they built a tranny designed for the fluid they had).

So, my Friday afternoon conclusion here is that, for a vehicle that I intend to drive forever, replacing the ATF before it really needs to be replaced is better than waiting too long and my 1/3 replacement every 50K doesn't plan really have a solid basis and isn't really much different in terms of effort and cost (as DIY) than the video method. 50K miles is arbitrary and just based on discussions I seen and is almost certainly sooner than the vast majority if transmissions get serviced, even LCs. I think the time to do it is between 50K and 100K but that is just one guys opinion.

The clutch material that sheds creates friction. If your bands are wearing smooth the grittier fluid can help keep them functional, whereas new fluid is very slick and can cause a worn transmission to slip. That’s why you’ll often read that you shouldn’t swap fluid in a high mileage transmission that’s never been serviced. I suspect the Toyota recommendation to only do a pan swap if you tow a lot or if you inspect the fluid and determine it’s time is based in part on always leaving some friction material in the fluid.

Practically speaking, I believe regular flushes help prevent (or at least significantly slow) that kind of clutch pack degradation. So IMO you’re better off swapping all your fluid every 60k as I suspect your transmission will go a lot longer on fresh fluid. And if you do get to a point at 400k or something where you do a full fluid swap and your transmission suddenly starts slipping, there are friction additives you can add to the transmission fluid which will “fix” the slipping. I have experience with those in my old Ford C4 trans and they do work, though at that point you’re just prolonging the inevitable.

 

[shashe]

As part of baselining a new LX, today drained and replaced all the ATF with Valvoline WS Fully Synthetic.

After a few weeks of research (there is tons of information out there on this forum and youtube etc.)... here is my story / experience doing this earlier today...

I have 91k miles on the odo, and although a full service history at the Lexus dealership - no trans fluid replacement. I checked and my tow hitch has been used by the previous owner.

I decided to buy 4 gallons of WS ATF, and make a decision on replacing everything or just a quick drain and fill once i had drained the pan and observed the state of the old fluid. Mine was definitely dark red, but was not burned/black, so i decided to replace all of it.

Underneath the radiator there is a hose connection coming from the transmission - you can disconnect the rubber portion and divert it with about a 1/2 clear tube / hose to an empty gallon jug. (once all the under vehicle skids and covers are off you can trance this line from the trans to the radiator - on mine it was the upper hard line, the bottom one is the return)

• First made sure the refill plug could be loosened.
• Drained the fluid from pan (almost a gallon if sitting overnight), replaced drain plug (using old washer)
• Refilled 1 gallon through refill hole, using a transfer pump - left it in there since i was going to pump more (kept it away from exhaust)
• Started the vehicle, shifted through gears and the trans oil pump pushed old fluid out into the empty 1Ga jug, switched off engine
• Refilled 1 Gallon, drained a Gallon - note color of fluid
• Refill Gallon, drain about half a gallon - note clean color of fluid now coming out from the front of vehicle
• Refill half gallon.
• Reattach the trans fluid hose back to the radiator inlet for the trans fluid)
• Tighten the refill plug (can reuse the rubber o-ring)
• Perform the level check procedure (This was actually easier than i thought)
• use a new crush washer for drain plug
• Wipe down with a cloth around the refill and drain plug
• Test drive
• Replace the trans bash plate, covers etc underneath the vehicle after test drive and no leaks observed
• Use the factory torque specs for the drain plug and refill plug. You will feel the new crush washer give way - then torque it.

All in all ended up using 3.5 gallons, did drain excess on final fluid level check procedure.

Took it for 10 mile a test drive - not much positive difference in shifting (but never had any issues to begin with), but atleast i know now the the fluid is good for another 60k miles and will keep on maintaining it, since i do plan on towing. All in all, now that I have performed this process once, it is not difficult at all, just need to pay attention to detail and do not rush.

 

[linuxgod]

As part of baselining a new LX, today drained and replaced all the ATF with Valvoline WS Fully Synthetic.

After a few weeks of research (there is tons of information out there on this forum and youtube etc.)... here is my story / experience doing this earlier today...

I have 91k miles on the odo, and although a full service history at the Lexus dealership - no trans fluid replacement. I checked and my tow hitch has been used by the previous owner.

I decided to buy 4 gallons of WS ATF, and make a decision on replacing everything or just a quick drain and fill once i had drained the pan and observed the state of the old fluid. Mine was definitely dark red, but was not burned/black, so i decided to replace all of it.

