Drain and refill fluid substitute for Toyota WS?

[martinq]

A crap load of transmission mechanics would strongly disagree.

Unlikely, but that's pretty much my point.

 

[Elkins45]

I am guessing this is the video that keeps being referenced



Funny enough, it came up on my YouTubes

I like him and think he knows way more than I do about fixing cars, but he makes his clients pay for the Toyota branded oil. His devotion to the Toyota oil makes me question his devotion to their ATF.

 

[D60]

I like him and think he knows way more than I do about fixing cars, but he makes his clients pay for the Toyota branded oil. His devotion to the Toyota oil makes me question his devotion to their ATF.

I think he's worried about liability/people blaming him when they do something ELSE wrong and then claim "it's because you said I could use non-OEM fluid."

But of course I could be wrong.

 

[tvaughn]

I think he's worried about liability/people blaming him when they do something ELSE wrong and then claim "it's because you said I could use non-OEM fluid."

But of course I could be wrong.

Also I think most people who service their trans will drain and refill, so from what I understand it's ideal not to mix different fluids in that case with what is left behind.

 

[BMW Dom]

Also I think most people who service their trans will drain and refill, so from what I understand it's ideal not to mix different fluids in that case with what is left behind.

Why is it not ideal to mix fluids?

 

[tvaughn]

Why is it not ideal to mix fluids?

I've always understood it as certain ATF fluids are unique to the transmissions they are in, e.g. Dexron, Mercon, etc. Even if you use one of the universal fluids I thought it was best to flush the transmission out so you don't have a mix.

 

[samiamz]

What fluid did he put in?

I think a lot of Honda V6 had bad transmission even if OEM fluid is used, but that's hard to prove if you use aftermarket and can't prove it is not the fluid's fault.

I was told that they put in the fluid that generally goes into GM transmission. I don't recall which one. I had asked for DW-1 to be used.

Yes, I agree, that the 1999-2004 Odysseys had a much higher rate of transmission failures. To the best of my knowledge, it was maintained by the book and the TSB, and shifting fine till the ill-fated service

 

[samiamz]

So the answer is no.

So actually the answer to that is "not no"
When you have funny things and slippage start to happen immediately after a trans fluid change, then I would question if it was the non-OEM fluid that caused it (in retrospect). Not sure what type of "proof" you would go about getting to satisfy.
Of course, I wasn't going to do a transmission tear down to prove anything. Heck 15 years ago, I didn't even understand this as well. Sure you could theorize that the trans was "going to go anyway" - but is was shifting perfectly prior to service, and it was a well maintained one. So in my mind, I think that the fluid had a lot to do with the failure at that point, whether there is actual 'proof' or not. That is my opinion.

My original post was that for maybe a difference of $30 over 2-3 years, I would stick with OEM DW-1. That's also IMO.
Nothing against MaxLife, many here in the forum have used it successfully.