This about my 2013 Corolla, however it may be of interest to the people driving a Tacoma or Tundra.

I drained 80 oz. from my automatic tranny on my 2013 Corolla LE 1.8L engine.  It has 80,800 miles.  I did quite a bit of research on transmission fluid changes.  As usual, transmission fluid type, brands, and changes vs flush seems to have lots of intense discussions and debate on the Toyota vehicle forums I looked at.

The Toyota factory maintenance says life time on transmission fluid.  After three different discussions at my Toyota dealer, I got somewhat different information.  The Service Manager did not have any specific recommended fluid change interval other than the Factory life time – no maintenance required.  He said if the fluid appears to be burnt or dirty, they would recommend a fluid flush and change.  The parts guy said a fluid drain and refill will only take about 2 ½ quarts, and he would change it before 100,000 miles.

The Owner’s Manual says 6.9 quarts for capacity of this transmission.  I could only get 80 ounces (2.5 quarts) through the drain plug.  2.5 quarts is only about 36.3% of the capacity, so it will freshen up the mix.  I could disconnect the line into the tranny and drain it into a container, let the engine idle as I add new fluid through the dip stick tube until I see clean red fluid, but I decided no to do that this time.

After looking at the fluid, I would NOT have gone to 80,000 miles.  Knowing what I know now, I would drain 2.5 quarts and change at no longer than 40,000 miles.  If I still have the car, will change it again at 100,000 miles.  I realize that Toyota engineers are very smart, but I don’t believe they have formulated some miracle transmission fluid that will go the life time of a vehicle. You can see for yourself in attached photo comparing what I drained out of my tranny at 80,800 miles into a very clean plastic bottle, and the fresh World Standard Toyota fluid.

Whether to use Toyota’s recommended World Standard fluid or use something else is a no-brainer for me. There’s enough data by some very reputable sources that says Toyoto’s World Standard is very specifically formulated for their designed automatic transmissions.  Using another brand to save $3 or $4 per quart seems very risky.  I paid $9.45 per quart for WS at my local Toyota dealer. Castrol’s Transmax is about $7.00 a quart at Autozone.

Thank you :)bestgen4runner for your input 

That’s just my worthless opinion.

Gnarls.

Typical automatic tranny fluid likes to live at around 175F to 180F degrees.  I would bet that Toyota’s WS fluid is synthetic and can live longer, handle more heat, like synthetic motor oil.  ATF is a detergent oil and it is also hydroscopic (absorbs water moisture - like brake fluid).  Since heat is what kills oil and tranny fluid, I would bet that the Toyota engineers have designed their transmission coolers very smartly, keeping their WS fluid cool, thus making it last to 100K miles.

Here’s my weird logic…

If the fluid’s capacity to perform without damaging the transmission components (clutches and seals) was on a linear scale of mileage, and let’s say good up to 100,000 miles, under normal vehicle operation, then at 40,000 miles is about 40% “used up”.

So if I change my tranny fluid at 40,000 and I replenish the 6.9 quarts with 36.3% new fluid (2.5 quarts), 36.3% of 40,000 is 14,520.  14,520 minus 40,000 is 25,480 miles. So I have now reconstituted my 6.9 quarts of fluid back to a level of use to 25,480 miles, or about 25% of its life span. If I drive my car with its transmission running with fluid at a performance level of only 25% of its life, it would seem to be very acceptable.  Since I don’t know that there are any serious and published automatic transmission failures with Toyota vehicles, or any recalls for their automatic transmission failures due to extended miles or fluid related failure, I’m comfortable with that.     

Of course spending $30 every year, or 20K miles for me, and about 45 minutes to change my transmission fluid seems perfectly smart preventative maintenance. Applying my weird logic above, I would be driving my Corolla with approximately only 12.7% of the tranny fluid’s performance level used.

That’s just my worthless opinion.

Gnarls.

Is there a tranny filter inside the filter?

Hey emsvitl,

Normally, I would have dropped the transmission oil pan to check it out, but this time I just wanted to see what condition the fluid was in.  All the Toyota automatic transmissions I've seen has a small mesh screen and not a filter.

At 100K miles, the next 20K miles, I will drop the pan and check it out and clean it and clean or replace the screen, and/or any filter.

Gnarls.

I received the report from Blackstone Labs today on my automatic transmission sample from my 2013 Toyota Corolla.

Anybody interested in commenting on it? 

Gnarls.

What would you like me to comment on?

LOL.... I knew someone would bite on that!!

Here's the report...

Gnarls.

Can't read it, download a higher resolution copy.............


 

My apologies... I will upload a link this afternoon.

