DIY: CHANGE MANUAL TRANNY OIL

[En4sir]

After purchasing my 2009 3-door hatchback new and putting 165,000 miles on it I decided today (after reading this thread) to change my manual transmission fluid. I followed the advice offered by many here and would like to add a few little tips that I did that should benefit others.

I took some 2-foot long 2" x 8"'s scrap I had laying around and placed a section of 2" x 8" in front of each tire. I then drove the car onto the lumber to increase the ground clearance by another 1.5 inches. It may not sound like much but every bit helps especially when gaining access to the drain plug underneath the car without having to use a jack.

I loosened-up the filler plug just enough to make sure that it could be removed, then removed the drain plug. Draining the transmission fluid without removing the filler plug prevented the transmission fluid from gushing out. After draining about a quart of fluid I then removed the filler plug to allow the transmission to drain completely. No messy spillage anywhere.

I attached a clear vinyl hose 5/8"od / 1/2" id to a small funnel. The hose fit perfectly in the filler hole of the transmission - nice and snug.

Unfortunately I could not find Redline MT90 anywhere locally, so I decided to use Amsoil Severe Gear SAE 75W-90. I referenced the Amsoil website to make sure it could be used in my Yaris.

I test drove the car afterwards and there is a noticable difference in how the transmission shifts - nice and smooth.

Thanks to all the valuable advice posted here in this thread, a job that my local Toyota dealer wanted a $198.95 to do, I did for $25.00 and it took a total of 25 minutes to do.