Not in this country it isn't. Our Federal government, using your tax money, has established baseline standards for "total cost of ownership" as a means of comparing vehicles. Therefore *any* routine maintenance that can be extended or eliminated will reduce the total cost of ownership.

Presumably nobody thought of the ramifications of your "ownership experience" ending prematurely due to neglected maintenance. Hey, if the cars 'lifetime' is cut short they can still claim that your costs of maintaining the car across the (shortened) life were kept small.

Only in America!

Dump that tranny oil at 50k.

"Tom from Granada Hills"... I used to be "Tom from North Hollywood" (now Claremont). Nice to meet you.

 

The transmission has "lifetime" transmission oil.....Doesn't that mean if you do not open the transmission, or have any problems that would force you to disturb it,,,leave it alone. What am I missing???

 

I'm not a scientist or a petrochemical engineer... but I've changed a few transmissions in my day. Tranny's that ran on original fluid typically would eat a clutch pack or burn a solenoid at 75-110k/miles. Maybe half would fail like this. The fluid was always dark-brown and smelled rancid. OTOH, people who changed the oil at reasonable intervals simply did not have this problem.

I'm not saying it couldn't happen with regular maintenance but the occurrences of such failures between these statistical subsets were exponentially different.

Please do feel free to follow those "lifetime" recommendations, but I stand by my advice.

 

Not to be argumentative but, your experience with conventional transmissions do not necessaraly apply to the hybrid drive train. My point is simple,,,If Toyota does not recomend a transmission oil change at a specific time or millage, I would not do it. I did not notice any reference to transmission oil change in the scheduled maintenance printing. Did I miss it?

 

No you did not miss it. They don't recommend changing unless under the "severe" maintenance cycle.

BUT. If you check out PriusChat (or PriusOnline), the transaxles DO degrade the oil. Often before 60k miles. Bob Wilson has done a lot of work on analysing oil samples. There are numbers of MY2001-2003 Prii that are experiencing transaxle failures.

I don't want to be one of those experiencing a failure. I intend to change my oil soon (and do an analysis too). I'm at 28k. I will probably change mine at 30k. People have been able to get their dealers to change the fluid on a Prius for under $100 (~$80 ave). The Camry should be the same. I look at it as cheap and harmless insurance.

 

Absolutely. We just don't know what the real world will do to these new style transmissions. In my opinion, $10 worth of fluid and 30 minutes of my time is cheap insurance against me being one of the first guys to find out.

I do the same thing with power steering and brake fluid. It's not supposed to be black and burn your nostrils. So when your $1,300 steering rack eats a seal at 80k/miles, most people just accept it. Some of those people laugh at guys like me who keep the life-blood of the system clean and fresh. To each their own I suppose.

 

Another confusing point, I just had some basic service done and had asked the service adcisor when I should look to change the coolant.

He's telling me 3 years or 36k

Any feedback from anybody out there?

 

I have a service contract for my TCH for the first 45,000 miles and it shows changing the transmission fluid at 30,000 miles. I had read somewhere that unless the car is used in a towing capacity or in dusty or extreme weather conditions it didn't need to be changed. I'm of the belief that it probably should be changed at LEAST every 45-60 thousand miles. After all.......it is a transmission fluid and therefore will wear out after a certain amount of time or miles. It's not something worth gambling on indefinately........in my opinion.

 

MY 2 CENTS.

THEIR IS NOTHING LIFE TIME. ESPECIALY A FLUID SO CHNAGE IT WHEN EVER YOU ARE COMFORTABLE. I am getting ready to change mine soon the ATF-WS 4qt cost me 34 and some change. that's all. Its the cost of buying mobile one full synthetic oil on sale. i do things my self most of the time and i would like to start doing this also. My TCH has 50000 miles and i have to say i do feel a little hesitation and its time for me.

All the experience that i have had with so CALLED EXPERTS has been horrible. THEY KNOW NOTHING. These are the same people who dropped out of highschool in their freshman year and passed a so called test granted some of them are very knoligeble, but they dont have experience they just tell you what they think which is backed by bullshit. "NORMAL CONDITIONS & LIFE TIME FLUID" is horribly vague for describing for describing a essential parts fluid longevity. If you ask them whats "LIFE-TIME" its 100000 miles just think about it life of your 30K car is 100000 miles. SAD ESPECIALLY coming from ENGINEERS, which makes me feel that they don't have the customer in mind.

watch this AFT-WS FLUID AFTER 80K

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiGPFhJdTwg

This might change your mind a a little.

 

Pretty much all of the old-timers on this forum know that I changed my "transmission" fluid at the 50,000 mile mark. I also change my coolant at around the 45,000 or 90,000 miles mark (depending on the coolant type) on all of my other vehicles as well as their power steering fluid and (if needed/equipped) posi-traction lube, wheel bearing grease, etc.

I also change my brake fluid at every brake change. Be warned however that doing this on these hybrids is NOT like any other car you have worked on. You WILL need some advanced electronic bi-directional test equipment to get it done correctly. The good side to this is that the brakes on these cars are rarely pushed hard and seem to last a long time. Because of that, the fluid in my brake system still looks and tests out good despite having 70,000 miles on the clock.

There is no such thing as a lifetime fluid in a car unless you drove a Yugo. For a Yugo, the 15,000 miles the car lasted WAS less than the lifetime of the fluid.