Corolla Transmisson Service

[mreinhardt]

Hello,

I have had my 2006 Corolla since 2010. When I bought it had about 65,000 miles on it. It now has 155,000 miles on it. I have not done anything with the transmission fluid since I bought it, and am not sure about the previous owner. I know I should a done something with it sooner, but never thought about it until during an drive-up oil change they showed me that my transmission fluid was starting to discolor. They pressured me to let them do the service, but didnt think that it would be a good idea. Anyways, I am not sure what to have done. One local transmission shop (that I have read good things about) has quoted me $199 for full service which includes pan drop, filter and gasket change as well as fluid replacemnt with full synthetic fluid. Is this a good idea and a reasonable price?

Matt

 

[05corolla]

if you have the $$ let the dealer do it.

 

[Corolla Boy]

Yep, its late, but,better than never, got 03 corolla when it was 97k, did transmission fluid changed at a small shop $120, after14k recently, just did another one with toyota trans fluid, that thing was chocolate, the fluid was bad, like really really bad. U can hav dealer do it, or buy fluids n pay small shop to do it.

 

[Scott O'Kashan]

Hello,

I have had my 2006 Corolla since 2010. When I bought it had about 65,000 miles on it. It now has 155,000 miles on it. I have not done anything with the transmission fluid since I bought it, and am not sure about the previous owner. I know I should a done something with it sooner, but never thought about it until during an drive-up oil change they showed me that my transmission fluid was starting to discolor. They pressured me to let them do the service, but didnt think that it would be a good idea. Anyways, I am not sure what to have done. One local transmission shop (that I have read good things about) has quoted me $199 for full service which includes pan drop, filter and gasket change as well as fluid replacemnt with full synthetic fluid. Is this a good idea and a reasonable price?

Matt

Every region of the country has different repair rates, so call around. Changing the automatic transmission fluid before the transmission goes bad is far less costly than needing the transmission rebuilt because of old, worn out transmission fluid. To rebuild an automatic transmission costs about $2,000 - $2,500 for most front wheel drive vehicles. Yeah, ouch!

What brand of, "synthetic fluid", are they talking about? They aren't all the same, no more than all cars are the same. A Corvette and an Impala are both Chevrolet's but the similarity ends there. Many, "synthetic fluids", aren't actually the higher performing synthetic ATF, not in the traditional sense of the term anyway, and are merely a petroleum fluid subjected to more refining. In my opinion, that doesn't make it a higher performing synthetic fluid, at all. I find that devious at best.

AMSOIL Inc. was the first company in the world to formulate a true 100% synthetic automatic transmission fluid way back in 1980 providing a substantial lead in technological know-how with synthetic ATF. For Corolla forum members, I provide wholesale prices.

AMSOIL synthetic's product time line -
http://www.amsoil.com/timeline.aspx?zo=349698

 

[Scott O'Kashan]

if you have the $$ let the dealer do it.

An independent auto center can change transmission fluid just as well as a stealership can and usually for less money too.

 

[Scott O'Kashan]

Yep, its late, but,better than never, got 03 corolla when it was 97k, did transmission fluid changed at a small shop $120, after14k recently, just did another one with toyota trans fluid, that thing was chocolate, the fluid was bad, like really really bad. U can hav dealer do it, or buy fluids n pay small shop to do it.

Toyota brand, or an ATF meeting or exceeding Toyota automatic transmission fluid specifications? Either way, unless you're racing the car at the 24 Hours of Lemans, automatic transmission fluid only lasting 14,000 miles isn't too impressive. Something is either wrong with the transmission, or the fluid is not very good. I've gone hundreds of thousands of miles using AMSOIL synthetic ATF and it remained a nice rosy, red color and held up very well.

Only spending $120 for a transmission fluid change sounds like all they did was drop the transmission pan, change the filter and gasket, and then buttoned it up topping off the transmission with 4-5 quarts of transmission fluid. There's many more quarts of transmission fluid inside the torque converter and without flushing that out, you end up with a situation where 4-5 quarts of new ATF are added to 5-6 quarts of old, discolored transmission fluid inside the torque converter and presto, you have the new fluid contaminated with the old fluid and before long need to do the transmission service yet again. It's tantamount to taking a shower with your dirty socks on. In the long run, it's less costly to do the complete service all at one time, instead of a partial drain and fill.