Transmission flushing at home: Really easy, really effective

**Aviator** · 12-27-2007, 03:16 PM

Santon........head to your nearest Toyota dealership and purchase 16 litres of T-IV trans fluid.........it is ALL THE SAME!!! Don't mean to shout, but this has been going on for quite some time. It doesn't have to be Mobil or Volvo.....it's ALL 3309 and it ALL comes out of the same cauldron !!! The only difference is that in Canada, it's brewed by Esso. I got complete confirmation on this back in July due to some help from my Toyota Tech trainer in Scarborough at Toyota Canada. I did my flush back then, and the car works mint and shifts quite orgasmically. Save your dollars and stay away from Volvo.

Dave.

**santon** · 12-27-2007, 05:24 PM

aviator I was planning on it.
as for this dipstick, looked around agian. all i could find is this steel nipple sticking up with some sort of yellow cap. thats the only place i can see that oil maybe can be put into the tranny. its not a tradition dipstick per say.

its just like a 1/2 inch thick tube with some type of yellow weird cap on it. not a stick you can pull out and check. unless there is some type of stick under this flat yellow cap.

**santon** · 12-27-2007, 06:43 PM

actually just found a thread with a pic of it. i believe its the same thing i found, however i think the top part that you pull must be broken on mine as its just a flat yellow cap! great! this should be fun!

http://www.volvoxc.com/forums/showth...=find+dipstick

went and took another look the thing I was looking at was the wrong one, found the dipstick, pulled it out. oil didnt look that bad. however car has 260,000km on it. not sure when it was last done if ever but there is no way its original, it actually looks pretty good.

I will end up doing it next week. I have a small issue that when i am light on the gas between 1st and 2nd (like around parking lots or when you are barely on the gas its like it doesnt know what gear its in the odd time between 1st and 2nd and just revs up then grabs second. it might happen like once every two weeks. wonder if that can be corrected with a tranny software update or its the beginning of some sort of mechanical failure. i guess I will change the oil next week and see if that helps.

**santon** · 12-28-2007, 08:26 AM

found a toll free mobil #, confirmed that the 3309 isnt available in canada other than for volvo.

called a toyota dealership, $7.36/liter.

**PierreC** · 12-30-2007, 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by santon

found a toll free mobil #, confirmed that the 3309 isnt available in canada other than for volvo.

called a toyota dealership, $7.36/liter.

Santon

I just put the following on another thread ... so you should feel comfortable with the T-IV

As requested and promised, here is the feedback (on T-IV).

We have just returned from our summer holiday at the coast - remember, I am in the southern hemisphere - and have completed just more than 3000 miles since the transmission flush with T-IV fluid. About half these miles were travelled at highway speeds up to 80 mph with frequent overtaking and high-speed down/up-shifts and the rest in town, on mountain passes and similar shift-intensive driving.

The transmission did not miss a single shift, behaved "as new" and shifting is back to being extremely smooth, in all gear changes, up or down, when the transmission fluid is hot. When cold, there are occasions when the 1-2 and very infrequently the 2-3 shift can be felt, but in all instances it is not harsh or anything like a surge or "jerking" -- it is almost as if there is a very very slight delay [hundredth of a second - so slight that my wife does not pick it up at all] in the shifting, which disappears as soon as the fluid reaches normal operating temperature.

I will feed back after another 3000 miles or so, but at this stage it appears that the T-IV suits the transmission perfectly ... as expected. At the price, T-IV seems to be a good solution for the transmission flush.

**ForbesMarch** · 12-31-2007, 09:27 AM

The dip stick is just to the left of that other yellow thingy. It's really hard to find, try moving the large 1 1/2 inch air hose out of the way as it is under that. It has "ATF" written on it. Once you find it, you"ll kick yourself as it is right there.

O.K. Did this yesterday... what a mess!!!
Had to do this as my car had been parked in a valet lot in NYC and driven frequently in NYC. The oil was BLACK and smelled burned and my shifting sounded like the tranni was about to fall of and be left behind me in the middle of broadway.
The first mistake I made was in regards to the drain tube. I half followed the IpD instructions and half followed the Gibbons and ended up with about a quart of black stuff on the floor. That blew the whole measure as you go method. I estimated how much I had lost and went on.
I didn't stop draining on time, allowing foam to come out and this not only made for a very difficult read of how much fluid had come out, but I suspect caused air bubbles in the system which made filling VERY tedious and resulted in quite a bit of of new ATF on the floor next to the old.
In the end I got some very nice color and the difference was immediatly amazing. Went for a 30min ride and adjusted the level (this took several attemts) I got the level to be at the lower "hot" mark after a good ride. Was very pleased with myself.
Later in the day I embarked on a long highway ride, in bad weather. On the first big hill, a loud screech came from below the shifter... pulled over, checked the levels and they were off the scale. Had to go on (familly in the back seat and a snow storm on the windsheild) this happened again at the next hill, then stopped. Rest of the ride went fine.
While I was under the car, I noticed a small oil leak commong from the unit which is attached to the tranni, I suspect it is somehow related to the 4wheel aspect of the car? Could either the 4wheel leak, or the air bubbles be to blame for the screech? What happens if you over fill? What do I do, any suggestions?!?

By the way, next time I suspect it will take less than an hour as I will know bwtter where to stick my hose and will be carefull to measure much more accuratly. The change in the performance was amazing.

As long as I haven't destroyed my Tranni, I will feel really great about this job.

**Omega5** · 12-31-2007, 03:34 PM

I been reading on this thread of 2 days now. I plan on doing an ATF flush on a 2004 XC70 I just purchased.

I like GIBBON's method, and I plan to follow it, but I have a question:

Why not use a pump to suck out all the fluid, and then use the same pump to replace it with clean ATF?

Follow me here:
Disconnect the ATF cooler return line as in gibbons method except that now you attach a drill pump (you can buy one from Home Depot for like 10$) to the tubing described and suck out all the fluid you can. Then Start the engine, and run it for say 20 sec just enough to give the pump in the transmission enough time to empty itself and other pipes or cavities there may be. Now pump out the rest of the fluid as before.
Once you are satisfied you pumped out as much of the fluid as possible (should be close to the capacity, if it is less, then you know there is more dirty ATF trapped in there somewhere) you can start refilling with clean ATF!

Instead of slowly and burping and overflowing and stuff, just reverse the pump and pump clean ATF into the tranny from the bottom up, allowing the air to escape through the dipstick hole. Clean and easy.

Now I imagine you would have to stop say ¾ of the way through this to start the engine and allow the pump in the tranny to re-fill itself and other cavities and passageways in the tranny. Stop the engine and finish pumping the new fluid in until you have replaced all the oil you have removed.

Reconnect the hose back the way it was, wash the pump and tubing with gasoline or something like that and you are done. No mess, no oil spills and no wasted ATF.

Sounds good right?? Sure it does, but DOES IT WORK? What do you all think?

**Aviator** · 12-31-2007, 04:35 PM

Omega5......this is a death sentence for your transmission. You want to use the oil pump in the transmission and pump out 2 litres at a time and refill the same. That's the only way you can pump out what's in the torque converter. The pump in the transmission is an oil pump.......not an air pump. If you run the pump dry of oil then you will destroy the pump in short order, and then your transmission will not work at all. Stick to the tried and true method that we all use (and what Volvo recommends), do it right, and you'll still have a transmission. The other thing is, by pumping out via the top cooler port you are also flushing out the cooler too.....I have seen this to be a holding area for transmission crud which will get put back into the transmission if you don't clean it out. Use the method !!!!! It's clean, simple, and you'll feel better about yourself after !!

Dave.