A541E Transmission Fluid

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Mar 18, 2021
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So I have a 2002 Toyota Sienna A541E transmission it has around 125,000 miles on it. About 60,000 miles ago the original owner had it serviced at a Toyota dealership and they flushed the transmission and put Toyota T-IV in the transmission according to the paperwork from the dealership.

It drives fine no slipping or anything like that but it needs to be serviced. However this transmission calls for Dexron III so that is where the issue begins.

T-IV (Mobil 3309) is similar to Dexron III in viscosity, from my understanding it is simply Dexron III with friction modifiers.

I have 6 Quarts of T-IV on hand and was going to do a drain/fill (I do not believe in flushing transmissions with this mileage) but don't know if I should use it or buy Valvoline Dex/Merc or if I should switch to MaxLife which covers both Dexron III and T-IV.

So pretty much the question is which route should I go with this. I am a bit hesitant to go with MaxLife due to being a full synthetic in an old transmission and being so thin at 5.9.

Would there be any issue of mixing Dexron III into T-IV if I went with the Dex/Merc route?

Obviously this transmission has made it nearly half of it's life on the incorrect fluid T-IV.
 
That transmission is not picky at all. The T-IV will be fine since you already have it, but there is nothing wrong with Maxlife, either :)

Drain it cold, measure what came out, then refill with that amount of the new ATF.

I used Maxlife on an even older A541E, the 3rd gen Camry, no problem at all.
 
That transmission is not picky at all. The T-IV will be fine since you already have it, but there is nothing wrong with Maxlife, either :)

Drain it cold, measure what came out, then refill with that amount of the new ATF.

I used Maxlife on an even older A541E, the 3rd gen Camry, no problem at all.
I see some say T-IV is fine because it is Dexron III with friction modifiers and that these transmissions do not care if it has a friction modifier or not. I would assume MaxLife also has friction modifiers to be compatible with such a wide range of fluids.

I asked an oil analysis company if they could actually verify what is in my transmission they said T-IV and Dexron III are too similar for them to tell the difference.

But I don't want this transmission to fail either.
 
I use regular dex/Merc and lubeguard red, I have a 94 Camry V6 with the A541E transmission....Castrol import multi vehicle is good too.
 
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