2004 Rav4 ATF factory fill 265,000 miles

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It's my wife's daily driver. Drives and shifts great. She's very gentle with it and accelerates very patiently. Drives it 100 miles per day, mostly highway miles. It has developed a loud droning sound that gets louder the faster it goes. So, she might be ready for a new Rav after this one hits 300k miles next summer.
 
Originally Posted By: jacky
i would have spent the money on changing the fluid instead of the test


It's my contribution to the body of knowledge regarding lifetime ATF.
 
Originally Posted By: Leo99
Originally Posted By: jacky
i would have spent the money on changing the fluid instead of the test


It's my contribution to the body of knowledge regarding lifetime ATF.


yeah data like this is hard to come by and is greatly appreciated!
 
Originally Posted By: bigt61
The guys who like to change their ATF every 20,000 miles will ignore this. Good post.


There's a happy medium. I'm one of them on my Cherokee. But rocking it back and fourth for 10 minutes straight in the snow and off roading and towing is a bit harder on the fluid and trans than 100 highway miles a day.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Originally Posted By: bigt61
The guys who like to change their ATF every 20,000 miles will ignore this. Good post.


There's a happy medium. I'm one of them on my Cherokee. But rocking it back and fourth for 10 minutes straight in the snow and off roading and towing is a bit harder on the fluid and trans than 100 highway miles a day.


He is in New Jersey. Chances are pretty good his tranny saw soemrocking back and forth and snow thru the years too.
 
I have to say that I don't find 265,000 miles on a relatively new Toyota to be amazing.

Before there was a BITOG and before I knew better, I had a 1985 Chevy Citation (bought new) that I kept for 9 years and 221,000 miles on the FF ATF. Sold it to a friend who drove it for another year until he ran the engine out of oil from a leaking dipstick tube one too many times and croaked it. Transaxle always worked perfectly.
 
This is why I and many others use our own common sense with maintenance, NOT on the manual. Do you think they want to preserve your car so you never buy another? They want maint costs to look low so you buy the car in the first place.
 
Originally Posted By: goodtimes
This is why I and many others use our own common sense with maintenance, NOT on the manual. Do you think they want to preserve your car so you never buy another? They want maint costs to look low so you buy the car in the first place.
ummm, this case is quite the opposite.
 
Originally Posted By: goodtimes
This is why I and many others use our own common sense with maintenance, NOT on the manual. Do you think they want to preserve your car so you never buy another? They want maint costs to look low so you buy the car in the first place.


I reject that argument. Everyone knows cars needs maintenance. I just can't see many people deciding to buy car X because it has a no maintenance tranny vs car y that needs a drain and fill every 4 years.

If a car doesn't last to a person's expectations, they won't be buying that car brand again.

As I've stated on here previously, I'm waiting to see actual data that shows that servicing a tranny with lifetime fluid makes them last longer.

Or even data that shows that servicing the vehicle more frequently that the manufacturer recommends makes the vehicle last longer.

The spirit of contrarianism runs very deep here. And the contrast between oil and ATF approaches is even more contrarian. The oil guys are pushing their OCI well past the recommendations of the manufacturer with good success. While the ATF guys are just the opposite and changing out their ATF well before the recommendations of the manufacturer.

In 50 years, I could easily imagine 100k mile OCI.
 
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