2006 Toyota Matrix 235K miles. I have owned this for the past five years, purchased with 220K miles on odo. Tranny fluid looks dirty, smells fine. Should I drain and refill or just leave it alone. Manual says changing fluid is “unnecessary” under normal driving conditions. Is it better to let well enough alone, or should I give the old girl a shot of new fluid?
235K tranny fluid?
- Thread starter chartrue2
- Start date
Change it.
Spill and fill for the win! Do a couple over then next 10K miles.
I would change it at next oil change, then the one after that. You don't drive it much if I'm reading your post right. 15K in 5 years?
Change it. It'll be fine. This generation of Matrix and Corolla has an updated variation of the auto trans from the mid 90s Corolla, which is renowned for be bulletproof (and a preferred vehicle of choice in a certain Central Asian nation that the Americans disastrously left from). Even changing trans fluid in a very well abused and neglected 220k+ mile one was fine after the fact, so there's no reason why it wouldn't be in that Matrix either.
Also funny thing: those auto trans outlast the manual trans of the same generation of Matrix/Corolla, contrary to common convention. Ironic
Also funny thing: those auto trans outlast the manual trans of the same generation of Matrix/Corolla, contrary to common convention. Ironic
Right! It has been a seasonal car, only being used for six months at a time. Now retired and using it as a daily driver—still not more than 5K a year.
In no world will old transmission fluid be better than new transmission fluid.
Change it. I would do multiple drain and fills to get more old fluid out.
Manual or automatic? I don't get to ask this question very often these days.
My assumption is it's an automatic since checking a manual trans fluid is quite difficult and they all smell bad because of the high sulfur content of trans fluid lol
Drain the pan, refill, and flush with 12 quarts of T-IV. I have never had a problem with flushing fluid, even from questionable transmissions.
CleanSump
Site Donor 2026
Ditto. DO DO DO it.
Drain and fill for sure.
There's a wive's tale about changing high mileage transmission fluid but it's not true at all
There's a wive's tale about changing high mileage transmission fluid but it's not true at all
And is the main supplier to the factory's, for transmission fluid for Asian vehicles.
Max life is for GM and some ford transmissions, not for Honda's, Toyota's etc.
This is definitely not true and Valvoline is very clear which AT and CVT are to use MaxLife ATF which is virtually all of them.
Side note, I've been using MaxLife ATF for well over a decade and it's only gotten better. I have never, personally used it in a Ford or GM transmission as of yet. It's very good and it delivers what's promised.