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Anon

My Toyota Caldina needs the auto transmission fluid & filter changed, I am sure I could handle this myself with some help from a Workshop manual but Repco cannot supply anything with the 3S-FE 2 litre engine.

Could you tell me where I might get a manual or some documentation to do this job.

John

From the "Ask Jack" archives - 9 September 2008

jbiddle

I hate to dampen your spirits, but this is one job I would leave to the experts.

It looks fairly straight forward as there is a drain plug located on the under pan of the transmission much like draining the oil from the engine sump.

The big difference however is you only ever drain less than 50% of the total trans fluid by removing the drain plug (or the complete under pan). The remainder of the fluid is housed in the torque convertor, cooler (bottom of the radiator) and the clutch packs.

To do the job properly means running the transmission and pumping as much contaminated fluid out of the entire system while at the same time adding new fluid, all of which requires a certain technique and the correct equipment.

Draining the transmission from a drain plug only, is an accepted practice for some vehicles such as those still under new car warranty but as a vehicle gets older (and in your case owning a used import) a more thorough job is required in my opinion.

Take the car to a transmission specialist in your area and asked his opinion and a quote for a flush and refill with new oil.

They may want to give the car a full road test to ensure the transmission is operating correctly before undertaking such a job also.