Underneath the radiator there is a hose connection coming from the transmission - you can disconnect the rubber portion and divert it with about a 1/2 clear tube / hose to an empty gallon jug. (once all the under vehicle skids and covers are off you can trance this line from the trans to the radiator - on mine it was the upper hard line, the bottom one is the return)

• First made sure the refill plug could be loosened.
• Drained the fluid from pan (almost a gallon if sitting overnight), replaced drain plug (using old washer)
• Refilled 1 gallon through refill hole, using a transfer pump - left it in there since i was going to pump more (kept it away from exhaust)
• Started the vehicle, shifted through gears and the trans oil pump pushed old fluid out into the empty 1Ga jug, switched off engine
• Refilled 1 Gallon, drained a Gallon - note color of fluid
• Refill Gallon, drain about half a gallon - note clean color of fluid now coming out from the front of vehicle
• Refill half gallon.
• Reattach the trans fluid hose back to the radiator inlet for the trans fluid)
• Tighten the refill plug (can reuse the rubber o-ring)
• Perform the level check procedure (This was actually easier than i thought)
• use a new crush washer for drain plug
• Wipe down with a cloth around the refill and drain plug
• Test drive
• Replace the trans bash plate, covers etc underneath the vehicle after test drive and no leaks observed
• Use the factory torque specs for the drain plug and refill plug. You will feel the new crush washer give way - then torque it.

All in all ended up using 3.5 gallons, did drain excess on final fluid level check procedure.

Took it for 10 mile a test drive - not much positive difference in shifting (but never had any issues to begin with), but atleast i know now the the fluid is good for another 60k miles and will keep on maintaining it, since i do plan on towing. All in all, now that I have performed this process once, it is not difficult at all, just need to pay attention to detail and do not rush.

If you didn't notice a different in the transmission performance *and* you didn't feel like there were issues beforehand, then I'd call that good news. Your transmission is in good shape, and regular fluid changes can only help it.

 

[m12345y]

What’s the torque spec for the drain plug, fill plug and fill plug cover on 2018 LX?

 

[LX Cruiser]

Just did a 60k mile drain and fill on my Tundra. About 5qt each way. I’ll keep it up at 30k intervals, probably drop the pan and replace the filter at 120k.

My LX is at 175k miles. Transmission seems totally fine. I was planning on doing this same service: drain the pan, replace what was drained, double check the level according to Toyota’s procedure.

I don’t think this thing has ever been used for more than commuting. Previous owner told me he had never even put it in 4wd. Lol.

Do you think I’ll run into problems starting this kind of transmission service at 175k miles?

 

[Sandroad]

Just did a 60k mile drain and fill on my Tundra. About 5qt each way. I’ll keep it up at 30k intervals, probably drop the pan and replace the filter at 120k.

My LX is at 175k miles. Transmission seems totally fine. I was planning on doing this same service: drain the pan, replace what was drained, double check the level according to Toyota’s procedure.

I don’t think this thing has ever been used for more than commuting. Previous owner told me he had never even put it in 4wd. Lol.

Do you think I’ll run into problems starting this kind of transmission service at 175k miles?

It’s good the previous owner never put it in 4WD.

And, IMHO, what you’re planning is a good idea.

 

[linuxgod]

Just did a 60k mile drain and fill on my Tundra. About 5qt each way. I’ll keep it up at 30k intervals, probably drop the pan and replace the filter at 120k.

My LX is at 175k miles. Transmission seems totally fine. I was planning on doing this same service: drain the pan, replace what was drained, double check the level according to Toyota’s procedure.

I don’t think this thing has ever been used for more than commuting. Previous owner told me he had never even put it in 4wd. Lol.

Do you think I’ll run into problems starting this kind of transmission service at 175k miles?

If the transmission is operating fine when you start this you’ll be fine. The only reason I wouldn’t do it is if you had a lot of slippage already, as it would likely make that worse. But if the fluid is decent and unabused then exchanging some (or most/all) is fine and should help extend the life

 

[marques]

My $0.02’s: following any kind of fluid changing schedule is much better than never changing it at all.

I personally prefer to do a full change with new filter every 50k miles, but can also see how you could achieve similar long term results just doing a simple drain and fill more often.

On the 100 that I used to have, i did just that; simple drain and fill every other oil change. The fluid always came out looking great (light red color, not dark nor discolored), even past 270k miles. I did drop the pan to clean any residue and the magnets and change the filter every 50k mikes or so.

 

[Lannert]

How many quarts exchange are you guys seeing on a simple drain and fill. I currently have 73k only new to me ‘18. Wanting to baseline fluids but don’t know how much to expect