2006 4Runner 48,833 Mi, Factory Fill Toyota WS ATF

[OrdnanceMarine]

Here's the analysis for my 2007 Toyota 4Runner V6 4x4 (A750F) transmission's factory fill of Toyota WS ATF. This fluid only had about 300 miles of towing near MGVW with ATF temps reading up to 240F on the steep sections of my trips but did have probably a dozen or two hours of off-road challenging enough to keep the AFT temp above 220F, so I'm guessing my operating environment is inline with normal usage.

The V6 did not come with an external transmission oil cooler (The V8 did) so I added a B&M Supercooler and did a flush and fill with a total of 13 qts as well as dropped the pan and changed the filter. I'm pretty convinced I should be changing the factory fill and filter within about 5k miles just to remove all of the fine break-in contaminants even though changing it at 49k miles is in advance of factory recommendations.

I now do a reasonable bit of towing at MGVW to campsites at over 8000' (anticipate 6 such trips/year with another 2-4 trips where I only need to get to 4000' enroute) so I plan on pulling a sample of my ATF at the end of the summer camping season each year for analysis to see when it is time to change the fluid but still need to figure out what actually "worn out" looks like for WS.

Any thoughts?

 

[dnewton3]

Factory fills always have lots of metals.

This actually really looks decent for FF with nearly 49k on it!

The vis is understandably a tiny bit low, but nothing to worry about.

Presuming the next sample goes well, I'd think 50k mile OCIs are no problem, and could likely go longer.

 

[OrdnanceMarine]

Originally Posted By: dnewton3
Factory fills always have lots of metals.

This actually really looks decent for FF with nearly 49k on it!

The vis is understandably a tiny bit low, but nothing to worry about.

Presuming the next sample goes well, I'd think 50k mile OCIs are no problem, and could likely go longer.


I agree that the fluid itself looked fine as far as a $20 UOA can reveal and the wear in is to be expected. My concern now is that my driving habits have changed and my towing up steep grades to high altitudes during the summer near MGVW that began at the fluid change will be wearing my transmission fluid on a different schedule and everything I've read claims that ATF aging rapidly accelerates as temps go above normal operating temps.