How frequently does the automatic transmission fluid need to be changed?

[kat_dog]

Hi Tedtalker, You seem to know what's up with the Yaris. I've only had subarus and one tacoma. My boyfriend has a yaris that currently has 170K miles on it, and he's had it since 85K. Never done anything about the ATF. Now the Yaris is not shifting well, getting stuch in lower gears. My experience tells me, well the fluid is probably clogging everything up and we should change it but now I'm reading about this lifetime fluid that Toyota puts out and I'm entirely confused as to what to do. Suggestions?? Do we change it, flush it, or leave it be? Thanks for your insights!!

[tmontague]

Originally Posted by kat_dog

Hi Tedtalker, You seem to know what's up with the Yaris. I've only had subarus and one tacoma. My boyfriend has a yaris that currently has 170K miles on it, and he's had it since 85K. Never done anything about the ATF. Now the Yaris is not shifting well, getting stuch in lower gears. My experience tells me, well the fluid is probably clogging everything up and we should change it but now I'm reading about this lifetime fluid that Toyota puts out and I'm entirely confused as to what to do. Suggestions?? Do we change it, flush it, or leave it be? Thanks for your insights!!

Agreed with there being no true lifetime fluid.

I'd drain the pan then drop the pan and replace the filter. Before this check to make sure your atf level is good and that you don't have a leak somewhere.

Then fill the pan back up with what you emptied. Once that's done in would do a proper flush to get all the old fluid out. It is easy to do yourself using the trans cooler lines. I wrote a thread about it a few weeks back pointing out which line to use.

I'm not a huge fan of multiple drain and fills since a flush is so easy to do yourself due to their being a pump in the transmission