Originally Posted By: rcbc96
As long as I do Toyota scheduled services. The only thing it says is to check the fluid. It doesn't say anything at all about ever changing it
I don't think that changing the fluid every 50,000 miles is a bad thing to do by any means. I was just curious if this dealer warranty (is it Mark Jacobs Toyota?) required additional services beyond the manufacturer-recommended services. I read your first post to say that they were telling you that the warranty would be voided if you didn't pay $175 to change the transmission fluid. Maybe I misread your post, and that would be my mistake if I did.
Draining out x units of fluid and refilling x units of fluid would likely be the best way to ensure that you get an honest fluid replacement...at least a replacement of the volume you drained out. This is how I do it in our Hondas: I have the car up on ramps and I drain the fluid into a cheap plastic pitcher I bought at Walmart many years ago (but Rubbermaid, and made in the USA!). This one here may be the exact one:
Anyway, it has volume marks on the pitcher...so I drain out so much fluid, measure it exactly, then pour it out into my recycling jug. I wipe the inside of that pitcher out well so that it's clean, and then I open quarts of new fluid and pour the correct volume of new fluid into the pitcher. I then use a tall funnel and pour that into the transmission.
This obviously works as long as you get less than a gallon of fluid out at a time. My cars drain about 2.5-3.0 quarts at each drain, so it's extremely convenient. Mine have dipsticks, so I can check them, but I still find this method to be the quickest and easiest, rather than pull the dipstick out 5 or 6 times and topping off, trying to get the level "just" right.
As long as I do Toyota scheduled services. The only thing it says is to check the fluid. It doesn't say anything at all about ever changing it
I don't think that changing the fluid every 50,000 miles is a bad thing to do by any means. I was just curious if this dealer warranty (is it Mark Jacobs Toyota?) required additional services beyond the manufacturer-recommended services. I read your first post to say that they were telling you that the warranty would be voided if you didn't pay $175 to change the transmission fluid. Maybe I misread your post, and that would be my mistake if I did.
Draining out x units of fluid and refilling x units of fluid would likely be the best way to ensure that you get an honest fluid replacement...at least a replacement of the volume you drained out. This is how I do it in our Hondas: I have the car up on ramps and I drain the fluid into a cheap plastic pitcher I bought at Walmart many years ago (but Rubbermaid, and made in the USA!). This one here may be the exact one:
Anyway, it has volume marks on the pitcher...so I drain out so much fluid, measure it exactly, then pour it out into my recycling jug. I wipe the inside of that pitcher out well so that it's clean, and then I open quarts of new fluid and pour the correct volume of new fluid into the pitcher. I then use a tall funnel and pour that into the transmission.
This obviously works as long as you get less than a gallon of fluid out at a time. My cars drain about 2.5-3.0 quarts at each drain, so it's extremely convenient. Mine have dipsticks, so I can check them, but I still find this method to be the quickest and easiest, rather than pull the dipstick out 5 or 6 times and topping off, trying to get the level "just" right.
