Changing the transmission fluid in a 2007 RAV4 4 cylinder automatic

What is the group wisdom on changing the transmission fluid in a 2007 RAV4 4
cylinder automatic? The Toyota maintenance schedule doesn't specify changing
the transmission fluid at all for "normal driving conditions" and only
specifies replaceing it at 120,000 miles if you use the vehicle for towing.

My thought is that it would be better to do a partial replacement every
30,000 miles or so (drain the pan and add new fluid). Is this a waste of
time?

Ed

"C. E. White" <cewhite (AT) mindspring (DOT) com> wrote

What is the group wisdom on changing the transmission fluid in a 2007 RAV4
4 cylinder automatic? The Toyota maintenance schedule doesn't specify
changing the transmission fluid at all for "normal driving conditions" and
only specifies replaceing it at 120,000 miles if you use the vehicle for
towing.

My thought is that it would be better to do a partial replacement every
30,000 miles or so (drain the pan and add new fluid). Is this a waste of
time?

Ed
Your vehicle may use the new World Standard ATF - you can tell because there

is no transmission dipstick. If that is the case, just follow the factory
recommendation.
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)

"Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote

Your vehicle may use the new World Standard ATF - you can tell because
there is no transmission dipstick. If that is the case, just follow the
factory recommendation.

It has a dipstick. The shop manual makes it look like changing just the
fluid would be fairly easy. My though is if I just do a partial change
(replace whatever drains out when the plug is removed) that I'll keep the
fluid in good shape. This is waht I am doing for my Niassan truck.

Ed

"C. E. White" <cewhite (AT) mindspring (DOT) com> wrote

"Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote in message
news:15a72$4639526f$47c2b532$31698 (AT) msgid (DOT) meganewsservers.com...

Your vehicle may use the new World Standard ATF - you can tell because
there is no transmission dipstick. If that is the case, just follow the
factory recommendation.

It has a dipstick. The shop manual makes it look like changing just the
fluid would be fairly easy. My though is if I just do a partial change
(replace whatever drains out when the plug is removed) that I'll keep the
fluid in good shape. This is waht I am doing for my Niassan truck.

Ed
I would just watch the condition of the fluid, and if it starts to get

brown, do the drain and refill. Just make sure you use the correct ATF
type. I am assuming that this is your SO's ride, and the the time and money
spent changing the ATF is a good investment compared to the brain damage you
would get if the transmission tanked before she was ready for a new ride ;-)
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)

"Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote

"C. E. White" <cewhite (AT) mindspring (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:dsc_h.11242$3P3.2707 (AT) newsread3 (DOT) news.pas.earthlink.net...

"Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote in message
news:15a72$4639526f$47c2b532$31698 (AT) msgid (DOT) meganewsservers.com...

Your vehicle may use the new World Standard ATF - you can tell because
there is no transmission dipstick. If that is the case, just follow the
factory recommendation.

It has a dipstick. The shop manual makes it look like changing just the
fluid would be fairly easy. My though is if I just do a partial change
(replace whatever drains out when the plug is removed) that I'll keep the
fluid in good shape. This is waht I am doing for my Niassan truck.

Ed
I would just watch the condition of the fluid, and if it starts to get
brown, do the drain and refill. Just make sure you use the correct ATF
type. I am assuming that this is your SO's ride, and the the time and
money spent changing the ATF is a good investment compared to the brain
damage you would get if the transmission tanked before she was ready for a
new ride ;-)

Definitely. Her last two cars went becasue of transmission problems (a late
80's Camry and a mid 90's Chrysler mini van). Of course both had in the
neighboorhood of 200,000 miles at the time of failure.

Ed

On Thu, 03 May 2007 04:01:21 GMT, Hachiroku ???? <Trueno (AT) AE86 (DOT) gts>
wrote:

On Thu, 03 May 2007 03:44:30 +0000, C. E. White wrote:


Definitely. Her last two cars went becasue of transmission problems (a
late 80's Camry and a mid 90's Chrysler mini van).


What? A 90's Chrysler tanking a tranny?!?! Who would have thought?!

Question: were you the original owner, and did you ever put Dexron/Mercon
into it?

My '94 LHS and my '92 Grand Voyager both were service religiously by
Chrysler dealers, and the trannies in them were top notch! I gave the van
away, the guy scrapped it and didn't take the tranny! (He has three other
vans). The only GOOD thing on the van!

