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80-90k on tires? What tires are these? I have never seen any manufacturer that has absolutely no fluid change maintenance schedule other than oil. All my cars have fluid change intervals. Is it as far as you're concerned or is your car manufacturer recommending NO fluid changes?
Toyotas, on Camry, Prius, and 4Runner do not recommend a transmission fluid change. Its sealed and its lifetime, so who am I to think I know more than a Toyota engineer. I changed my transmission fluid on a '99 Accord that ran perfect and the tranny started slipping soon after. Never again.
Michelin Defender XT's will regularly go 90k without breaking a sweat. I also got 80k out of a pair of Bridgestone Revo 2's that were even used offroad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Listener2307
It'll probably work out OK. Maybe the transmission will fail, and maybe that will be because the original fluid is too dirty, but who knows.
The thing I have considered is the cost of being wrong. If you are willing to pay for being wrong, then so be it. I live in the South, though, and my 90 GMC will last many more years if I take care of it. Maybe even the rest of my life, which will be another 20 years. So there are no 25 year old fluids in my car. Anti Freeze; brake fluid; power steering fluid; Automatic transmission fluid. Not really all that expensive over the life of the vehicle.
Hygroscopic. It's a term worth learning about
Never had a transmission fail except on a car that I changed the fluid on. And like I said, 10 years old and 200k and I'm done with a car. Most cars I hit 200k before 10 years, as I usually buy slightly used. So, its more like 7 years and 200k total.
On a 1990, yeah, I'd have to change some fluids. Also because fluids weren't as good back then as they are now. YMMV
I don't change any fluids on my cars except oil. Anti-freeze, brake, transmission, differentials, all original. Toyota also does not recommend it for most fluids (not all). I don't know more than Toyota engineers, so I trust them. Oil changes every 15k with Mobil 1.
10 years, 200k on original fluids and that's all I really want to keep a car for anyway. Let the next guy worry about it.
Wow I'd hate to buy a vehicle that you owned for more than 50-60k miles.
Using a 2014 4runner as an example... PER THE MANUAL....
Toyota recommends replacing front (if 4wd) and rear diff fluid every 30k miles.
Toyota recommends replacing transfer case oil (if 4wd) every 60k miles.
Toyota recommends replacing the ATF fluid every 60k miles.
Toyota recommends replacing coolant initially at 100k miles, and then every 50k miles afterwards.
Brake fluid is hydroscopic and attracts water. Eventually your brake lines and master cylinder will corrode from the water in the fluid. While they may not specifically call out changing the fluid, it will eventually be required.
Never had a transmission fail except on a car that I changed the fluid on. And like I said, 10 years old and 200k and I'm done with a car. Most cars I hit 200k before 10 years, as I usually buy slightly used. So, its more like 7 years and 200k total.
Here's why. Over time the gears wear. As they wear the metal shavings and burnt fluid create a "paste" on the teeth of the gears. The gears wear to that shape. When you wait too long to change the fluid, you open up those gaps created by the metal particles and cause the gears to have slop in them. Imagine having fine sandpaper slowly scrub away the metal surface of the teeth. Eventually the tolerances open up between the meshing gears from the metal particles and the gears have trouble engaging with each other.
It's true that once you've gone too long without changing trans fluid you should let it go. Because you've already done irreversible damage that will only get worse if you mess with it. Keep the fluid changed per the recommended intervals and you can minimize the damage.
I only got that tire mileage out of one vehicle. The most I ever got was 60 with 50-55 being average.. On one set I got 90,000 but that was the only one but I was drving a lot back then. And I consider it a fluke. Light truck wide tires mostly freeway driving. No off road. By that time tires are old and showing sidewall cracks anyway and are close to wear bars so I just get new ones. When it's at 3/32 or so they're pretty much finished anyway. I'm not one to run them till I go to slicks. For me I follow manufacturer recommendation but nothing stays in there for life. Oil every 5k transmission flushes every 30k. Coolant about 60k all others anywhere from 30-60
Last edited by Electrician4you; 01-11-2016 at 01:52 PM..
Wow I'd hate to buy a vehicle that you owned for more than 50-60k miles.