Why does this site not allow a PDF file to be attached or uploaded?  That would solve the resolution issue for text files?

Gnarls.

Link comes up as 404/ forbidden on my computer

My apologies for not being able to post a link that will work. 



Gnarls.

Where's global WARMING and a PC/Internet GURU when you need it!! 


Gnarls.

https://docs.zone/pdf-to-jpg

Don't need to sign up for 1 page.

Then you'll have a jpg to upload....

Thank you, emsvitil

I am able to convert PDF file to a jpg. Board.MarlinCrawler will only allow a 140K file and no PDF, a text file in a jpg file format at 140K produces a low resolution image.

I was trying to find a site like Google Docs or Flickr that would create a hyperlink, but the tests I did kept my personal account information appearing - Probably because of my lack of experience.  I find it difficult to understand why I cannot easily find a site on the internet that you can post a photo or document with a link that only shows the allowed viewers the image - no other data??

I finally gave up my search and just compressed and resized the Blackstone PDF converted to a jpg document with Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Gnarls.

For those interested..

I have not been a huge fan of Blackstone UOA, although I understand it can provide some information.

Here’s why…

First, without providing two samples for testing, I have no benchmark.  I should have sent 2 samples ($28 times 2 – Plus shipping), 1 - from the brand new bottle of Toyota WS fluid, and 2 - the sample from my transmission drain at 80,800 miles.

Blackstone's testing only indicates a history of average tests at 37,000 miles.  I have no idea what type of transmission oil their testing was performed on – conventional or synthetic.  Nor do I know what type of transmissions, or how many miles were on the transmissions when their samples where tested.

My report…

The viscosity values are in the range.

The several metals and minerals are outside of the “Universal” number.  I’m not sure what “Universal” means?

Three main friction reducing elements in typical oil formulations include boron, zinc, and prosperous – all of which show lower than Universal numbers.

The iron and aluminum numbers in my sample are very high compared to the Universal numbers.  My gut analysis thinks those higher PPMs may be due to the component wear inside the transmission – that is just a guess.

So, until I send an unused sample of the Toyota World Standard transmission oil, I can only speculate on what this report means!!  Even after that, I may not know how many PPM for each element they tested is normal or abnormal.

The bottom line for me is that my $38.69 UOA report is practically worthless.

Am I missing anything?

EDIT:  Added notes:  No where on the Genuine Toyota Part No. 00289-ATFWS Toyota ATF WS bottle does it state if the oil is synthetic.  There are several statements on the label at the bottom under distributed by Toyota that indicates the oil is formulated by Exxon Mobil. Since this oil, supposedly from the factory install, is not needed to be changed, I assume it is a synthetic formulation.

Gnarls.

Manager:    How long does the transmission last?

Engineer:    200k miles with maintenance (fluid)  every 50k miles
                  275k miles with fluid every 30k miles.

Manager:    How long is the powertrain warranty?

Engineer:    100k miles

Manager:     What's the absolute minimum that needs to be done so 99.999% of the transmissions make it past 100k miles?

Engineer:     nothing at all

Manager:     Ok,  we'll advertise it comes with lifetime fluid...............

My buddy has a BMW 
It has lifetime oil thats supposed to be changed every 40,000.
I would change every 20,000 in my own stuff
Ive seen what the crap out of clutch packs can do to the oil and valvebodies.
I would only use genuine Toyota filters. Even if the filter for an A650E is $160.
Accirding to my transmission building budddy the only difference between Dexron 3 and type 4 atf is an additive which is available form lube gard

The difference is the friction modifiers. I have used the Lubegard stuff for many years not and it works well until you have synthetic trans fluid dex VI, Mercon Lv or Sp. Also i have noticed the Lubegard with Dex 3 does not last as long and tends to break down faster.
While i dont have any documentation its all personal experience, 10 years of experience in trans rebuilding & R&R.

UPDATE:  11-16-17  2013 Toyota Corolla Automatic Transmission Fluid

January 2018 will be 5 years since I bought the car brand new.  So I’ve been averaging about 20K miles per year.  90% of miles have been on the freeway.

Yesterday at 99,623 miles I drained 2.5 quarts from transmission and replaced with the spec’d Toyota transmission fluid.  This is the 3rd time I've drained and replaced 2.5 quarts (80K, 90K, 100K).

I will send a sample to Blackstone Labs and see how the report compares to the one I did at 80,800 miles.

I will post the results when I get it back from Blackstone.

Gnarls.

It's been a few years, but I have two new reports from BlackStone Labs.

One for my engine oil and one for my automatic trans fluid at 150,000 miles.

I will post them later today.

Gnarls