AFAIK, all they ever had in them was Chrysler ATF+3.

didn't many chrysler tranny's fail because people used other than

chrysler tranny fluid ? Or were they just junk in the first place?

"Hachiroku ????" <Trueno (AT) AE86 (DOT) gts> wrote

On Thu, 03 May 2007 03:44:30 +0000, C. E. White wrote:


Definitely. Her last two cars went becasue of transmission problems
(a
late 80's Camry and a mid 90's Chrysler mini van).


What? A 90's Chrysler tanking a tranny?!?! Who would have thought?!

Question: were you the original owner, and did you ever put
Dexron/Mercon
into it?

The van transmission failed a couple of days after being serviced at
Jiffy Lube. We both think it was their fault, but hard to prove. I am
going to try very hard to keep the RAV4 as far away from Jiffy Lube as
I can.

Ed

On Wed, 02 May 2007 23:47:24 GMT, "C. E. White"
<cewhite (AT) mindspring (DOT) com> wrote:

What is the group wisdom on changing the transmission fluid in a 2007 RAV4 4
cylinder automatic? The Toyota maintenance schedule doesn't specify changing
the transmission fluid at all for "normal driving conditions" and only
specifies replaceing it at 120,000 miles if you use the vehicle for towing.

My thought is that it would be better to do a partial replacement every
30,000 miles or so (drain the pan and add new fluid). Is this a waste of
time?

Ed

Exactly what I did with our 88 Camry .... sister-in-law has it now and
it currently has 327,000 miles on it, original engine and tranny.

I did a drain/fill every 30K and oil changes every 4K.

YMMV.

On Fri, 04 May 2007 02:19:17 GMT, Hachiroku ???? <Trueno (AT) AE86 (DOT) gts>
wrote:

I'm willing to bet 99% of Chrysler tranny failures are caused by people
not using the right stuff, or going to Jiffy Lube.

....and the difference is?

;-)




--

Scott in Florida

On Fri, 04 May 2007 02:19:17 GMT, Hachiroku ???? <Trueno (AT) AE86 (DOT) gts>
wrote:

On Wed, 02 May 2007 22:29:31 -0700, RT wrote:

On Thu, 03 May 2007 04:01:21 GMT, Hachiroku ???? <Trueno (AT) AE86 (DOT) gts> wrote:

On Thu, 03 May 2007 03:44:30 +0000, C. E. White wrote:


Definitely. Her last two cars went becasue of transmission problems (a
late 80's Camry and a mid 90's Chrysler mini van).


What? A 90's Chrysler tanking a tranny?!?! Who would have thought?!

Question: were you the original owner, and did you ever put Dexron/Mercon
into it?

My '94 LHS and my '92 Grand Voyager both were service religiously by
Chrysler dealers, and the trannies in them were top notch! I gave the van
away, the guy scrapped it and didn't take the tranny! (He has three other
vans). The only GOOD thing on the van!

AFAIK, all they ever had in them was Chrysler ATF+3.

didn't many chrysler tranny's fail because people used other than chrysler
tranny fluid ? Or were they just junk in the first place?


Yeah...you gotta use ATF+3 or ATF+4 (whichever it says on the dipstick).
You *can* use ATF+4 in an ATF+3 tranny, but not the other way around.

I'm willing to bet 99% of Chrysler tranny failures are caused by people
not using the right stuff, or going to Jiffy Lube.

Nope, I owned three Chrysler products in the early to mid 90's, a 94
Chrysler New Yorker and 2 Dodge's. All three tanked their
transmissions at about 60k miles. All had about the same symptoms
except for the one that the Chrysler dealer put in to replace the New
Yorker's OEM transmission, that one just wouldn't shift into any
forward gear. All of them would slip or jerk and then down shift when
they tried to shift into 4th gear (overdrive). None of them every had
anything other than MoPar ATF in them (I guess that's what the factory
used, I never had a chance to change it).

Chrysler produced junk in the 90's, none of them used a Chrysler
engine and I think their transmissions must have been made by
Mexican's who weren't smart enough to figure out how to cross over the
border.

Needless to say, I will never own another Chrysler product. Although
the best car I ever owned was a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere that I bought
new in the fall of 1966. Damn, I wish I still had that beast.

Jack


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