Using a 2014 4runner as an example... PER THE MANUAL....
Toyota recommends replacing front (if 4wd) and rear diff fluid every 30k miles.
Toyota recommends replacing transfer case oil (if 4wd) every 60k miles.
Toyota recommends replacing the ATF fluid every 60k miles.
Toyota recommends replacing coolant initially at 100k miles, and then every 50k miles afterwards.
Brake fluid is hydroscopic and attracts water. Eventually your brake lines and master cylinder will corrode from the water in the fluid. While they may not specifically call out changing the fluid, it will eventually be required.
I bought my 4Runner at 35k and ran it till 150k or so and sold it. It was a 2006 and I'm pretty sure the manual said no tranny fluid changes required. Toyota may have changed their requirements on that. On that particular truck, I did change the diff fluids at 100k ONLY because I took that beast offroad A LOT. I was concerned that water got into the diffs over time and probably did.
But on my cars and SUV's that I don't take offroad, no changes have been required, at least for me.
Here's why. Over time the gears wear. As they wear the metal shavings and burnt fluid create a "paste" on the teeth of the gears. The gears wear to that shape. When you wait too long to change the fluid, you open up those gaps created by the metal particles and cause the gears to have slop in them. Imagine having fine sandpaper slowly scrub away the metal surface of the teeth. Eventually the tolerances open up between the meshing gears from the metal particles and the gears have trouble engaging with each other.
It's true that once you've gone too long without changing trans fluid you should let it go. Because you've already done irreversible damage that will only get worse if you mess with it. Keep the fluid changed per the recommended intervals and you can minimize the damage.
On that car I did it at 60k, as per the manual. Then it slipped a bit. And the tranny was completely gone by 90k. So, it definitely wasn't the wrong liquid or too many miles.
Best thing to do is just leave it alone, in almost all cases.
On that car I did it at 60k, as per the manual. Then it slipped a bit. And the tranny was completely gone by 90k. So, it definitely wasn't the wrong liquid or too many miles.
Best thing to do is just leave it alone, in almost all cases.
Quote:
Originally Posted by VintageSunlight
It was a 2006 and I'm pretty sure the manual said no tranny fluid changes required.
I doubt you'll find any techs or mechanics that will say the best thing to do is to avoid maintenance on a mechanical part that requires clean lubrication to function properly. Just because you didn't do it doesn't mean it isn't required.
On a 2006 4Runner the manual says (pulled from Toyota's maintenance website):
Replace front diff oil at 45k miles
Replace rear diff oil (including limited slip) at 45k miles Replace ATF fluid - 60k miles
Replace transfer case oil - 60k miles
Replace engine coolant - 100k miles
That model year 4runner had transmission problems. A google search on shuddering transmissions will yield a lot of interesting results. Changing the fluid did nothing to damage the transmission.
I have been doing it on my cars and customer cars with a turkey baster for years now. It is fine as long as you don't step on the brake pedal when the master cylinder lid is off. It will introduce air in the system.
Should I suck all the brake fluid out of the master cylinder that I can with the turkey baster or only out of the reservoir? I don't want to get any air in the system.
I can attest to brake fluid causing rust. Neighbor was having brake problems on his large pick up truck. Fluid in cup was brown so we bled the system. What came out was disgusting brown mud. Went through almost two quarts for each wheel to run clear. We put the waste fluid in a jar. Next day there was rust at the bottom and water droplets were forming.
Should I suck all the brake fluid out of the master cylinder that I can with the turkey baster or only out of the reservoir? I don't want to get any air in the system.
You need to flush the system. What you're doing doesn't actually change the bad fluid in the lines. Brake fluid doesn't recirculate like most fluids. You can do it by yourself with a floor jack stands a bottle and new fluid and a buddy to pump the brake pedal.
You can remove sme of the fluid from the reservoir. Just don't press on the brake pedal. Refill with whatever is recommended. Don't put synthetic/dot #4-5 if you need dot 3. You're really just wasting money IMO.
You might as well do it right. I change all my fluids.
Last edited by Electrician4you; 01-13-2016 at 10:39 PM..
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