Toyota Prius Factory fill ATF 18,000 miles

[rumple]

Here is the UOA of the transaxle fluid for my 2007 Toyota Prius, this was at 17,995 miles. This is the factory fill which should be Toyota WS-ATF. Virgin Toyota WS is what I put back in at least. According to the manual, this fluid should last 100,000 miles but many are finding that an after break-in change is nota bad idea. I would say the wear materials in this report would back up an initial change out regimen.



Rumple

 

[benjamming]

Is this a drain & refill & not a flush? What is capacity & how much drains out? Do they have a magnetic drain plug?

I would have changed it as well.

 

[xpeteyjtx]

+1 to the questions above

and what are your driving conditions and what is your driving style? Thanks

 

[rumple]

Drain and refill. The capacity of the transaxle is 4 quarts and it has a magnetic drain plug. There was a fair amount of fine schmutz on the magnet which I of course wiped away.

As I said Toyota has this fluid going out to 100,000 miles, but based on many analysis's over on the Priuschat site, it would appear that at least an early change is a good idea and perhaps then every 30,000 - 60,000 depending on driving conditions, with higher speed highway drinving correlating wearing out the fluid faster.

Toyota WS is cheap (I paid $7.80/Q) and the job easy with a fill and drain plug - why not change it at least once?

Color - Red, looked pretty good
Transparency - Not as transparent as virgin, but not too bad
Smell - No burnt or otherwise nasty smells - close to virgin Toyota WS.

I live in NJ (NYC metro region)

Highway speeds are generally 65MPH and lower. When I drive I set the cruise control for ~58MPH (60MPG at that speed).

The car is a suburban "mommy" car with mostly very short trips (3 yellow bars or less). We owned the car since new, March 2007.

Rumple

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: rumple
Drain and refill. The capacity of the transaxle is 4 quarts and it has a magnetic drain plug. There was a fair amount of fine schmutz on the magnet which I of course wiped away.

As I said Toyota has this fluid going out to 100,000 miles, but based on many analysis's over on the Priuschat site, it would appear that at least an early change is a good idea and perhaps then every 30,000 - 60,000 depending on driving conditions, with higher speed highway drinving correlating wearing out the fluid faster.

Toyota WS is cheap (I paid $7.80/Q) and the job easy with a fill and drain plug - why not change it at least once?

Color - Red, looked pretty good
Transparency - Not as transparent as virgin, but not too bad
Smell - No burnt or otherwise nasty smells - close to virgin Toyota WS.

I live in NJ (NYC metro region)

Highway speeds are generally 65MPH and lower. When I drive I set the cruise control for ~58MPH (60MPG at that speed).

The car is a suburban "mommy" car with mostly very short trips (3 yellow bars or less). We owned the car since new, March 2007.

Rumple

The Toyota drain and fill typically leaves behind insoluable junk on the AT pan. That in mind, maybe Toyota WS doesn't leave behind as much as Dexron III or Toyota T-IV.

 

[rumple]

I would have loved to drop the pan and clean it out, but the 3rd gen Prius does not have a pan to drop - it just has an aluminum case. I do hope you are correct and WS leaves less schmutz behind. The red arrows in the picture show the drain and fill plugs for a 3rd gen Prius transaxle.

Rumple

Originally Posted By: artificialist
The Toyota drain and fill typically leaves behind insoluable junk on the AT pan. That in mind, maybe Toyota WS doesn't leave behind as much as Dexron III or Toyota T-IV.

 

[Donald]

The rubber lines in the pic look pretty easy to pull off and do a cooler line flush.

 

[rumple]

They sure do! The Prius, unlike most cars, has two completely independent coolant systems with separate radiators, one for the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine in Prius-speak) and one for the inverter and transaxle with it's two motor generators. The tubes you see are going into the transaxle.

The reason for the two independent cooling systems is that the operating temperatures of the ICE is higher than for the inverter and transaxle. Both systems come filled with Toyota pink super long life coolant that is good for 100,000 miles. Or so says Toyota!

Rumple

Originally Posted By: Donald
The rubber lines in the pic look pretty easy to pull off and do a cooler line flush.